Osgood glared at him, but said to his wife, 'Come, Marcia.' I followed them three steps and halted him: 'Excuse me. It would be to everyone's advantage if he had more beer, say three bottles, and make it colder.'
10
NANCY, sitting in the chair Osgood had vacated, looked more adamant than the situation seemed to call for, considering that Wolfe's client was her father. You might have thought she was confronted by hostile forces. Of course her brother had just been killed and she couldn't be expected to beam with cheerful eagerness, but hei adffness as she sat looked not only tense but antagoiwtic, and her lips, which only 24 hours before had struck me -i:, being warm and trembly, now formed a thin rigid colorless line.
Wolfe leaned back and regarded her with half-closed eyes. 'We'll be as brief as we can with this. Miss Osgood,' he said, with honey in his mouth. 'I thought we might reach our objective a little sooner with your father and mother absent.'
She nodded, her head tilted forward once and back again, and said nothing. Wolfe resumed:
'We must manage to accompany your brother yesterday afternoon as continuously as possible from the time he left Mr. Pratt's terrace. Were you and Mr. Bronson and he riding in one car?'
Her voice was low and firm; 'Yes.'
'Tell me briefly your movements after leaving the terrace.'
'We walked across the lawn and back to the car and got in and came-no, Clyde got out again because Mr. McMillan called to him and wanted to speak to him. Clyde went over to him and they talked a few minutes and then Clyde came back and we drove home.'
'Did you hear his conversation with Mr. McMillan?'
'No.'
'Was it apparently an altercation?'
'It didn't look like it.'
Wolfe nodded. 'Mr. McMillan left the terrace with the announced intention of advising your brother not to do any- thing foolish. He did it quietly then.'
'They just talked a few minutes, that was all.'
'So. You returned home, and Clyde had a talk with your father.'.
'Did he?'
'Please, Miss Osgood.' Wolfe wiggled a finger. 'Discre- tion will only delay us. Your father has described the… unpleasant scene, he called it… he had with his son. Was that immediately after you got home?'
'Yes. Dad was waiting for us at the veranda steps.'
'Infuriated by the phone call from Mr. Pratt. Were you present during the scene?'
'No. They went into the library… this room. I went upstairs to clean up… we had been at Crowfield nearly all day.'
'When did you see your brother again?'
'At dinnertime.'
'Who was at table?'
'Mother and I, and Mr. Bronson and Clyde. Dad had gone somewhere.'
'What time was dinner over?'
'A little after eight. We eat early in the country, and we sort of rushed through it because it wasn't very gay. Mother was angry… Dad had told her about the bet Clyde had made with Monte Cris-with Mr. Pratt, and Clyde was glum-'
'You called Mr. Pratt Monte Cristo?'
'That was a slip of the tongue.'
'Obviously. Don't be perturbed, it wasn't traitorous, your father has told me of Mr. Pratt's rancor. You called him Monte Cristo?'
'Yes, Clyde and I did, and…' Her lip started to quiver, and she controlled it. 'We thought it was funny when we started it.'
'It may have been so. Now for your movements after dinner, please.'
'I went to mother's room with her and we talked a while, and then I went to my room. Later I came downstairs and sat on the veranda and listened to the katydids. I was there when Dad came home.'
'And Clyde?'
'I don't know. I didn't see him after I went upstairs with mother after dinner.'
She wasn't much good as a liar; she didn't know how to relax for it. Wolfe has taught me that one of the most im- portant requirements for successful lying is relaxed vocal cords and throat muscles; otherwise you are forced to put on extra pressure to push the lie through, and the result is that you talk faster and raise the pitch and the blood shows in your face. Nancy Osgood betrayed all of those signs. I moved my eyes for a glance at Wolfe, but
