The Final Deduction

forays were almost certainly actionable. But if a descendant of one of his victims tried to claim that fur thing you are wearing, she would be laughed at. I’m pleased that you recognize the quality of the rug, though only an ignoramus could mistake it for a Kazak. Kazaks have a long pile. You are Margot Tedder? I am Nero Wolfe.” He pointed to the red leather chair. “Sit down and tell me what you want.”

She had opened her mouth a couple of times to cut in on him, but Wolfe in full voice is not easy to interrupt, particularly if his eyes are pinning you. “I told you on the phone what I want,” she said.

“You will please sit down, Miss Tedder. I like eyes at a level.”

She glanced at me. The poor girl was stuck. She didn’t want to sit down because he had ordered her to, but to stay on her feet would be silly. She compromised. One of the yellow chairs was at the end of my desk, and she came and sat on it. As I have said, when she walked you might have thought her hips were in a cast, but sitting she wasn’t at all hard to look at.

“I didn’t come,” she said, “to listen to a lecture about legal ownership by a detective. You know what I came for. My mother paid you sixty thousand dollars for nothing. All you did was put that thing in the paper. For sixty thousand dollars you certainly ought to help me find the money my mother gave the kidnaper. That’s more than ten per cent.”

Wolfe grunted. “Twelve. That might be thought adequate. How would I go about it? Have you a suggestion?”

“Of course not. You would go about it the way any detective would. That’s your business.”

“Could I count on your cooperation?”

She frowned at him, her chin up. “How could I cooperate?”

He didn’t frown back. Having put her in her place, he didn’t mind if she didn’t stay put. “That would depend on developments,” he said. “Take a hypothesis. Do you know what a hypothesis is?”

“You’re being impertinent.”

“Not without provocation. You didn’t know what a Shirvan is. The hypothesis: If I took the job you offer, I would want to begin by asking you some questions. For example, what were your relations with Dinah Utley?”

She stared. “What on earth has that got to do with finding the money?”

He nodded. “I thought so. You’re under a misapprehension. You expected me to pit my wits and Mr Goodwin’s eyes and legs against the horde of official investigators who are combing the countryside and looking under every stone. Pfui. That would be infantile. I would have to approach it differently, and the best way-indeed, the only way-would be through Dinah Utley. You know that Mr Goodwin and I suspected that she was implicated in the kidnaping; you heard your mother and Mr Goodwin discuss it Wednesday afternoon. Now we don’t suspect it; we know it. Therefore-”

“How do you know it? Because she was there and was killed?”

“Partly that, but there were other factors. She was here Tuesday afternoon. Therefore at least one of the kidnapers was someone with whom she had had contacts, and I would want to learn all I could about her. How well did you know her?”

“Why-she was my mother’s secretary. She lived in the house, but she didn’t regard herself as a servant. I thought my mother let her take too many liberties.”

“What kind of liberties?”

“Different kinds. She ate with us. If we had people in for cocktails, she came in if she felt like it. If I asked her to do something, she might and she might not. You might have thought we were equals. You know, I must say, I think this is clever. Perhaps you are clever. I should have thought of this myself, about Dinah, only I really don’t know much about her. She was there seven years, and I suppose she had friends of her own class, but I never saw them.”

“Would your brother know more about her?”

“He might.” She nodded. “Yes, I’m sure he would. He did things with her just to irritate me-like playing cards with her. Gin rummy in the library. You might have thought they were equals, and perhaps they should have been. Once he took her to a prizefight.”

“That sounds promising. I would want to talk with him. I don’t want to shock you, Miss Tedder, but the question should be asked. Is it conceivable that the kidnaping was a joint enterprise of Miss Utley and your brother? That your brother had a hand in it?”

“Good heavens.” Her lips parted. She stared. “Of course it’s conceivable. That’s the second thing you’ve thought of that I should have thought of.”

“Given time, undoubtedly you would have. Your emotions have interfered with your mental processes. We would-”

“But if he-Noel-then he knows where the money is! He has the money!”

“Not too fast, Miss Tedder. That’s merely a surmise. We would have to consider all possibilities, all those who had frequent opportunity to see Miss Utley. I understand that your mother’s brother, Ralph Purcell, lives in that house. Was he on good terms with her?”

She was only half listening. He had darned near lost her with his suggestion about Noel. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had bounced up, granting that a person of her class and with her hips could bounce, and gone to have it out with her brother. Wolfe saw he would have to repeat his question, and did so.

“Oh,” she said, “he’s on good terms with everybody, or he tries to be. He ran errands for Dinah, but of course he would. He runs errands for me too. He’s all right, I like him, I really do, but he’s so-oh, well. He just doesn’t belong. He certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with any kidnaping; he wouldn’t have the nerve.”

“But he was friendly enough with Miss Utley to make it plausible that he knows the names of her associates not of your class, and possibly has met some of them.”