Then you'll have to help. For the present we leave Ellen Tenzer to the police and start at the other end the birth of the baby, and its conception. On Tuesday you gave Mr. Goodwin, with reluctance, the names of four women. We must have more. We want the names of all women who were or might have been in contact with your husband, however briefly, in the spring of last year. All of them.
But that's impossible. I couldn't name all of them. She gestured with the wedding-ring hand. My husband met hundreds of people that I didn't meet for instance, I almost never went to literary cocktail parties with him. They bored me, and anyway he had a better time if I wasn't there.
Wolfe grunted. No doubt. You will give Mr. Goodwin all the names you do know, reserving none. Their owners will not suffer any annoyance, since inquiry about them can be restricted to one point, their whereabouts at the time the baby was born. It is an advantage that a woman can't carry a baby, and bear it, without interruption of her routine. Very few of them will have to be approached directly, possibly none. You will omit no one.
All right. I won't.
You also gave Mr. Goodwin some names of men, and we shall now make use of them, at least some, but for that we need your help. We can start with only a few of them, say three or four, and go on to others if we must. I shall want to see them, and they will come here, since I never leave my house on business. I need not see them separately; in a group will do. You will arrange that, after they have been selected.
You mean I'll ask them to come to see you?
Yes.
But what will I tell them?
That you have hired me to make an investigation for you, and I wish to talk with them.
But then… She was frowning. Archie told me to tell no one, not even my best friend.
Mr. Goodwin was following instructions. On further consideration I have concluded that the risk must be taken. You say that your husband knew hundreds of people you have never met. I trust that the hundreds' was an overestimate, but if there are dozens I must have every name. You say you hate it the way it is now. Confound it, madam, so do I. If I had known the job would develop thus a murder, and my involvement, and routine fishing in a boundless sea I wouldn't have taken it. I must see the three or four men who are best qualified to complete the list of your husband's acquaintances, and to give me information about him which you do not have. After you and Mr. Goodwin select them, will you get them here?
She was hating it even more. What do I say when they ask what you're investigating for me?
Say I'll explain to them. Of course that will be ticklish. Certainly there will be no mention by me of the baby left in your vestibule with that message. That there is a baby in your house is probably more widely known than you suspect, but if one or more of them asks about it I shall say that is immaterial. When I decide precisely what I'll tell them you will be informed, before I see them, and if you have objections they will be considered. He swiveled to look at the clock. Half an hour till dinner. He swiveled back. You and Mr. Goodwin will decide this evening on the three or four men to be chosen from among your husband's familiars. I would like to see them either at eleven tomorrow morning or at nine tomorrow evening. You will also compile the list of women's names. But one question now: will you please tell me where you were last Friday evening? From eight o'clock on?
Her eyes widened. Friday?
He nodded. I have no ground whatever, madam, to doubt your good faith. But I now have to deal with someone who doesn't flinch from murder, and it isn't wholly inconceivable that you are a Jezebel. Ellen Tenzer was killed Friday around midnight. Where were you?
Lucy stared. But you don't… you couldn't think…
Wildly improbable but conceivable. You should be gratified that I consider it imaginable that you have gulled me by a superb display of wile and guile.
She tried to smile. You have a strange idea of what gratifies people. She looked at me. Why didn't you ask me this yesterday?
I meant to but forgot.
Do you mean that?
No, but he's right, it's a compliment. Think how good you would have to be to make monkeys of him and me. Where were you Friday night?
All right. Friday. She took a moment. I went out for dinner, to a friend's apartment, Lena Guthrie, but I got home in time for the ten-o'clock feeding the baby. The nurse was there, but I usually like to be there too. Then I went downstairs and played the piano awhile, and then I went to bed. She turned to Wolfe. This is absolute nonsense!
No, he growled. Nothing is nonsense that is concerned with the vagaries of human conduct. If the nurse is there this evening, Mr. Goodwin will ask her about Friday.
There were three men with us in the office at noon the next day, Tuesday, but they were not ex- familiars of the late Richard Valdon. Saul Panzer was in the red leather chair. On two of the yellow chairs fronting Wolfe's desk were Fred Durkin, five feet ten, 190 pounds, bald and burly, and Orrie Cather, six feet flat, 180 pounds, good design from tip to toe. Each had in his hand some three-by-five cards on which I had typed information which had been furnished by the client, and in his wallet some used fives and tens which I had got from the drawer in the safe.
Wolfe's eyes were at Fred and Orris, as always when briefing that trio. He knew Saul was getting it. There should be no difficulties or complications, he said. It's quite simple. Early this year, or possibly late last year, a woman gave birth to a baby. I want to find her. But your present mission is restricted to elimination. Regarding each of the women whose names are on those cards, you are merely to answer the question, could she have borne a baby at that time? When you find one who is not easily eliminated, whose whereabouts and movements during that period need more elaborate inquiry, go no further without consulting me. Is that clear?' Not very, Orrie said. How easy is easily'?
That's inherent in the approach I suggest, devised by Archie and me. You will address the woman herself only if you must. In most cases, perhaps all, you can get enough information from others apartment-house
