I shook my head. 'Come on down. Would I be working for her if she hadn't opened up? You told her yesterday that Kearns had phoned you to call for him at eight o'clock today, and she asked you to let her go instead of you. She wanted to have a talk with him about a divorce. How many people did you tell about it?'
'Nobody. If she opened up what's the rest of it?'
'Ask her when you see her. Did you kill Phoebe Arden?'
From the flash in her eye she would have smacked me if I had been close enough. 'Oh, for God's sake,' she said. 'Get a club. Drag me by the hair.'
'Later maybe.' I leaned to her. 'Look, Miss Bram. Give your temperament a rest and use your brain. I am working for Mira Holt. I know exactly where she was and what she did, every minute, from seven o'clock this evening on, but I'm not going to tell you. Of course you know that the dead body of a woman named Phoebe Arden was found in your cab. I am certain that Mira didn't kill her, but she is probably going to be charged. I am not
86
3 at Wolfe's Door
certain that the murderer tried to get her tagged for it, but it looks like it. I would be a fathead to tell the murderer about her movements. Wouldn't I? Answer with your brain.'
'Yes.' She was meeting my eyes.
'Okay. Give me one good reason why I should cross you off. One you would accept if you were in my place. Mira has, naturally, but why should I?'
'Because there's not the slightest--' She stopped. 'No. You don't know that. All right. But don't try twisting my arm. I know some tricks.'
'I'll keep my distance if you will. Did you kill Phoebe Arden?'
'No.'
'Do you know who did?'
'No.'
'Have you any suspicions? Any ideas?'
'Tes. Or I would have if I knew anything--where and when it happened. Did Phoebe come out to the cab with Waldo Kearns?'
'No. Kearns didn't show up. Mira never saw him.'
'But Phoebe came?'
'Not alive. When Mira saw her she was dead. In the cab.'
'Then my idea is Waldo. The sophisticated ape. You know, you're not any too bright. If I killed her in my own cab while Mira was driving it, I already know everything you do and more. Why not tell me?'
I looked at Wolfe, who had opened his eyes off and on. He grunted. 'You told her to use her brain,' he muttered.
I returned to Judy. 'You certainly would know this: Mira got there before eight o'clock and parked in front. When Kearns hadn't showed at eight-thirty she went to the house and spent ten minutes knocking and looking in windows. When she returned to the cab the dead body was in it. She neyer saw Keams.'
'But my God.' Her brows were up. She turned her hands over. 'All she had to do was dump it out!'
'She hasn't got your temperament. She--'
'She drove here with it? To consult with you?'
'She might have done worse. In fact, she tried to. She phoned you, and got no answer. What's your idea about Kearns?'
Method Three for Murder 87
'He killed Phoebe.'
Then that's settled. Why?'
'I don't know. He tried to shake her and she hung on. Or she cheated on him. Or she had a bad cold and he was afraid he would catch it. He put the body in the cab to fix Mira. He hates her because she told him the truth about himself once.'
'Did you know Phoebe well? Who and what was she?'
'Well enough. She was a widow at thirty, roaming around. I might have killed her, at that. About a year ago she started scattering remarks about me, and I broke her neck. Almost. She spent a week in a hospital.'
'Did it cure her? I mean of remark-scattering?'
'Yes.'
'We might as well finish with you. You told Mr. Wolfe Mira left your place around half past seven and about an hour later you went out to keep a date. So you might have left at a quarter after eight.'
'I might, but I didn't. I walked to Mitchell Hall on Fourteenth Street to make a speech at a cab drivers' meeting, and I got there at five minutes to nine. After the meeting I walked back home, and two cops were there waiting for me. They were dumb enough to ask me first where my cab was, and I said I supposed it was in the garage. When they said no, it was parked on Thirty-fifth Street, and asked me to come and identify it, naturally I went. I also identified a dead body, which they hadn't mentioned. Is that Inspector Cramer dumb?'
'No.'
