I allowed myself an inside grin. Thanks to my having produced the check with Lily's offer of a job in Cramer's presence, he was actually working. When Laura and I had entered the office he would emerge from the kitchen and station himself at the hole. On the office side the hole was covered by a picture of a waterfall, on the wall at eye level to the right of Wolfe's desk. On the other side, in a little alcove at the end of the hall, it was covered by a sliding panel, and with the panel pushed aside you could not only hear but also see through the waterfall. I had once stood there for three hours with a notebook, recording a conversation Wolfe was having with an embezzler.
Laura retrieved her handbag, a big gray leather one, from the floor where it had dropped when she went for Cramer, and I escorted her to the office, took her jacket and put it on the couch, moved a chair for her to face my desk, swiveled my chair around, and sat. I looked at her. She was a wreck. I wouldn't have known her, especially since I had previously seen her all rigged out, and now she was in a plain gray dress with a black belt. Her cheeks sagged, her hair straggled, and her eyes were red and puffed. You wouldn't suppose a dashing cowgirl could get into such a state.
'First,' I said, 'why? Why did you go for him?'
She swallowed. 'I just lost my head.' She swallowed again. 'I ought to thank you for helping me, when he asked what I came to see you for. I didn't know what to say.'
'You're welcome. What do you say if I ask you?'
154 3 at Wolfe's Door
'I came to find out something. To find out if you told them what Cal told you yesterday. I know you must have because they've arrested him.'
I shook my head. 'They're holding him as a material witness because it was his rope and he found the body. I promised Cal I wouldn't repeat what he told me, and I haven't. If I did they'd have a motive for him, they couldn't ask for better, and they'd charge him with murder.'
'You haven't told them? You swear you haven't?'
'I only swear on the witness stand and I'm not there yet. I have told no one, but I am now faced with a problem. Miss Rowan has hired Nero Wolfe to investigate the murder, and he will ask me for a full report of what happened there yesterday. I can't tell him what Cal told me because of my promise to Cal, and I'll have to tell him I am leaving something out, which he won't like. If Cal were available I would get his permission to tell Mr. Wolfe, but he isn't.'
'Then you haven't even told Nero Wolfe?'
'No.'
'Will you promise me you won't tell the police? That you'll never tell them no matter what happens?'
'Certainly not.' I eyed her. 'Use your head if you've found it again. Their charging Cal with murder doesn't depend only on me. They have found out that Eisler took a woman to his apartment Sunday night and they're going over it for fingerprints. If they find some of yours, and if they learn that you and Cal are good friends, as they will, he's in for it, and I would be a damn fool to wait till they get me on the stand under oath.'
I turned a palm up. 'You see, one trouble is, you and me talking, that you think Cal killed him and I know he didn't. You should be ashamed of yourself. You have known him two years and I only met him last week, but I know him better than you do. I can be fooled and have been, but when he got me aside yesterday and asked me how to go about taking some hide off a toad he was not getting set to commit a murder, and the murder of Wade Eisler was premeditated by whoever took Cal's rope. Not to mention how he looked and talked when he showed me the body. If I thought there was a chance that Cal killed him I wouldn't leave anything
T?ze Rodeo Murder 155
out when I report to Mr. Wolfe. But I can't promise to hang onto it no matter what happens.'
'You can if you will,' she said. 'I don't think Cal killed him. I know he didn't. I did.'
My eyes widened. 'You did what? Killed Eisler?'
'Yes.' She swallowed. 'Don't you see how it is? Of course I've got to tell them I killed him, but when they arrest me Cal will say he killed him because I told him about Sunday night. But I'll say I didn't tell him about Sunday night, and it will be my word against his, and they'll think he's just trying to protect me. So it does depend on you. You've got to promise you won't tell them what Cal told you yesterday. Because I killed him, and why should you protect me? Why should you care what happens to me if I killed a man?'
I regarded her. 'You know,' I said, 'at least you've answered my question, why you went for Cramer. You wanted to plant the idea that you're a holy terror. That wasn't so dumb, in fact it was half bright, but now listen to you. You might possibly sell it to the cops that you killed him, at least you could ball them up a while, but not me. When I went to the shack yesterday and found you there with Cal, the first thing he said was that you thought he had killed him. And now you--'
'Cal was wrong. How could I think he had killed him when I knew I had?'
'Nuts. I not only heard what he said, I saw his face, and I saw yours. You still think Cal killed him and you're acting like a halfwit.'
Her head went down, her hands went up to cover her face, and she squeezed her breasts with her elbows. Her shoulders shook.
I sharpened my voice. 'The very worst thing you could do would be to try telling the cops that you killed him. It would take them about ten minutes to trip you up, and then where would Cal be? But maybe you should tell them about Sunday night, but of course not that you told Cal about it. If they find your fingerprints in Eisler's apartment you'll have to account for them, and it will be better to give them the account before they ask for it. That won't be difficult; just tell them what happened.'
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'They won't find my fingerprints,' she said, or I thought she did. Her voice was muffled by her hands, still over her face.
'Did you say they won't find your fingerprints?' I asked.
