letters Tuesday afternoon?' Celia nodded. 'Miss Hawthorne has thousands of letters. I answer all I can. When we finished tea, about a quarter past four, I went to an alcove of the living room and was there alone, writing, for about an hour, until Andy--Mr. Dunn came.' 'Let's say Andy. There was another Mr. Dunn around. What did you do then?' 'Andy suggested a walk. We walked--we went to the woods--' Celia appeared to have struck a snag. April said, 'They're in love. It's a family row. Celia and I want Andy to go on the stage, he was born for it. June and her husband want him to be a lawyer and politician and get elected president. My brother wanted him in the Cullen office--my brother always wanted a son and didn't have one. We fought about it at tea. They're idiots. Andy is a rotten lawyer.' 'We were in the woods a while,' said Celia, 'and then we went on through and came out at the other side. We didn't see anything until we stumbled on it. I nearly fell and Andy caught me--' FR1;126 WHERE THERE'S A WILL 'I don't need all that,' Wolfe interrupted. 'The chief thing is, you were writing letters at five o'clock.' He looked at April. 'And you were upstairs faking a nap.' 'Yes. Mr. Stauffer asked me to go for a swim, but I didn't feel like it. The pond's dirty.' 'So you went for a swim alone,' Wolfe told Stauffer. 'Yes. The pond is in the opposite direction from the woods, down at the foot of the hill.' Wolfe chuckled. 'The police wanted to know about that, I'll wager. Don't resent it. They're probably making discreet inquiries right now about the opening in Daniel Cullen and Company that Hawthorne's death makes for you. Will you be made head of the foreign department? Will you be made a partner? Quite a plum--Oh, I'm not asking, but they probably are.' Stauffer had stiffened. 'This is really--' 'Don^t, Mr. Stauffer. What do you expect them to do when they're after a murderer? You people are lucky. On account of your position and standing. Even if you killed Hawthorne yourself, you probably won't hear a single impolite word until the district attorney gets you on the witness stand. You might as well escort Miss Hawthorne back to her room. I'm through with you too. Miss Fleet. If I need--Come in!' WHERE THERE^S A WILL 127 The door opened to admit the butler. He was beginning to look as if he wouldn't mind going back to his ancestral halls for a little vacation. 'Two men to see you, sir, a Mr. Panzer and a Mr. Keems.' Wolfe told him to show them up. CHAPTER NINE I laid my pen down and looked at Wolfe in extreme disgust. 'By jiminy,' I said, with the whine that I knew set his teeth on edge, 'you sure are grilling them. Talk about ruthless. It gives me nervous prostration just to see them suffer. And squirm under your merciless thrusts. Lovin* babe! I don't think I ever saw you in better form--' 'Archie! Shut up!' 'But who the hell do you think you are, the inquiring reporter?' 'I do not, and I don't need that. I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think about these people, and in the meantime having another look at them. There's too many of them. If one of them sneaked through those woods and borrowed the shotgun from Noel Hawthorne and blew his head off, who is going to prove it and how? --Good afternoon, Saul. Good afternoon, Johnny. Come in. Sit down. --Am I a confounded Indian, to go up there and crawl around on my hands and knees, smelling footprints? And do you suppose any of this tribe is going to tell us anything?' He snorted. 'Trying to get me interested in a family row about Andy being 128 FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 129 an actor! Bah!' He shook a finger at me menacingly. 'You let me alone! One more whine out of you and--how the devil can I think if there's nothing to think about?' I elevated my shoulders and turned my palms up. 'Then we might as well go home and look at the atlas.' 'I agree with you.' He abandoned me. 'Did Orrie find you, Saul?' 'Yes, sir.' Saul always pretended he didn't hear Wolfe and me jawing. 'Miss Karn hadn't appeared when Orrie relieved me at 9:20. At 9:25 I tested her phone and she was in her apartment.' 'You told Orrie to report here?' 'Yes, sir.' 'You need sleep.' 'I'll manage till tonight.' ? 'You're free, are you, Johnny?' 'Yes, sir, I'm always free when you need me.' His bright eager tones, like little Willie offering ^ to clean the blackboard, always gave me a pain. ^ Johnny Keems was the kind of guy who does exer? cises every morning and buys gum at every slot vendor he sees for an excuse to look in the mirror. Dozens of times I would have resigned my job if I hadn't known his tongue was hanging out for it. k 'Put this down,' said-WoIfe. 'Both of you. Dun^ woodie, Prescott & Davis, law firm on lower Broad130 WHERE THERE'S A WILL way. Mr. Glenn Prescott. Mr. Eugene Davis. Naomi Karn got a job there as a stenographer in 1934, and after two years became the secretary of Mr. Davis. A year or so later she left to associate herself with Mr. Noel Hawthorne in a private capacity. This is a fishing trip; I want anything you can get. Saul will direct; Johnny, you will consult with him as usual. One detail: the name of the person who did confidential stenographic work for Mr. Prescott on March 7th, 1938. If any approach is made to that person it must with great circumspection. Johnny will of course canvass the young women with that beauty treatment outfit--what is it, Archie?' 'Nothing.' I had only made a noise. The rhinoceros had the idiotic idea that when Johnny looked at a girl and smiled she melted like ice cream in the summer sun. The fact is--oh, what's the difference. He'll marry a pickpocket's daughter for her money. They asked some questions, especially Saul, and got answers. After they had gone Wolfe went into a trance. I overlooked it and didn't try any prodding, because it was one o'clock and I knew what he was expecting. Pretty soon it arrived. The butler himself brought one tray and a maid in uniform with a split in the nail of her right index finger followed him with the other one. I saw the split when she nearly stuck the finger in my milk. Her FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 131 intention was to stay and arrange things for us, but Wolfe sent her away. He lifted the covers from the servers with a sanguine hope and a stern misgiving fighting for the mastery in his expression. When no steam came out he looked so disconcerted I could have wept. He bent over the server and glared into it incredulously.
'This is dandy,' I asserted, rubbing my hands with pleasure. 'Jellied consomme and a good big 'waldorf salad and iced tea and these cute little wafer things--' 'Good God,' he muttered, stupefied. e It was from purely selfish motives that I went downstairs myself and found somebody and requisitioned a pair of lamb chops and a pot of coffee. The trays were empty, and Volte was sipping the last of the coffee, which I admit wasn't hot enough, in gloomy dissatisfaction, when the door opened and Inspector Cramer entered. 'How-do-you-do, sir,' Wolfe snapped. 'I'm busy.' 'So I hear.' Cramer crossed to a chair and sat down, got out a cigar and stuck it in his mouth, and took it out again. His big phiz was redder even than usual, from the heat. He observed, as if passing the time of day, 'I understand you're working for Mr. Dunn.' 132 WHERE THERE'S A WILL Wolfe grunted offensively. 'He had a rotten lunch,' I explained. Cramer nodded. 'So did I. At a drugstore counter.' He surveyed Wolfe. ^You look about the way I feel. I hate these damn high-life mix-ups. The lousy politicians. Every time you turn around you see a stop sign. I've got a message for you from the commissioner.' Wolfe just grunted again. Cramer jut his cigar between his teeth and said, 'Maybe you've heard of him, Police Commissioner Hombert. He wants you to understand that there's to be no publicity on this thing until he says so. He also says that you're so intelligent it will be easy for you to appreciate the necessity for a lot of discretion in a case like this, involving the people it does, and that naturally you'll co-operate with me. For instance, if you were to tell me what that mob was doing in your office yesterday, we'd call that cooperation.' 'Ask them,' Wolfe suggested. 'I have. They're pretty remarkable. Most of them seem to be nearly as eccentric as you are. Except Mrs. Dunn, she's fairly levelheaded, and Prescott the lawyer. Prescott told me about the will. They say they went to ask you to take it up with Miss Karn and come to an understanding with her. Since when have you been a board of arbitration?' WHERE THERE^S A WILL 133 'Wolfe muttered, 'Go ahead. Come to the point.' 'I will. Is that what they went to your office for? To get you to make a deal with Miss Karn?' 'Yes.' 'But you had Miss Karn right there, didn't you? By the way, you might have told me who she was when I asked you, but I suppose that would be too much to expect. Anyway, these people have all got tongues in their heads, and they had their lawyer along. What was it they wanted you to do that they couldn't do themselves?' Wolfe shrugged. 'They had been informed that I am able, astute, discreet and unscrupulous.' 'Hell, I could have told them that.' Cramer removed his cigar from his mouth and studied the tip of it. 'I've been trying to figure out what they needed you for when they already had a good lawyer. I like things to be plausible. What if they suspected Miss Karn had murdered Hawthorne, and they wanted you to sort of collect evidence and put it in shape? That would be a good job for a detective. Then Miss Karn could sign an agreement to let them have the dough, or most of it, and you could decide the evidence wasn't good enough to Justify accusing her of murder. So everybody would be satisfied, except maybe Hawthorne, but he was dead. How do you like that way of figuring it?' FR1;134 WHERE THERE'S A WILL 'I think it's clumsy,' said 'Wolfe judiciously. 'If they regarded me as capable of compromising with a murderer, they would also have thought it likely that I would retain the evidence and blackmail them the rest of their lives. Not to mention the detail that they weren't aware Hawthorne had been murdered. You saw their shock and surprise when you told them he had.' 'Yeah, I saw that. They certainly were shocked.' 'Indeed they were.' Wolfe frowned. 'Then aren't you supporting the theory that Hawthorne was killed because he had ruined Mr. Dunn's career with that Argentina loan business? I thought you fellows had that all cooked and ready to serve.' 'I'm not a cook, I'm a cop. If anybody uses this murder to grease someone's pants, it won't be me. I'm supposed to be looking for a murderer. From what Dunn tells me, so are you.' 'I am.' 'Okay. Let's find him or her. I'm going to be frank with you. I like the idea of Miss Karn. Personally. You don't need to tell Skinner that. She inherits seven million dollars, and there have been plenty of murders for a hell of a lot less than that. Since she was intimate with
