'It was there!' he said, pointing to the chair the WHERE THERE^S A WILL 181 jpcounterfeit Daisy had been sitting on when I found her with Naomi Karn. 'We were right there!' 'Who were? When?' 'I was! With two men. To settle that Argentina loan. I came up from Washington to meet them, and wanted to keep the meeting secret. Noel was in Europe. I telephoned Daisy, and she said she wouldn't be at home that evening--she would instruct Turner to let us in. It's incredible! She didn't know who I was meeting or what it was about! Good God!' ? , - / - '-,-. ^ ' r 'A chronic eavesdropper' doesn't require any special inducement,' said Wolfe dryly. 'She hid here and listened! She must have! And she told Noel--and he--' Dunn choked it off abruptly. In a moment he went on. 'No, I'm wrong. I remember now. Daria--one of the men mentioned these curtains, and I got up and parted them and looked in here. It was empty. There wasn't much light, only what came from the opening in the curtains, but it was empty.' 'Wait a minute,' I told him. 'I like this idea, let's hang onto it. She could have entered by that door after you looked behind the curtains. Better yet, she could have simply ducked behind the bar when she heard one of you mention the curtains.' Wolfe objected, 'There's not enough room.' 'Sure there's enough room.' I was all for it. 182 WHERE THERE'S A WILL 'Don't judge other people by yourself. Hell, I could hide there easily. Look, I'll give you a demonstration.' I stepped to the open end of the bar. But the demonstration was never made. Sliding behind the bar, I stumbled on something and nearly fell. I looked to see what it was, and a mouse ran up my spine. I stooped to see better, but the light was too dim, and I said, 'There's a light switch on the wall. Turn it on.' Dunn did so. Wolfe, hearing my tone, inquired sharply, 'What's the matter with you?' I had to brace my knee against the edge of the bottom shelf so as not to kneel on her in that cramped space. After looking and feeling for a few seconds, I scrambled upright and told them, 'It's Naomi Karn. Dead. Strangled with that blue linen wrap she was wearing tied around her throat.' CHAPTER THIRTEEN wolfe grunted, compressed his lips, and glared at me ferociously, as if I had done it myself. John Charles Dunn showed admirable presence of mind. He didn't faint or scream. His face expressed shock and consternation, naturally, but almost immediately his jaw set and he moved, joined me at the end of the bar and looked in there at it. After a moment he looked at me. 'She's dead?' 'Yes, sir.' 'You're sure.' 'Yes, sir.' He put his hand on the edge of the bar for support. Then he moved again, not very steadily. I moved faster, got a chair from the other side of the draperies, and slid it behind him. He sat on it, gripped his knees with his fingers, and told the space in front of him, 'This is the end of everything.'
Wolfe said grimly, 'Or the beginning. Archie, I want two minutes. In two minutes go up and notify Lieutenant Bronson.' I looked approvingly at his broad back as it passed through the curtains. I had no idea what 183 FR1;184 WHERE THERE'S A WILL he was going to do with the two minutes, but normal people aren't supposed to understand what geniuses are up to. I timed it by the second hand of my watch. Dunn sat there making no sound, gripping his knees and gazing at space. When the second hand had completed two revolutions, and was halfway around again for good measure, I told him, 'You'd better stay here. You ought to breathe deeper. Take some deep breaths.'* No one was in sight in the main hall, the stairs, or the upper corridor. I opened the door to the library and walked in. From the group around the desk, on which batches of papers were piled, four pairs of eyes turned my way in surprise. I was aware that the proper stunt was to summon the officer of the law, lead him downstairs and show it to him, and let nature take its course, but I was curious to see the expression on a couple of faces, so I announced distinctly: 'We have made a discovery downstairs. In the bar back of the drapes in the living room. Naomi Karn is there on the floor, dead.' I got nothing very definite, as usual. Stauffer merely gawked at me. Prescott merely jerked his head up and looked startled. Mr. Ritchie appeared to be annoyed. Lieutenant Bronson snapped at me, 'Dead? Who's Naomi Karn?' 'A woman,' I replied. 'The one that inherited WHERE THERE^S A WILL 18? Hawthorne's pile. She has a thing fastened around her throat and her tongue is sticking out. Mr. Dunn is down there. You might as well go ahead and use that phone?' He told the others brusquely, 'You men stay here and watch these papers,' and me, 'Come along,' as he went by headed for the door. I trotted behind, down the stairs and through the entrance hall and living room, circled around him to pull the drapery aside for him to pass through, and told him, 'There behind the bar.' Dunn was still on his chair. Bronson slid into the narrow space and stooped over. Pretty soon he straightened up again and spoke: 'I'm going to the library and use the phone. I'd appreciate it, Mr. Dunn, if you'll kindly stay here until I get back.' He eyed me. 'You're Goodwin, Nero White's man.' 'Right.' 'Where's Wolfe?' 'He went somewhere upstairs, J guess. He sent me to notify you.' 'Was he with you when you found it?' 'Yes.' 'How long ago was that?' 'Up to now? Oh, three-four minutes.' 'Will you please stay at the front door while I'm upstairs? No one is to leave the house.' FR1;186 WHERE THERE'S A WILL 'Sure, glad to.' I went with him as far as the main hall. Considering the size of that house and the number of its occupants, and in view of the restrictions and complications that were to begin in about six minutes with the arrival of the first contingent of city employees in a radio car, there is no telling when I would have realized what Nero Wolfe had done with that two minutes he had said he wanted, if it hadn't been for my habit of looking in all directions. But possibly there was some faint suspicion in the back of my mind, or I wouldn't have opened the entrance door and stepped out for a look around, and noticed that something was missing. I craned my neck for an inspection of the cars parked in that short block, and verified it. Absolutely, the sedan was gone. It wasn't where I had parked it, and it wasn't there at all. But of course Wolfe hadn't driven off in it himself, since, although theoretically he knew how to drive, he would have collapsed with terror at the mere idea. But since Naomi Karn hadn't left the house, and therefore Orrie Gather was still on the job, Wolfe would have known that a chauffeur was available. I sent my gaze in the other direction, toward the areaway across the street where I had found Orrie. He wasn't there. He wasn't in sight. That cinched it. If Orrie had still been around he FR1;WHERE THERE*S A WILL 187 would have had an eye on that entrance, and would have seen me, and would have made himself visible. I stood and let the conviction seep into my soul. 'I can't say it any better than that,' I muttered bitterly to myself. 'Normal people aren*t supposed to understand what geniuses are up to. If only I had sunk my toe in his fundament as he went through those curtains.' A siren sounded from around the corner, a little green car came curving into 67th, jerked to a stop at the curb, and two men in uniform hopped out and started for me. I had left the door ajar, and swung it open for them to enter. That was the beginning of as dreary and unprofitable a six-hour stretch as I've ever struggled through. By midnight I was ready to bite holes in the windows. On account of the kind of individuals involved, by their being on the premises if by nothing else, the whole damn city and county payroll showed up sooner or later, from the commissioner and the district attorney on down. Wherever you stepped it was on a toe. As far as picking up any items for myself was concerned, I had about as much chance as a poodle in a pack of bloodhounds. Throughout the entire session, about every ten minutes someone came up to me and asked me where Nero Wolfe was. That alone got so obnoxious I FR1;188 WHERE THERE'S A WILL had to grit my teeth to keep from slugging some high official. Soon after the first squad men arrived, Lieutenant Bronson had me in the music room. That interview was brief and unimportant; about all he wanted was the details of our finding the body. I gave it to him complete and straight. I wouldn't have minded keeping our knowledge of Daisy's addiction to eavesdropping for the firm's private use, in case it should come in handy, but I had to give a reason for my looking behind the bar, and it was too risky to invent one, since he had already had a talk with Dunn, and Dunn had probably told him just how it was. So I did too. When it was over he chased me upstairs. I was to remain and so forth. The first thing he asked me, and the last, was 'Where's Wolfe?' I went in the library and saw there was no one there but Ritchie of the Cosmopolitan Trust, sitting looking glum and offended, and a dick I didn't know, so I went out again. Prescott came trotting down the hall, saw me, stopped beside me, glanced around, and asked in an undertone, 'Where's Wolfe?' 'I don't know. Don't ask me again. I don't know.** 'He must have--' 'I don't know!' FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 189 'Don't talk so loud. We've got to keep Gene Davis out of this.' He was urgent, pleading. 'No one saw him but Wolfe and you and me. I'm sure if Wolfe were here I could convince him. They mustn't know Gene was here. When they ask you--' 'Not a chance. You'd better compose your faculties. The butler let him in.' 'But I can tell Turner, I can persuade him--' 'No, sir. There are about nine things the cops won't find out from me, but that isn't one of them. Take my advice and never conspire with a butler.' He grabbed my lapel. 'But I tell you, if they learn Davis was here, if they once get started after him--' 'I can't help it, Mr. Prescott. Sorry. No one likes to keep a secret from a cop any more than I do, but that would be just begging for trouble. I'll do this much, I'll make them ask for it, I won't volunteer it--' Footsteps from above, on the next flight of stairs, interrupted me. It was Andy Dunn coming down. He caught sight of us, and told Prescott his father would like to see him in Mrs. Hawthorne's room. Prescott looked at me half angrily and half pleadingly, and I shook my head. Andy addressed me: 'Dad would like to see Nero Wolfe too. Where is he?' 190 WHERE THERE'S A WILL I answered that one, and they went off, and I moseyed to the end of the corridor and sat on a bench. After a while I started down to the main floor to look over fresh arrivals, but got shooed back up before I touched bottom, and went to the library and appropriated a comfortable chair. It was while I was there that a maid came around with sandwiches and milk and ginger ale, and I took enough to last a while.
