Fred,' said Wolfe curtly. 'Where I did you find him?' 'At Wellman's. A joint on 8th Street. The place where--' 'Very well. Satisfactory. Is he armed?' I 'No, sir.' 'Good. Sit down, Mr. Davis. It looks as if--' The door opened and Doc Vollmer entered. He saw the tableau, halted, and then approached. 'Excuse me, but I have to run. Patients waiting. That man upstairs will be all right. He's got some bruises, but that's all, except that his nerves are in extremely bad condition. I advise a sedative.' i 'Thank you, doctor. We'll attend to the sedative. Run along.' Wolfe looked at Davis. 'It's Mr. Prescott. We brought him here. It's amazing that you didn't kill him, really amazing.' He looked at the inspector. 'I believe we can go ahead now, Mr. Cramer, only it would be best to have Mr. Dunn here. All of them, I suppose. If you will please phone his hotel?' CHAPTER EIGHTEEN in the south bedroom, a hot south wind fluttered the curtains at the windows. The dick put on his coat, wiped his face and neck with his handkerchief, and smoothed his hair back with his hands. Glenn Prescott sat on a chair and groaned. 'I'm perfectly willing to talk to Wolfe,' he said in a hurt tone. 'But why can't he come up here? I can't even bend over to put my shoes on.' Having got him off of the bed and his clothes more or less arranged on him, I was tired of fooling with him. I got a shoe horn from the dresser, went over and kneeled down by him, got him shod and the strings tied, stood up and told him: 'One, two, three, go. For God's sake, do you want us to carry you?' The dicL said irritably, 'There's an elevator ain^t they? What more do you want?' Prescott gritted his teeth, pushed himself upright with his hands, groaned, and took a step. Downstairs, just inside the door of the office, he stopped short, evidently surprised at the size of the party. The room was full, extra chairs having been brought from the front. Sara Dunn had come down from the roof and was in the corner of the book256
FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 257 shelves with Andy and Celia. Wolfe was at his desk and Cramer and District Attorney Skinner were at the far end of it, with Eugene Davis between them. April, May and June, between us and the desk, had their backs to us as we entered. Stauffer was on a chair next to April's, still protecting her. John Charles Dunn got up and approached, staring at Prescott's face. 'Glenn! What happened to you? Good heavens, what--' Prescott vaguely shook his head. I doubt if he heard Dunn or even saw him. His eyes, one of them puffed half shut, were aimed straight past him, in the direction of Eugene Davis. He stood there, with me behind him. The dick had posted himself at the door. Skinner barked, 'Well?' 'wolfe said, 'There's a chair for Mr. Prescott there by yours, Archie.' I nudged Prescott's elbow and he moved across to it and lowered himself. Johnny Keems got out of my chair and moved to one in the rear alongside Saul Panzer. He knew damn well I didn't like anyone sitting in my chair. May Hawthorne said sarcastically, 'This is impressive, Mr. Wolfe.' 'White's eyes moved to her. 'You don't like me, do you. Miss Hawthorne? I understand that. FR1;25S WHERE THERE'S A WILL You're a realist and I'm a romantic. But all this isn't for effect. I shall need some of you and I may need all of you. It's a job. I'm out after a murderer and he's here.' He looked at the district attorney. 'It may be slippery going, Mr. Skinner. I expect you to stick to our bargain.' 'As stated,' said Skinner sharply. 'I'm not gagged and I won't be.' 'Yes, sir, as stated.' Wolfe's eyes circled around the faces and settled on the one least presentable of all. 'Mr. Prescott, I know you can't talk without discomfort, so I'll try to do most of it myself. Being a lawyer, you understand of course that you are under no compulsion to answer questions, but I warn you I'm going to be pretty stubborn and disagreeable. First I'll ask you to verify a few facts I've collected. In March, 1938, your private secretary was a young woman named-- what's that name, Saul?' Saul spoke up from the rear: 'Lucille Adams.' 'And when did she die?' 'Two months ago, in May, of tuberculosis, at her home at 2419--' 'Thanks. Is that correct, Mr. Prescott?' 'Why--yes,' Prescott mumbled. 'It was Miss Adams to whom you dictated Noel Hawthorne's will, following instructions he gave you?' WHERE THERE*S A WILL 259 'I don't remember.' The mumble cleared up a little. 'I suppose it was.' 'She was your private secretary at that time, and took all your confidential dictation?' 'Yes.' A voice said gruffly, 'If this is a joke it's a bad one.' It was Eugene Davis. 'Is this an official investigation? The district attorney is here. Are you on his staff, Mr. Wolfe?' 'No, sir. I'm a private detective-- Are you represented by counsel, Mr. Prescott? Or do you want to be?' 'Certainly not.'* 'Do you want Mr. Davis, as your counsel, interfering in our conversation?' 'No.' 'Then to go on. Regarding the routine in your office. The notebooks used by the confidential secretaries are numbered. As soon as one is filled and the contents transcribed, the notebooks are turned in and destroyed. Is that correct?' Prescott carefully shifted in his chair, but he didn't groan. 'Yes,' he said. 'I'm answering the question, yes. Now I'd like to ask one. I'd like to know who has been investigating the affairs of my office, and why.' 'I have.' 'White's tone got a little crisper. 'My agents have. Mr. Panzer and Mr. Keems, there be260 WHERE THERE'S A WILL hind you. I assure you they have done nothing actionable, and if you start pumping up indignation it will only rush blood to your head and make you more uncomfortable than you already are. You'd better keep your brain as cool as possible.' 'Get on with it,' the district attorney snapped. 'We're not here for a lecture.' Wolfe didn't even glance at him. He continued at Prescott: 'Now, sir, if Mr. Skinner will stop interrupting me, I can make it pretty brief. I have been given, one after the other, three problems to solve: the will of Noel Hawthorne, the murder of Noel Hawthorne, and the murder of Naomi Karn. Whether my belief that I have solved them is sound, or whether it is merely my conceit bubbling over, rests on the validity of a series of hypotheses I have made--based, of course, on information received. If any one of them is wrong, I am wrong. I'm going to ask you--all of you--to listen closely to them. 'One. Eugene Davis was madly, desperately, in love with Naomi Karn, and was so filled with despair and jealousy when she abandoned him for Noel Hawthorne that he began drinking too much and, I suppose, did other foolish things. That went on for nearly three years. During that time, possibly, she let him have some crumbs--did she, Mr. Davis? It would help to understand her character.' All eyes went to Davis. He made no answer. With FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 261 his lips tight and his jaw locked, he gazed at Wolfe. A spasm contorted the muscles of his throat as he swallowed. Wolfe shrugged. 'Two. Davis understood Miss Karn's character himself. He knew she was ambitious, greedy, and unscrupulous, and that he would never find relief from the agony he suffered through her intimacy with Noel Hawthorne as long as Hawthorne was alive and a millionaire. Also he knew the terms of Hawthorne's will. It was in the vault of his firm, to which he had access. 'Three. Probably the death of Lucille Adams, two months ago, led to the formation of his scheme. A shrewd brain sees an opportunity where an ordinary one would miss it. Anyway, he made his scheme, and awaited an occasion to execute it. He knew of Hawthorne's intended trip to Rockland County for Tuesday afternoon, and arranged to be with Miss Karn at that time. He says they drove to Connecticut; wherever they went, he absented himself long enough to go to Rockland County and back. Probably he had a detailed plan of action, and a weapon; but seeing, from the highway, Noel Hawthorne there at the edge of the woods carrying a shotgun, was a heaven-sent opportunity. He took advantage of it. I'm pretty sure Miss Karn didn't know where he was or what he was doing. She didn't need to, and he didn't want her to. FR1;262 WHERE THERE'S A WILL 'Four. Tuesday evening--' 'Wait a minute.' Eugene Davis had decided it was time to say something. He was regarding Wolfe with narrowed eyes. 'Are you saying I killed Hawthorne?' 'I seem to be hinting at that as a possibility, Mr. Davis.' 'Then you're a damned idiot. And it's certainly actionable to accuse--' 'It may be. Or it may not. You're a lawyer; why don't you let me go on till I sink? Four. It is reasonable to assume that it was on Tuesday evening that Davis went to the office of his firm and, getting Hawthorne's will from the vault, typed a new first page for it--the same paper, even the same machine--and of course wording it and ending it so it would fit the continuance on the second page, where the attestations and signatures were. He would hardly have proceeded with that until Hawthorne was actually dead, though he may have done the typing previously, since it was a delicate and difficult job. 'Five. It is probable that there was no bequest to Miss Karn in Hawthorne's will. What gifts he may have made her we can only conjecture, but I doubt if her name was in his will. It isn't commonly done that way. Even if it was, the legacy was certainly FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 263 a comparatively modest one. So Davis, wanting to bind Miss Karn to him with a tie that would render unlikely further adventures with millionaires, made her a tempting offer. If she would pledge constancy to him, the will found in the vault would have the first page he had typed, and she would inherit seven million dollars.' 'Glenn Prescott drew the will,' May Hawthorne said acidly. 'wolfe nodded. 'Yes. But six. Davis had calculated the risk. If there was a duplicate of the will anywhere, he knew where it was, and either destroyed it or gave it a new first page also. There were only three other sources of evidence of the contents of the will as originally drawn. The stenographer's notebook. That, following routine, had been destroyed. The stenographer herself. She also had been destroyed, by death. Glenn Prescott, his partner, who had drawn the will. There was his risk, and he took it. He was shrewd, audacious, and desperate, and he took it. He knew Prescott; he knew that the dearest thing to his heart was the reputation and prosperity of that law firm. So he calculated: Prescott, getting the will from the vault and discovering the substitution that had taken place, would be shocked, horrified, stunned. He would FR1;264 WHERE THERE'S A WILL suspect at once that Davis had done it. But would he expose him?' Davis blurted in a rasping sarcastic tone, 'Good God, you were sunk long ago.' 'I'm going deeper yet,' said Wolfe imperturbably. 'Davis answered that question, would Prescott expose him, with a no. Prescott regarded Davis as a
