Pushing Bynes button in the vestibule got no response. I had suggested to Wolfe that I might take along an assortment of keys so that if Byne wasnt home I could go on in and pass the time by looking around, but Wolfe had vetoed it, saying that Byne had not yet aroused our interest quite to that point. So I spent a long hour and a quarter in a doorway across the street. Thats one of the most tiresome chores in the business, waiting for someone to show when you have no idea how long it will be and you havent much more idea whether he has anything that will help.
It was twelve minutes past five when a taxi rolled to a stop at the curb in front of 87 and Byne climbed out. When he turned after paying the hackie, I was there.
We must share a beam, I told him. I feel a desire to see you, and come, and here you are.
Something had happened to the brotherhood of man. His eye was cold. What the hell he began, and stopped. Not here, he said. Come on up.
Even his manners were affected. He entered the elevator ahead of me, and upstairs, though he let me precede him into the apartment, I had to deal with my coat and hat unaided. Inside, in the room that would require only minor changes, my fanny was barely touching the chair seat when he demanded, Whats this crap about murder?
That word crap bothers me, I said. The way we used it when I was a boy out in Ohio , we knew exactly what it meant. But I looked it up in the dictionary once, and theres no
Nuts. He sat. My aunt says that youre saying that Faith Usher was murdered, and that on account of you the police wont accept the fact that it was suicide. You know damn well it was suicide. What are you trying to pull?
No pull. I clasped my hands behind my head, showing it was just a pair of pals chatting free and easy, or ought to be. Look, Dinky. You are neither a cop nor a district attorney. I have given them a statement of what I saw and heard at that party Tuesday evening, and if you want to know why that makes them go slow on their verdict youll have to ask them. If I told them any lies theyll catch up with me and Ill be hooked. Im not going to start an argument with you about it.
What did you say in your statement?
I shook my head. Get the cops to tell you. I wont. Ill tell you this: if my statement is all that keeps them from calling it suicide, Im the goat. Ill be responsible for a lot of trouble for that whole bunch, and I dont like it but cant help it. So Im doing a little checking on my own. Thats why I wanted to see Mrs Irwin at Grantham House. I told you I had been offered five hundred bucks for a story on Faith Usher, and I had, but what I was really after was information on whether anyone at that party might have had any reason to kill her. For example, if someone intended to kill her at that party he had to know she would be there. So I wanted to ask Mrs Irwin how she had been picked to be invited and who had picked her.
I gave him a friendly grin. And I asked her and she told me, and that was certainly no help, since it was you, and you werent at the party. You even faked a cold to get out of goingand by the way, I said I wouldnt broadcast that, and I havent. I thought it wouldnt hurt to remind him that there was still a basis for brotherhood.
I know, he said, youve got that to shake at me. About my picking Faith Usher to be invited, I suppose Mrs Irwin told you how it was done. I know she told the police. She gave me a list of names with comments, and I merely picked four of the names. Ive just been down at the District Attorneys office telling them about it. As I explained to them, I had no personal knowledge of any of those girls. From Mrs Irwins comments I just picked the ones that seemed to be the most desirable.
Did you keep the list? Have you got it?
I had it, but an assistant district attorney took it. One named Mandelbaum. No doubt hell show it to you if you ask him.
I ignored the dig. Anyway, I said, even if the comments showed that you stretched a point to pick Faith Usher, that wouldnt cross any Ts, since you skipped the party. Did anyone happen to be with you when you were making the selections? Someone who said something like, theres one with a nice name, Faith Usher, a nice unusual name, why dont you ask her?
No one was with me. I was alone. He pointed. At that desk.
Then thats out. I was disappointed. If you dont mind my asking, a little point occurred to me as I was driving back from Grantham Housethat you were interested enough to take the trouble to pick the girls to be invited, but not enough to go to the party. You even went to a lot of trouble to stay away. That seemed a little inconsistent, but I suppose you can explain it.
To you? Why should I?
Well, explain it to yourself and Ill listen.
Theres nothing to explain. I picked the girls because my aunt asked me to. I did it last year too. I told you last night why I skipped the party. He cocked his head, making the skin even tighter on his cheekbone. What the hell are you driving at, anyhow? Do you know what I think?
No, but Id like to. Tell me.
He hesitated. I dont mean that, exactly, what I think. I mean what my aunt thinksor Ill put it this way, an idea shes got in her mind. I guess she hasnt forgotten that remark you made once that she resented. Also she feels that Wolfe overcharged her for that job he did. The idea is that if you have sold the police and the District Attorney on your murder theory, and if they make things unpleasant enough for her and her guests you and Wolfe might figure that she would be willing to make a big contribution to have it stopped. A contribution that would make you remember something that would change their minds. What do you think of that?
It is an idea, I conceded, but it has a flaw. If I remembered something now that I didnt put in my statement, no contribution from your aunt would replace my hide that the cops and the D.A. would peel off. Tell your aunt that I appreciate the compliment and her generous offer, but I cant
I didnt say she made an offer. You keep harping on your damn statement. Whats in it?
That was what was biting him, naturally, as it had bit Celia Grantham and Edwin Laidlaw, and probably all of them. For ten minutes he did the harping on it. He didnt go so far as to make a cash offer, either on his own or on behalf of his aunt, but he appealed to everything from my herd instinct to my better nature. I would have let him go on as long as his breath lasted, on the chance that he might drop a word with a spark of light in it, if I hadnt known that company was expected at the office at six oclock and I wanted to be there when they arrived. When I left he was so frustrated he didnt even go to the hall with me.
I had shaved it pretty close, and that was the worst time of day for uptown traffic, so I didnt quite make it. It was six-five when I climbed out of the taxi and headed for the stoop. If you think I was straining my nerves more than necessary, you dont know Wolfe as I do. I have seen him get up and march out and take to his elevator merely because a woman has burst into tears or started screaming at him, and the expected company, he had told me, was three females, Helen Yarmis, Ethel Varr, and Rose Tuttle, and there was no telling what shape they might be in after the sessions they had been having with various officers of the law.
Therefore I was relieved when I entered the office and found that everything was peaceful, with Wolfe at his desk, the girls in a row facing him, and Orrie in my chair. As I greeted the guests Orrie moved to the couch, and when I was where I belonged Wolfe addressed me.