Why must he have done it? You invented that, didnt you? About him and Miss Usher?
I did not. I sort of kept an eye on Faith, naturally. I dont mean I was with her, I just kept an eye on her. I saw her with Laidlaw twice, and the day he left for Canada I saw her in his car. I knew he went to Canada because a friend got a card from him. I didnt have to invent it.
Wolfe grunted. You realize, Mr Byne, that everything you say is now suspect. Assuming that you knew that Laidlaw and Miss Usher had in fact been intimate, why did you surmise that he had killed her? Was she menacing him?
Not that I know of. If he had a reason for killing her I didnt know what it was. But he was the only one of the people there that night who had had anything to do with her.
No. You had.
Damn it, I wasnt there!
Thats true, but those who were there can also plead lack of opportunity. In the circumstances as I have heard them described, no one could have poisoned Miss Ushers champagne with any assurance that it would get to her. And you alone, of all those involved, had a motive, and not a puny one. An increase in annual income of 127,000 or more, tax exempt, is an alluring prospect. If I were you I would accept almost any alternative to a disclosure of that agreement to the District Attorney.
I am. Im sitting here while you pile it on.
So you are. Wolfe looked at his palms and put them on the chair arms. Now. Did you know that Miss Usher kept a bottle of poison on her person?
No hesitation. I knew that she said she did. I never saw it. Her mother told me, and Mrs Irwin at Grantham House mentioned it to me once.
Did you know what kind of poison it was?
No.
Was it Mrs Ushers own idea to seclude herself in a hotel under another name, or did you suggest it?
Neither one. I mean I dont remember. She phoned me Thursdayno, Wednesdayand we decided she ought to do that. I dont remember who suggested it.
Who suggested your meeting this evening?
She did. She phoned me this morning. I told you that,
What did she want?
She wanted to know what I was going to do about payments, with Faith dead. She knew that by the agreement it was left to my discretion. I told her that for the present I would continue to send her half.
Had she been using any of the money you sent her to support her daughter?
I dont think so. Not for the last four or five years, but it wasnt her fault. Faith wouldnt take anything from her. Faith wouldnt live with her. They couldnt get along. Mrs Usher is veryunconventional. Faith left when she was sixteen, and for over a year we didnt know where she was. When I found her she was working in a restaurant. A waitress.
But you continued to pay Mrs Usher her full share?
Yes.
Is that fund in your possession and control without supervision?
Certainly.
It has never been audited?
Certainly not. Who would audit it?
I couldnt say. Would you object to an audit by an accountant of my selection? Now that I know of the agreement?
I certainly would. The fund is my property and 1 am accountable to no one but myself, as long as I pay Mrs Usher her share.
I must see that agreement. Wolfe pursed his lips and slowly shook his head. It is extremely difficult, he said, to circumvent the finality of death. Mr Grantham made a gallant try, but he was hobbled by his vain desire to guard his secret even after he became food for worms. He protected you and Mrs Usher, each against the frailty or knavery of the other, but what if you joined forces in a threat to his repute? He couldnt preclude that. He lifted a hand to brush it aside. A desire to defeat death makes any man a fool. I must see that agreement. Meanwhile, a few points remain. You told Mr Goodwin that your selection of Miss Usher to be invited to that party was fortuitous, but now that wont do. Then why?
Of course, Byne said. I knew that was coming.
Then youve had time to devise an answer.
I dont have to devise it. I was a damn fool. When I got the list from Mrs Irwin and saw Faiths name on itwell, there it was. The idea of having Faith as a guest at my aunts houseit just appealed to me. Mrs Robilotti is only my aunt by marriage, you know. My mother was Albert Granthams sister. Youve got to admit there was a kick in the idea of having Faith sitting at my aunts table. And then
He left it hanging. Wolfe prodded him. Then?
That suggested another idea, to have Laidlaw there too. I know j was a damn fool, but there it was. Laidlaw seeing Faith there, and Faith seeing him. Of course, my aunt could cross Faith off and tell Mrs IrwinHe stopped. In a second he went on, I mean you never knew what Faith would do, she might refuse to go, but Laidlaw wouldnt know she had been asked, so what the hell. So I suggested that to my aunt, to invite Laidlaw, and she did.
Did Miss Usher know that Albert Grantham had fathered her?
My God, no. She thought her father had been a man named Usher who had died before she was born.
Did she know you were the source of her mothers income?
No. I think No, I dont think, I know. She suspected that her mothers income came from friends. From men she knew. That was why she left. About my picking Faith to be invited to that party and suggesting Laidlaw, after I had done that I got cold feet. I realized something might happen. At least Faith might walk out when she saw him, and it might be something worse, and I didnt want to be there, so I decided to get someone to go in my place. The first four or five I tried couldnt make it, and I thought of Archie Goodwin.
Wolfe leaned back and closed his eyes, and his lips started to work. They pushed out and went back in, out and in, out and in Sooner or later he always does that, and I really should have a sign made, GENIUS AT WORK>, and put it on his desk when he starts it. Usually I have some sort of idea as to what genius is working on, but that time not a glimmer. He had cleared away some underbrush, for instance who had sicked the cops on Laidlaw and how Faith and Laidlaw had both got invited to the party, but he had got only one thing to chew on, that he had at last found somebody who had had a healthy motive to kill Faith Usher, and Byne, as he liked to point out himself, hadnt even been at the party. Of course, that could have been what genius was at, doping out how Byne could have poisoned the champagne by remote control, but I doubted it.
Wolfe opened his eyes and aimed them at Dinky. Im not going to wait until Monday, he said. If I havent enough now, I never will have. One thing you have told me, or at least implied, will have to be my peg. If I asked you about it now, you would only wriggle out with lies, so I wont bother. The time has come to attack the central question: if someone had decided to kill Faith Usher, how did he manage it? He turned. Archie, get Mr Cramer.
No! Byne was on his feet. Damn you, after Ive spilled
I had lifted the receiver, but Byne was there, jostling and reaching. Wolfes voice, with a snap, turned him. Mr Byne! Dont squeal until youre hurt. Ive got you and I intend to keep you. Must I call Mr Panzer in?
He didnt have to. Dinky backed away a step, giving me elbow room to dial, but close enough, he thought, to pounce. Getting Inspector Cramer at twenty minutes past ten on a Saturday evening can be anything from quick and simple to practically impossible. That time I had luck. He was at Homicide on Twentieth Street , and after a short wait I had him, and Wolfe got on, and Cramer greeted him with a growl, and Wolfe said he would need three minutes.
Ill take all I can stand, Cramer said. What is it?
About Faith Usher. I am being pestered beyond endurance. Take yesterday. In the morning those four men insisted on seeing me. In the afternoon you barged in. In the evening Mr Goodwin and I were interrupted by a phone call summoning him to Mrs Robilottis house, and when he goes he finds Mr Skinner there, and he