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Miss Hatten paid the rent herself." e," Cramer conceded, "she paid it all right, tot (did she get it from? No visible means of support : wasn't visible, and three good men spent a (trying to start a trail, and one of them is still at was no doubt about its being that kind of a we did get that far. She had only been "living two months, and when we found out how well who paid for it had kept himself covered, as a drum, we decided that maybe he had in sner there just for the purpose. That was why we it all we had. Another reason was that the started hinting that we knew who he was and n was such a big shot we were sitting on the lid." ner shifted his cigar one tooth over to the left. pond of thing used to get me sore, but what the newspapers that's just routine. Big shot or s didn't need us to do any covering for him--he i too good a job himself. Now, if we're to take this Cynthia Brown gave it to Goodwill, it have been the man who paid the rent and it That makes & pie. I would hate to tell you [think of the feet that Goodwin sat there in your I was told right here on these premises and all

47* Bex Stoat

he did was go upstairs and watch te see if anybody squeezed a flowerpot!"

-,.f!K^^^]ri4bM>*^Iv^'dlrib^^ "Not that he wo� �n the premises, that he had been. Also I was taking it with salt. Abo she was saving specifications for Mr. Wotfe. Atee--"

"Also I know you. How many of those two hundred and nineteen people were men?" �T sroiaM say a little over half." Then how do you like it?" . ' ^hateA" / :- ...:.;. -.. . ' ., .-.-. Wolfe grunted, "Judging from your attitude, Mr. Cramer, something that has occurred to me has not weoafedtoy�t" -'- --:. ;-;.:,. - '.� �iiatura%t%Ki're a genius. What is ft?"

Something that Mr. Goodwin told us. I want to con^teita^tte."

**We could consider it together." ^?5Latef.-v.'I^OBe:--peo|ile-,i� tiie front room are my gue^s. Can't you dispose of them?"

"One of your guests," Cramer rasped, "was a beaut, all right." He spoke to the dick by the door. "Bring in that woman--what's her name? Carlisle."

..'"....... '.*'... ".- : 'Iv". .. -". -- .

Mrs. Homer N. Carlisle came in with all her belongings: her caracul coat, her gaily colored scarf, and her husband. Perhaps I should say that her husband brought her. As soon as he was through the door he strode across to the dining table and delivered a harangue. I don't suppose Cramer had heard that speech, with variations, more titan a thousand (rases. This time it was pretty offensive. Solid and broad-shouldered,

Curtains for Three 173

Carlisle looked the part His sharp dark eyes and his long gorilla-like arms were good for . At the first opening Gramer, controlling him1 he was sorry ami asked them to sit down. Carlisle did. Mr. Carlisle didn't. We're nearly two hoars late now," he stated. "I * you have your duty to perform, but citizens have rights left, thank God. Our presence here is adventitious." I would have been impressed by ventitious if he hadn't had so much time to think "I warn you that if my name is published in with this miserable affair, a murder in the sxrf a private detective, I'll make trouble. I'm in a t to. Why should it be? Why should we be de' What if we had left five of ten minutes earlier, idid?" _"v.; ;" ; ; ; .-':'' ; , . " t's not quite logical^" Cramer objected, hynotr l : i matter when you left it would''have been the s if your wife had acted the same. She discovered

"$", : . ;; -";.: .

ly accident!"

ay I say something, Homer?" the wife put in. ; depends on what you say." )h�" Cramer said significantly. v : �

; do you mean, oh?" Carlisle demanded, mean that I sent for your wife, not you, but you ^with her, and that tells me why^Jfow wanted to \Mi that she wasn't indiscreet."

at the hell has she got to be indiscreet about?" don't know. Apparently you do. If she hasn't, it you sit down and relax while I ask her a few

ons?"- ...,. ; .;- , ;-.,-.. .'

, sir," Wolfe advised him. "You came in

174 ftex Stoat

here angry, and you blundered. An angry man is a

It was a struggle for the executive vice-president, but he made it. He damped his Jaws and sat. Cramer went to the wife. :

"You wanted to say something, Mrs. Carlisle?"

"Only that I'm sorry." Her bony hands, the fingers twined, were on the table before her. "For the trouble I've caused."

"I wouldn't say you caused it exactly--except for yourself and your husband." Cramer was mild. The woman was dead, whether you went in there or not. Jfeut, if only as a matter of form, it was essential for me to see you, since you discovered the body. That's all there is to it as tax as I know. There's no question of your being involved mere than that."

"Howthe hell couldthere be?" Carlisle blurted.

Cramer ^rK�ed him. "Goodwin here saw .you standing in the hall not more than two minutes, probably less, prior to the moment you screamed and ran out of the office. How long had you then been downstairs?"

"We had just come down. I was waiting for my husband to get his things."

"Had you been downstairs before that?"

"No--only when we came in."

"What time did you arrive?"

*A>-&mm&three, I think-''

TVen^r past three," the husband put in.

"Were yon and your husband together all the time? CoBtinuousty?^

; *Wcourse. Welt--yon know how it i�-^he would want to look longer at something, and I would move on aHttte-�

"Certainly we were," Carlisle said irritably. "You can see why I made that remark about it depending on

Curtains for Three ITS

, she said. She has a habit of being vague. This is ito be vague." am not actually vague," she protested with no ; not to her husband but to Cramer. "It's just that is relative. There would be no presence if t were no absence. There would be no innocence if were no sin. Nothing can be cut off sharp from ; else. Who would have thought my wish to see Wolfe's office would link me with a horrible

God!" Carlisle exploded. "Hear that? Link. hy did you want to see Wolfe's office?" Cramer

hy, to see the globe." awked at her. I had supposed that naturally she say it was curiosity about the office of a great oils detective. Apparently Cramer reacted the las me. "The globe?" he demanded. STes, I had read about it and I wanted to see how it , I thought a globe that size, three feet in diame

: be fantastic in an ordinary room--Oh!" ^iwhat?" ; didn't see it!"

ler nodded. "You saw something else instead, way, I forgot to ask, did you know her? Had ever seen her before?"

i mean--her?" STes. Her name was Cynthia Brown."^ .

had never known her or seen her or heard of 1 the husband declared. ,-. .

. you, Mrs. Carlisle?"

*o." ---.-'- . ----- . course she came as the guest of a Mrs. Orwin;

Ift Rex Stoat .

she wasn't a member of this flower club. Are you a member?"

"Myhusband is."

"We both are," Carlisle stated. *Vague again. It's a joint membership. In my greenhouse at my country home I have over four thousand plants, including several hundred orchids." He looked at his wrist watch. "Isn't this about enough?" ;

"Plenty," Cramer conceded, "Thank you, both of you. We won't bother you again unless we have to. Levy, pass them put,"

Mrs. Carlisle got to her feet and moved off, but halfway to the door she turned. "I don?t suppose-- would it be possible for me to look at the globe now? Justapeek?"

"For God's sake!" Her husband took her by the arjm, "Come on. Come on!" ,

When the door had closed behind them Cramer glared at me and then at Wolfe. "This is sure a sweet one," he said grimly. "Say it's within the range of possibility that Carlisle is it, and the way it stands right now, why not? So we look into him. We check back on him for six months, and try doing it without getting roars out of him--a man like that, in his position. However, it can be done--by three or four men in two or threes we^ksl Multiply that by what? How many men .werehere?*'" u<:' . "'-'"*' ' " :