Curtains for Three

"What was decided?"

"Nothing. That is, nothing definite. There was the question of the extent of the damage--how soon Mion would be able to sing again."

"What was your position?"

Grove's eyes tightened. "Didn't I say I was Mion's manager?"

"Certainly. I mean, what position did you take regarding the payment of damages?"

"I thought a preliminary payment of fifty thousand dollars should be made at once. Even if Mion's voice was soon all right he had already lost that and more. His South American tour had been canceled, and he had been unable to make a lot of records on contract, and then radio offers--"

"Nothing like fifty thousand dollars," Judge Arnold asserted aggressively. There was nothing wrong with his larynx, small as he was. "I showed figures--"

"To hell with your figures! Anybody can--"

"Please!" Wblfe rapped on his desk with a knuckle. "What was Mr. Mion's position?"

"The same as mine, of course." Grove was scowling -at Arnold as he spoke to Wolfe. "We had discussed it."

"Naturally." Wolfe's eyes went left. "How did you feel about it, Mr. James?"

"I think," Arnold broke in, "that I should speak for my client. You agree, Gif?"

"Go ahead," the baritone muttered.

^Bfc Curtains for Three 27

^Hprnold did, and took most of one of the three hours. ^Bps surprised that Wolfe didn't stop him, and finally ^Hped that he let him ramble on just to get additional Hnxnt for his long-standing opinion of lawyers. If ^Bphe got it. Arnold covered everything. He had a lot HR'say about tort-feasors, going back a couple of ^Hiparies, with emphasis on the mental state of a tort

ppOF. Another item he covered at length was proxi

Ipe cause. He got really worked up about proximate

Hose, but it was so involved that I lost track and

MfcHere and there, though, he made sense. At one

pant he said, "The idea of a preliminary payment, as Bpey called it, was clearly inadmissible. It is not rea

lenable to expect a man, even if he stipulates an obligation, to make a payment thereon until either the

petal amount of the obligation, or an exact method of poomputing it, has been agreed upon." II At another point he said, "The demand for so large la sum can in fact be properly characterized.as blaekffiinail. They knew that if the action went to trial, and if |we showed that my client's deed sprang from his poiowledge that his daughter had been wronged, a jury ffejspould not be likely to award damages. But they also | knew that we would be averse to making that defense."

, "Not his knowledge," Wolfe objected. "Merely his belief. His daughter says she had misinformed him."

"We could have showed knowledge," Arnold insisted.

I looked at Clara with my brows up. She was being contradicted flatly on the chronology of her lie and her truth, but either she and her father didn't get the implication of it or they didn't want to get started on that again.

28 Rex Stont

At another point Arnold said, "Even if my client's deed was tortious and damages would be collectible, the amount could not be agreed upon until the extent of the injury was known. We offered, without prejudice, twenty thousand dollars in full settlement, for a general release. They refused. They wanted a payment forthwith on account. We refused that on principle. In the end there was agreement on only one thing: that an effort should be made to arrive at the total amount of damage. Of course that was what Dr. Lloyd was there for. He was asked for a prognosis, and he stated that--but you don't need to take hearsay. He's here, and you can get it direct."

Wolfe nodded. "If you please, Doctor?"

I thought, My God, here we go again with another expert.

But Lloyd had mercy on us. He kept it down to our level and didn't take anything like an hour. Before he spoke he took another swallow from his third helping of bourbon and water with mint, which had smoothed out some of the lines on his handsome face and taken some of the worry from his eyes.

"I'll try to remember," he said slowly, "exactly what I told them. First I described the damage the blow had done. The thyroid and arytenoid cartilages on the left side had been severely injured, and to a lesser extent the cricoid." He smiled--a superior smile, but not supercilious. "I waited two weeks, using indicated treatment* thinking an operation might not be required, but it was. When I got inside I confess I was relieved; it wasnt as bad as I had feared. It was a simple operation, and he healed admirably. I wouldn't have been risking much that day if I had given assurance that his voice would be as good as ever in two months, three at the most, but the larynx is an ex Curtains for Three 29

ely delicate instrument, and a tenor like Mion's is rkable phenomenon, so I was cautious enough sly to say that I would be surprised and disap 1 if he wasn't ready, fully ready, for the opening tie next opera season, seven months from then. I that my hope and expectation were actually optimistic than that."

Lloyd pursed his lips. "That was it, I think. Never s, I welcomed the suggestion that my prognosis aid be reinforced by Rentner's. Apparently it ild be a major factor in the decision about the it to be paid in damages, and I didn't want the responsibility."

"Rentner? Who was he?" Wolfe asked. "Dr. Abraham Rentner of Mount Sinai," Lloyd rei, in the tone I would use if someone asked me who Robinson was. "I phoned him and made an ap Dintment for the following morning."

"linsisted on it," Rupert the Fat said importantly. l**Mion had a right to collect not sometime in the distant piiture, but then and there. They wouldn't pay unless a total was agreed on, and if we had to name a total I wanted to be damn sure it was enough. Don't forget that that day Mion couldn't sing a note."

"He wouldn't have been able even to let out a pianissimo for at least two months," Lloyd bore him out. "I gave that as the minimum."

"There seems," Judge Arnold interposed, "to be an implication that we opposed the suggestion that a second professional opinion be secured. I must protest--" "You did!" Grove squeaked. "We did not!" Gifford James barked. "We merely--"

The three of them went at it, snapping and snarling. It seemed to me that they might have saved

30 Rex Stout

their energy for the big issue, was anything coming to Mrs. Mipn and if so how much, but not those babies. Their main concern was to avoid the slightest risk of agreeing on anything at all. Wolfe patiently let them get where they were headed for--nowhere--and then invited a new voice in. He turned to Adele and spoke. "Miss Bosley, we haven't heard from you. Which side were you on?"

IV

Adele Bosley had been sitting taking it in, sipping occasionally at her rum collins--now her second one-- and looking, I thought, pretty damn intelligent. Though it was the middle of August, she was the only one of the six who had a really good tan. Her public relations with the sun were excellent.

She shook her head. "I wasn't on either side, Mr. Wolfe. My only interest was that of my employer, the Metropolitan Opera Association. Naturally we wanted it settled privately, without any scandal. I had no opinion whatever on whether--on the point at issue."

"And expressed none?"

"No. I merely urged them to get it settled if possible."

"Fair enough!" Clara James blurted. It was a sneer. "You might have helped my father a little, since he got your job for you. Or had you--"

"Be quiet, Clara!" James told her with authority.

But she ignored him and finished it. "Or had you already paid in full for that?"

I was shocked. Judge Arnold looked pained. Rupert the Fat giggled. Doc Lloyd took a gulp of bourbon and water.

Curtains for Three 31

In view of the mildly friendly attitude I was developing toward Adele I sort of hoped she would throw something at the slim and glistening Miss James, but all she did was appeal to the father. "Can't you handle the brat, Gif?"

Then, without waiting for an answer, she turned to Wolfe. "Miss James likes to use her imagination. What she implied is not on the record. Not anybody's record."