“Wait a minute!” Colvin commanded. “I’m not through with you! Is your statement absolutely complete?”
Wolfe, having taken a step, halted and turned his head. “Yes.”
“You included a notable incident. That’s what you called it. Was there any other notable incident that you didn’t mention?”
“No. None that I know about.”
“Then you don’t call it notable that you came here to cook trout for Ambassador Kelefy — that’s what you came for — and when they brought in their creels today and you and the cook cleaned the trout, you did not include the trout in Ambassador Kelefy’s creel — the trout he had caught, himself? You don’t call that notable?”
Wolfe shrugged. “Not especially.”
“Well, I do.” Colvin was bearing down. “The cook, Samek, says that the creels were tagged with the names. You selected the fish from them. Ferris’s had nine, and you used six. Papps’s had seven, and you used five. Ambassador Kelefy’s had eight, all of good size, and you didn’t use one of them. They were still there in the kitchen and Samek showed them to me. Nothing wrong with them as far as I could see. Do you deny this?”
“Oh, no.” I caught a little gleam in Wolfe’s eye. “But will you tell me how it relates to the crime you’re investigating?”
“I don’t know. But I call it a notable incident, and you didn’t mention it.” Colvin’s head moved. “Ambassador Kelefy, did you know that Wolfe didn’t cook any of the fish you caught?”
“No, Mr. Colvin, I didn’t. This is rather a surprise.”
“Do you know of any reason for it?”
“I’m afraid not.” Kelefy swiveled his head for a glance at Wolfe. “No doubt Mr. Wolfe can supply one.”
“He certainly can... What about it, Wolfe? Why?”
Wolfe shook his head. “Relate it to the murder, Mr. Colvin. I shouldn’t withhold evidence, of course, but I’m not; the trout are there; scrutinize them, send them to the nearest laboratory for full analysis. I resent your manners and your methods. Only a witling would call a man with my conceit a liar... Come, Archie.”
I can’t say how it would have developed if there hadn’t been a diversion. As Wolfe made for the door to the hall with me at his heels, the sheriff, the lieutenant, and the other trooper came trotting across to head us off, and they succeeded, since Wolfe had neither the build nor the temperament to make a dash for it. But only two of them blocked the doorway, because, as they came, the phone rang and the lieutenant changed course to go to the table and answer it.
After a word he turned to say to the D.A., “For you, Mr. Colvin. Attorney General Jessel.”
Colvin went to get it, leaving us stuck in tableaux. The conversation wasn’t long, and he had the short end of it.
When he hung up he turned and said, “That was Mr. Herman Jessel, Attorney General of the State of New York. I phoned him just before calling you together here and described the situation. He is leaving Albany immediately to come here, and wants me to postpone further questioning of you ladies and gentlemen until he arrives. That will probably be around 8 o’clock. Meanwhile, you are requested to remain inside the lodge here or on the veranda...”
Wolfe sat in the big armchair in his room, leaning back, his eyes closed, his lips compressed. I stood at a window, looking out. Wolfe’s voice sounded behind me: “What time is it?”
“Twenty after five.” I turned.
“Where would we be if we had left at 2 o’clock?”
“On Route 22, four miles south of Hoosick Falls.”
“Bosh. You can’t know that.”
“That’s what I do know. What I don’t know is why you didn’t let the Ambassador eat his trout.”
“Thirty-four were caught. I cooked twenty. That’s all.”
“Okay, save it. What I don’t know won’t hurt me. I’ll tell you what I think. I think the guy that sent us here to kill Leeson was sending you messages by putting them inside trout and tossing the trout in the river, and some of them were in the ones Kelefy caught, and you had to wait for a chance to get them out when the cook wasn’t looking, and when—”
There was a knock at the door and I went and opened it, and O. V. Bragan, our host, stepped in. No manners. When I shut the door and turned he was already across to Wolfe and talking:
“I want to ask you about something.”
Wolfe opened his eyes. “Yes, Mr. Bragan? Don’t stand on ceremony. Indeed, don’t stand at all. Looking up at people disconcerts me. Archie?”
I moved a chair up for the burly six-footer, expecting no thanks, and getting none. But since Wolfe had taken a crack at him about ceremony I thought I might as well too, and told him not to mention it. He didn’t hear me.
His cold and sharp gray eyes were leveled at Wolfe. “I like the way you handled Colvin,” he stated.
Wolfe grunted. “I didn’t. I want to go home. When I talk with a man who is in a position to give me something I want, and I don’t get it, I have blundered. I should have toadied him. Vanity comes high.”
“He’s a fool.”
“I don’t agree.” Obviously, Wolfe was in no mood to agree with anyone or anything. “I thought he did moderately well. His stand with Mr. Ferris and you was almost intrepid.”
“Bah! He’s a fool. The idea that anyone here would deliberately murder Leeson is so absurd that only a fool would take it seriously.”
“Not as absurd as the idea that a poacher, with a club from your woodpile as a cane, was struck with the fancy of using it as a deadly weapon. Discovered, poachers don’t kill; they run.”
“All right, it wasn’t a poacher.” Bragan was brusque. “And it wasn’t anyone here. But heaven knows what this is going to mean to my plans. If it isn’t cleared up in a hurry, anything can happen. With Leeson murdered here at my lodge, the State Department could decide to freeze me out, and not only that — Ambassador Kelefy could decide he’d rather not deal with me, and that would be worse.”
He hit his chair arm with a fist. “It has got to be cleaned up in a hurry! And it won’t be, the way they’re going at it. I know your reputation, Wolfe, and I want you to find out who killed Leeson.”
“Sitting here?” Wolfe was bored. “Confined to the lodge and veranda? Another absurd idea.”
“You wouldn’t be. Jessel, the attorney general, will be here in a couple of hours. After I talk with him and he reads your statement, and questions you if he wants to, he’ll let you go. I’ve got a plane at a landing field twelve miles from here, and you and Goodwin will fly to Washington and get busy. I’ll give you some names of people there that can help, and I’ll phone them from here. The way it looks to me, somebody that wanted to finish Leeson decided to do it here. You find him and pin it on him, and quick. I’m not telling you how; that’s your job. Well?”
“No,” Wolfe said bluntly.
“Why not?”
“I am responsible for my decisions, Mr. Bragan, but to myself, not to you. However, I am your guest. I would ride in an airplane only in desperation, and I am not desperate. Again, I want to go home, and Washington is not my home. Again, even if your assumption regarding the murder were correct, it might take so long to find him and expose him that your plans would be beyond salvage. There is a fourth reason even more cogent than those, but I’m not prepared to disclose it.”
“What is it?”
“No, sir. I owe you the decent courtesy of a guest, Mr. Bragan, but that’s all, and I decline the job... Archie, someone at the door.”
I was on my way to answer the knock. It was James Arthur Ferris. Bragan was sitting with his back to the door. When Ferris got far enough to see who it was, he stopped and blurted, “You here, Bragan? Good.”