“Kearns is at his home. He said he would be if we wanted him again. Judith Bram is here. I’ll bring her along, and I’ll send for Kearns. Now.”
“No, people have to eat. Will you lunch with us? And Miss Holt?”
“I will not. Did you ever skip a meal in your life?”
“Many times when I was younger, by necessity. Then I suggest that you arrive with Miss Holt at two o’clock, and arrange for Miss Bram and Mr. Kearns to come at two-thirty. Will that be convenient?”
“By God. Convenient!”
A click. He was off. We hung up. I said, “Probably Irving eats too.”
“Yes. Bring him.”
I went and got him. He marched to Wolfe’s desk and demanded, “Well?”
Wolfe’s head slanted back. “I forgot, sir, when I said possibly within the hour, that lunch would interfere. It will be a little longer. I have spoken with Inspector Cramer, and he will arrive with Miss Holt at two o’clock. We shall expect you and your wife to join us at two-thirty.”
His jaw was working. “Miss Holt will be here?”
“Yes.”
“Why my wife?”
“Because she has something to contribute. As you know, she had an appointment with Miss Arden which Miss Arden did not keep. That will be germane.”
“Germane to what?”
“To our discussion.”
“I don’t want a discussion. I certainly don’t want one with a police inspector. I told you what I want.”
“And you’ll get it, sir, but the method and manner are in my discretion. I give you my assurance without qualification that I am acting solely in the interest of Miss Holt, that I expect to free her of any suspicion of complicity in the murder of Phoebe Arden, and that I shall not disclose what you have told me of your movements last evening without your prior permission. Confound it, do I owe you anything?”
“No.” His jaw was still working. “I’d rather not bring my wife.”
“We’ll need her. If you prefer, I’ll arrange for Inspector Cramer to send for her.”
“No.” He breathed. He looked at me and back at Wolfe. “All right. We’ll be here.” He wheeled and went.
X
Five of the yellow chairs were in place facing Wolfe’s desk, three in front and two behind, and Mira was in the one nearest to Cramer. I had intended the one at my end for her, but Cramer had vetoed it, and since she was his prisoner I hadn’t insisted. Of course he was in the red leather chair, and the uninvited guest he had brought along, Sergeant Purley Stebbins, was seated at his right, with his broad, burly shoulders touching the wall.
Mira looked fine, considering. Her eyes were a little heavy and the lids were swollen, and her jacket could have stood washing and ironing, and the corners of her mouth pointed down, but I thought she looked fine. Wolfe, seated behind his desk, was glowering at her, but the glower wasn’t meant for her. It was merely that he had had to tell Fritz to advance the lunch hour fifteen minutes, and then had had to hurry through the corn fritters and sausage cakes and wild-thyme honey from Greece and cheese and blackberry pie with not enough time to enjoy it properly.
“Was it bad?” he asked her.
“Not too bad,” she said. “I didn’t get too much sleep. The worst was when the morning passed and I didn’t hear from you.” Her head turned. “Or you, Mr. Goodwin.”
I nodded. “I was busy earning my fee. I wasn’t worried about you because you had promised you wouldn’t forget method three.”
“I kept my promise.”
“I know you did. I’ll buy you a drink any time you’re thirsty.”
“Get on,” Cramer growled.
“Have you been told,” Wolfe asked her, “that others will join us shortly?”
“No,” she said. “Here? Who?”
“Miss Bram, Mr. Kearns, and Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Irving.”
Her eyes widened. “Why Mr. and Mrs. Irving?”
“That will appear after they arrive. I thought you should know that they’re coming. They’ll soon be here, and we have two points to cover. First I need a question answered. When you drove away from Ferrell Street last evening, and meandered in search of a place to dispose of the corpse — don’t interrupt me — and finally drove here, did you at any time suspect that you were being followed by another car?”
Her mouth was hanging open. “But you—” she stammered. Her head jerked to me. “Did you know he was — what good did it do to keep my promise?”
“A lot,” I told her. “Yes, I knew he was. Everything is under control. Believe me. I would rather lose an arm than lose the right to ask you to promise me something. We know what we’re doing. Shall I repeat the question?”
“But—”
“No buts. Leave it to us. Shall I repeat the question?”
“Yes.”
I did so, omitting the “don’t interrupt me.”
“No,” she said.
“Proceed,” Wolfe told me.
I knew it would have been better to have her closer. She was six yards away. “This one is more complicated and more important. During that drive, from Ferrell Street to here, are you certain that another car was not following you? There are various ways of making sure of that. Did you use any of them?”
“No. I never thought of that. I was looking for a place—”
“I know you were. All we want is this: if I told you that a car was following you, all the way, what would you say?”
“I would want to know who it was.”
I wanted to go and pat her on the head, but it might have been misconstrued. “Okay,” I said. “That’s one point. The other one is simple. Tell Inspector Cramer what you told us last night, including the phone call to Gilbert Irving to tell him that you were going to drive Judy’s cab.” I looked at my wrist. “You only have fifteen minutes, so reel it off.”
“I won’t,” she said. “Not until you tell me why you’re doing this.”
“Then I’ll tell him. You’ll know why after the others get here. I’ll tell you this: someone tried to frame you for murder and this is payday. Anyway there’s not much left, now that the inspector knows you drove the cab here with the corpse in it. Would we have spilled that if we didn’t have a good hold? Go ahead.”
Wolfe put in, “Don’t interrupt with questions, Mr. Cramer. They can wait. Yes, Miss Holt?”
She still didn’t like it, not a bit, but she delivered, starting with Sunday evening. She left gaps. She didn’t say that Judy had given her permission to take the cab, merely that she had taken it, and she didn’t mention the phone call to Irving; but since I had already mentioned it that didn’t matter. The main thing was what had happened after she got to Ferrell Street with the cab, and she covered that completely; and when she got to where she and I had sat on the stoop and talked, Cramer began cutting in with questions. I will not say that he was more interested in tagging me for obstructing justice than he was in solving a murder case, since I don’t like to brag, but it sounded like it. He was firing away at her, and Sergeant Stebbins was scrawling in his notebook, when the doorbell rang and I went to answer it. It was Waldo Kearns. When I took him to the office he went to Mira, without so much as a glance for the three men, and put out a hand.
“My dear wife,” he said.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mira said.
I can’t report whether he handled that as well as he had handled the uppercut by Irving because the bell rang again and I had to leave them, to admit Judy Bram. She had an escort, a Homicide dick I only knew by sight, and he thought he was going to enter with her and I didn’t, and while we were discussing it she slipped in and left it to us. We were still chatting when a taxi stopped out front and Mr. and Mrs. Irving got out and headed for the steps. The dick had to give them room to pass, and I was able to shut the door on him without flattening his nose. Since it was quite possible that Irving’s appearance would start something I entered the office on their heels.