"No! Why should we? Have I got a million men on the squad to tail everybody on the premises every time there's a homicide? Nuts! I sent a man to get her and bring her here. She wasn't there. Downstairs they told him that she went out with a bag and suitcase ten minutes before he arrived."
"Any trail?"
"They're after it."
"Pfui." Wolfe looked around at us. "Well, here we are. Under the circumstances, the best thing we can do is to proceed without her."
"Go ahead," Cramer said grimly.
Wolfe leaned back and half closed his eyes, and Miss Tormic was possibly unaware that he was watching her like a hawk. "As I say, Madame Zorka phoned here at eleven twenty-one. She stated that shortly after the murder was discovered, when everyone was together up there in the office, she saw Miss Tormic put something into the pocket of Mr Goodwin's coat, which was hanging on a rack. She hadn't mentioned the incident to the police and her conscience was bothering her because she thinks murder is terrible. So she had decided to phone Mr Goodwin and tell him that she intended to inform the police at once-"
Cramer barked at Neya, "What did you put in Goodwin's pocket?"
She kept her eyes levelled at Wolfe and paid no attention to him.
Wolfe said in his tone of authority, "Just a moment. I arranged this meeting, and I'm handling it. Archie told Madame Zorka he would get Miss Tormic and go to see her. Of course he was stalling. He went to the hall to investigate, and there was something in the pocket of his overcoat which he had not put there. He didn't take it out. He left it there undisturbed, and it was decided to phone you and get Miss Tormic and Madame Zorka down here. That's all so far. Archie, go get the coat."
I went to the hall and removed it from the hanger and took it back and laid it on Wolfe's desk, with the guilty pocket uppermost.
Wolfe said, "Please, Mr Cramer, it seemed preferable that you should have the first look at it."
Even when he said that he didn't look at Cramer, but kept watching Neya. Cramer advanced and stuck his hand in the pocket and pulled the thing out. I was right at his elbow, beside myself with curiosity as to what it might be. He stared at the rolled-up bunch of canvas clenched in his fist, then put it down on the desk and unrolled it. The stains were now the colour of dark mahogany. As the little metal doo-dad was disclosed to our gaze I permitted myself an ejaculation of astonishment.
Wolfe said, "I suspected that. Your two missing objects, Mr Cramer, aren't they?"
Cramer said to me through his teeth, "So that's why you took a powder."
I gave him a cold, hard eye. "Guess again. You heard what Mr Wolfe said-"
He wheeled on Neya. "You!" he said with his jaw still clamped. "Let's have it." He grabbed the glove, with the col de mort nested in the palm, and stuck it under her nose. "Did you put that in Goodwin's pocket?"
She nodded her head. "Yes, I did."
That undamped his jaw. He goggled at her, and I guess I joined him. She was all right. Her hands were clasped tight on her lap and she sat stiff, but she certainly showed no signs of hysteria. Cramer opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, tramped to the door and pulled it open and bellowed:
"Stebbins! Come here!"
Purley came trotting, with a startled and embarrassed look on his big face because he was trying to chew and swallow at the same time. Cramer motioned to the chair he had been occupying and growled, "Sit down there and take your notebook."
"Wait a minute," Wolfe put in. "Are you charging Miss Tormic?"
"No." Cramer didn't look at him. "I'm asking her. Any objections? If so, I can take her downtown."
"None at all. I prefer it here. We're four to two."
"I don't care if you're a hundred to two." Cramer exhibited the objects to the sergeant. "Put down that I showed her this canvas gauntlet and this steel thing with a point and asked her if she put them in Goodwin's overcoat pocket, and she replied, 'Yes, I did.' " He confronted Neya Tormic. "Now. You state that you put these two things into Goodwin's overcoat pocket while it was hanging on a rack in the office of Miltan's studio not long after Ludlow's dead body was discovered. Is that right?"
"Yes."
"Did you kill Percy Ludlow?"
She said in a good clear voice, "You've asked me that before, and I said 'no.' "
Carla Lovchen blurted, "She can explain-"
"Shut up, please!-Do you still say no?"
"Yes."
"Did you take this steel thing off of the end of the йpйe after it had gone through Ludlow's chest?"
"No."
"Did you take it off the йpйe with this glove on your hand and then discover there was blood on the glove, and you would have to get rid of both of them?"
"No. I never-"
"When did you take this thing out of the cabinet in Miltan's office?"
"I didn't take it out."
"You put these two things in Goodwin's pocket, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"You had them then, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Where did you get them?"
"I found them in the pocket of my robe-the green robe I put on over my fencing costume."
"What do you mean, you found them?"
"I just mean that. Isn't that a good word-found?"
"Sure, it's a swell word. It's a beaut. How and when and why did you find them?"
"Just a moment, Mr Cramer." It was Wolfe, in a tone that meant business. "Miss Tormic is a stranger in this country. Either I advise her to say nothing whatever and I get a lawyer for her, or I will tell her one or two things myself-at this point."
"What do you want to tell her?"
"You will hear it." Wolfe wiggled a finger. "Miss Tormic. It is unlikely that you will be charged with murder as long as the alibi furnished by Mr Faber is unimpeached. That is, remains good. You can, however, be put under arrest as a material witness-a device to prevent you from running away-and then be released under a bond to appear when needed. You have been asked to give a circumstantial account of your connexion with the instrument of murder, which you have admitted was in your possession shortly after the crime was committed. Your words are being taken down by a stenographer. If you give that account, you will be committed to it as the truth, so it had better be the truth. If you refuse to give it, you will probably be arrested as a material witness. You must decide for yourself. Have I made it clear?"
"Yes," she said, and smiled at him. "I think I understand that all right. There's no reason why I shouldn't tell the truth; it's the only thing I can do-now." She shifted her eyes to Cramer. "It was in the office, when we were all in there, waiting for the police to come. I put my hand in the pocket of my robe and there was something in there. It's a big pocket, quite big. I started to pull it out to see what it was, but the feel of it told me it must be a fencing glove. I tried to think what to do. I knew it shouldn't be there-I mean I knew I hadn't put it there. For a minute I was scared, but I made myself think. Mr Ludlow had been killed in the fencing room where I had been fencing with him, and there I was with a wadded-up glove in my pocket, and if we were searched. " She upturned a palm. "I looked around for a place to put it and saw Mr Goodwin's coat. I knew it must be his, because the others were all upstairs in their lockers, and I knew he had come there anyway to get me out of trouble-so I went over to it and when I thought no one was looking I took it out of my pocket and put it in his."
"Very much obliged-"
"Shut up, Goodwin! Do you realize what you're trying to tell me, Miss Tormic?"
"I. I think I do."
"You're trying to tell me that you had a bulky thing like that in your pocket and didn't know it."
"So am I," I put in. "The same goes for me."
"I know damn well it does! Did I ask you to close your trap? What about it, Miss Tormic?"
She shook her head. "I don't know-of course I was excited. It's a loose robe and it's a big pocket. I had it on-you saw it."
"Yeah, I saw it. So you admit you concealed evidence of a crime?"