“I told you, Mr. Goodwin, that I’m not enjoying myself. I see you have finished your milk.”
“No more, thank you. So you don’t intend to come?”
“Certainly not.”
“What are you going to do, just refuse to say boo till you’re served with a summons and complaint?”
“I’m not refusing to say boo.” Her voice got sharp again. “I tell you, what I resent is the way they’ve gone about it. I know that nothing rational could be expected of Mrs. Hawthorne, but couldn’t Mrs. Dunn have come to see me, or asked me to come to see her, and talk it over? Couldn’t she have said simply that they regarded it as unjust and asked me to consider an adjustment? Couldn’t she have condescended to say that she and her sisters felt they had a natural right to some share in their brother’s estate?”
“But they didn’t. That wasn’t it. It’s Daisy that’s raising hell.”
“I don’t believe it. I think Glenn Prescott started it, and they helped him prevail upon Mrs. Hawthorne. They think the way to do it is to browbeat me. First they sent that Stauffer here, and then they hired a detective, Nero Wolfe, whose speciality is catching murderers. You might think I was a murderer myself. It won’t work. They may be perfectly correct in thinking they should have a slice of Noel’s — Mr. Hawthorne’s wealth, but if they get it now it will be because a court awards it to them.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “I’m with you. Absolutely. They’re a bunch of wolverines, Prescott is a two-faced shyster, and Stauffer is Ossie. But may I ask you a hypothetical question?”
“It would take more than a hypothetical question to make me budge, Mr. Goodwin.”
“I’ll ask it anyway. It’ll be good exercise for us and pass the time. Let’s say, of course just as a hypothesis, that Nero Wolfe is ruthless, unscrupulous, and quite cunning; that you get him sore by refusing even to go and discuss it with him; that he’s out to do you; that he gets the bright idea of basing the attack on the will, not on the ground that it’s unfair, but on the ground that it’s phony; that he is able—”
“So that’s it.” Miss Karn’s eyes were going through me. “That’s the new threat, is it? It’s no better than the other one, not even as good. Didn’t Mr. Prescott himself draw the will? Wasn’t it in his possession?”
“Sure it was. That’s the point. It’s your own idea that he’s conspiring against you, isn’t it? Since he drew the will and had it in his possession, isn’t he in an ideal position to support Wolfe’s contention that there has been a substitution and the will’s a phony?”
“No. He couldn’t. He is on record as accepting the will’s authenticity.”
“On record with who? Wolfe and the Hawthornes. His fellow conspirators.”
“But—” She chopped it off. Her eyes had narrowed and she sat motionless. In a moment she said slowly, “Mr. Prescott wouldn’t do that. After all, he is an attorney of high standing and reputation—”
“Your opinion of him seems to be going up.”
“My opinion of him is unimportant. But another thing, if he intended to play as dirty a trick as that, he could simply have not produced it. He could have destroyed it.”
“He had no such intention. The hypothesis is that Wolfe gets the idea and sells it to them. Didn’t I say it was hypothetical?”
“Yes. You said so.” Her eyes got narrower. “Is it? Or is this what Nero Wolfe has got ready for me?”
I lifted the shoulders. “You’ll have to ask him, Miss Karn. All I know is this, he wants you to come and discuss it with him. He has engaged to try to persuade you to agree to some sort of a settlement. I’ve never known anybody to make bingo by refusing to talk with Wolfe when he wants to talk.”
She looked through me for another ten seconds, and then abruptly got up without bothering to excuse herself, and left the room. I arose too and strolled over to the archway and stood there with an ear cocked, thinking I might hear some telephoning or something, but the apartment was too big or too soundproof, and I drew a blank. Fifteen minutes passed, and I had about decided on a tour of exploration, when the sound of footsteps came, and I got back to the middle of the room by the time she entered. She had changed to a blue linen thing, with a flowing wrap of the same, and had on a kind of a hat. She announced, merely imparting information:
“I’m not going because I’m scared. Not that that matters to you. Your job was to get me there. Come on.”
There was no question but that she got the gist of things with a minimum of effort and time. Down on the sidewalk I discovered that she was nice to walk with. At that juncture of affairs she had about as much use for me as a robin has for a black snake, but since we were walking together she let it be a partnership instead of a game of tag. Most girls, walking along a busy sidewalk with you, are either clingers, divers, or laggers, and I don’t know which is worst.
There was no conversation, even after we got to the roadster and climbed in and nosed it into the traffic. That suited me. The gambit I had used to pry her loose had been impromptu. It wasn’t going to get me any medal from the boss, and I had to figure out a way of conveying to him its purely hypothetical nature in a diplomatic manner. Not that he would object to being portrayed as ruthless, unscrupulous and cunning, but he certainly wouldn’t be enthusiastic about my giving her the impression that he was a boob. The thing to do was to deposit her in the front room and have a few words alone with him before introducing her. It would have been better to have the few words up in the plant rooms, but that was out because it was 6:15 when we arrived and he would already be back down in the office, waiting for us.
My scheme didn’t pan out. Three cars parked at the curb warned me to expect competition. I opened the door with my key and ushered her into the hall, and there was Fritz Brenner approaching to head us off.
“Company?” I asked.
He nodded. “The ladies and gentlemen who were here this afternoon. They have returned. They arrived at three minutes to six.”
“You don’t say.” I addressed Miss Karn: “This is unexpected and unfortunate. I guess you’ll have to wait a few minutes.” I moved toward the door to the front room. “In here it won’t be as cool as up at your place—”
She was moving too, and so swiftly that I couldn’t head her off. I suppose I should have been on my guard, but how could I have known she would make a beeline for the office door, spotting it by instinct, and bust on through? I bounced after her, but by the time I reached the threshold she was already inside and in the middle of them. I put on the brakes and let it come.
They were all there, the whole gang except the widow with the veil. The Hawthorne girls were merely regarding the intruder with surprise, but there was a little squeal from Sara Dunn and a pair of startled exclamations from Osric Stauffer and Glenn Prescott. The intruder, paying no attention to any of them, advanced clear to the desk, faced Wolfe, and said calmly:
“You’re Nero Wolfe? I’m Naomi Karn. I’m told you want to discuss something with me.”
June muttered, “Good Lord.”
May craned her neck for a better look.
April laughed out loud and said energetically, “Curtain. Absolutely curtain.”
Wolfe had his lips pursed. Before he got them open for words, Miss Karn whirled to Glenn Prescott: