Where There's a Will

Wolfe frowned. "I'm afraid your mind isn't working very well, Miss Hawthorne. No wonder, with the jolts you've had. You say you believe-- when did your brother tell you he was leaving a million to your fund?" "He mentioned it two or three times. A year ago last winter he informed me he intended to make it a million instead of half that amount. Last summer he told me he had done so." "The summer of 193 8 ?" "Yes." "Well. You say you are convinced he wasn't deceiving you. That he had done what he said. But the will which Mr. Prescott presents as authentic is dated March 7th, 1958, and it was after that date that your brother told you he had changed it to a million for your fund. Therefore you are charging Mr. Prescott with fraud." WHERE THERE^S A WILL 89 "Not at all," she declared impatiently. "If I had to base my contention on a supposition as improbable as that, I'd abandon it. I know Glenn Prescott. He's a fairly shrewd and capable Wall Street lawyer, with the natural flexibility in ethics and morals that is a functional necessity in his environment, but he totally lacks the daring and imagination that are required for banditry in the grand manner. I would be as likely to write a great epic poem as he would be to steal three million dollars by substituting a forgery for my brother's will. I suppose that's what you meant--that about his splitting with Miss Karn." "Roughly, yes. Some degree of forgery. Not necessarily counterfeiting signatures. Have you seen the document?" "Yes." "Is it all on one page?" "No. Two." "Typewritten, of course?" "Yes." "Are any of the main provisions on page two?" She frowned. "I don't-- Wait. Yes, I do. Most of the typed matter is on page one. A little on page two, and of course the signatures--my brother's and the witnesses'." "Then it might not have been necessary to attempt the hazardous process of forging signatures. FR1;90 WHERE THERE'S A WILL But if you rule out fraud on. the part of Prescott, on what ground can you contend--" "I was coming to it. That's what I came to tell you. I think it happened like this. Noel did have Prescott draw that will for him, just as it is now, and keep it in his office vault. But at the same time, or rather a little later, perhaps the next day, Noel superseded it by drawing another will, himself, without Prescott's knowledge, which disposed of his fortune as he did in fact desire to dispose of it. The question is, where is the last will? The only valid one?" Wolfe grunted. "There seems to be a prior question. Why did your brother have Mr. Prescott draw a will which he intended so promptly to supersede? So much trouble." May shook her head. "Not much, since he had to. Prescott himself furnished the hint for that. We asked him last night if Miss Karn knew about the will, and he said yes. He said that the day after it was drawn Miss Karn saw the will and read it through. She went to Prescott's office--the appointment was made by Noel, and Noel instructed Prescott to show her the will." "I see," Wolfe murmured. "So that answers your question." A faint, almost imperceptible tinge of color appeared in the college president's cheeks. "I don't pretend to know FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 91 anything about sex and what it does to people. There is very little else about men and women that I don't understand fairly well, but I confess that sex is beyond me. It missed me, or perhaps I dodged it. I have my college, my achievement, my career, I have myself. It is only by a rational process, not by any emotional comprehension, that it becomes intelligible to me that my brother descended to such trickery. He wished to keep his word to me and to fulfill his obligations to others. But he had to have Miss Karn, and he could keep her only by showing her that if he died she would get her--reward. I admit that I am incapable of understanding why he had to have Miss Karn specifically, with so fierce a necessity, but there are thousands of experts, from Shakespeare to Faith Baldwin, to back me up." Wolfe nodded. "We won't quarrel about that. It's a neat theory you've built up. Is it yours exclusively?'*

"I contrived it. My sisters incline to it. Mr. Prescott weakly contends that Noel was above such a trick, but I think he secretly agrees with me. I suspect he knows as little about sex as I do. He has never married." "Are you here as a representative of the group who hired me to negotiate with Miss Karn?" "Yes. That is, my sisters--not my sister-in-law, Daisy. She won't talk sense. The fact is, they're in FR1;92 WHERE THERE'S A WILL such a state about the--development regarding my brother's death--that the will doesn't matter to them. It does to me. My brother is dead. We have buried him. He desired and intended that in the unhappy event of his death, my college should benefit. I am going to see to it that his intention is fulfilled. With my sisters' acquiescence--we want you to postpone the negotiations with Miss Karn--" "I have offered to let her keep two hundred thousand dollars, the remainder to be divided by Mrs. Hawthorne and the rest of you." May gawked at him. "You don't mean she accepted that offer?" "No. But she may--tomorrow, any time. She's scared." "What's she scared about?" "Murder. A murder investigation is a whirlpool of menace. Miss Hawthorne. I confess it doesn't seem to have frightened you very much." "I'm tough. The Hawthorne girls are all tough. But damn it, do you mean Miss Karn murdered Noel herself?" She was still gawking. "My mind was so--that never occurred to me!" "I have no idea who murdered your brother. Let's stick to the will. I was only explaining Miss Karn's fright. In spite of your interesting theory, and granting that it's sound and even correct, if Miss FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 95 Karn accepts my offer I shall execute an agreement and have her sign it, and I shall advise you people to sign it also." "She won't accept it." "I speak of a contingency." "Which we'll meet if it arises." She matched his crispness. "What I came here for, and it's taken me long enough to get to it, was to ask you to find my brother's will. The last one, the real one. If it gives anything to Miss Karn, she's welcome to it." Wolfe shook his head. "I was afraid you were going to say that. I'm not a ferret, madam. I can't undertake it." That started a wrangle. It lasted for a quarter of an hour, and got nowhere. Wolfe's position was that it would be farcical for him to try such a job, since he didn't have access to the various buildings, offices, dwellings, rooms and enclosures in which Noel Hawthorne might have deposited the will, that to gain such access through the authority of the executor of the estate, the Cosmopolitan Trust Company, would be difficult if not impossible, and that if there was such a will it would be found in good time by the persons who went through the dead man's papers. May contended that detectives were supposed to find things and that he was a detective.