"Nor your questions either. However, I'll answer them. I tried for an hour to communicate with Mr. Dunn. As you must know, he is in Washington appearing before a Senate committee. I WHERE THERE^S A WILL 61 couldn't get to him. Meanwhile I learned that Mrs. Dunn and her sisters had come to the office of Nero Wolfe. I have not broadcasted this thing. Nothing would please me better than not to have to broadcast it at all. I am a political opponent, a bitter opponent, of Secretary Dunn and the administration he adorns, but by God, I don't fight with stink bombs and you ought to know it, whether Miss May Hawthorne does or not. Your insinuation that I came after Mrs. Dunn because I shied at tackling Dunn himself is unwarranted and offensive. Mr. Regan came and laid evidence before me and asked my help. Before the evidence can be interpreted with certainty, information is needed from Mrs. Dunn and probably others. I request her, and others if necessary, to co-operate with me in the performance of my duty." Prescott, looking utterly unimpressed, demanded, "What's the evidence?" "I don't know. I can't know until I get the information I want. I merely need some facts. Do you think I'm going to try any dodges with you sitting here?" Skinner turned to "Wolfe. "If you'd like us to move out of your office, perhaps--" Wolfe shook his head. "Your business is more urgent than mine, sir. Archie, Fritz, more chairs." Fritz and I brought some from the front room. FR1;62 WHERE THERE'S A WILL Naomi Karn had faded into the background, over by the bookshelves, and I gave her one there. She looked, I thought, pasty. The three youngsters moved to make room, Andrew Dunn closer to his mother, the others to the rear. Inspector Cramer went to the hall and came in again, accompanied by my old pal Sergeant Purley Stebbins, who ignored my greeting as he grabbed a chair from me, planted himself on it at a corner of my desk, and got out a notebook and pencil. My toe unfortunately rubbed against his shin as I got back to my own chair. Prescott said to Nero Wolfe, "Your--" He thumbed at me. "This man takes shorthand?" "Yes. Archie, your notebook, please." I leered at Purley and got it out in time to catch Skinner's opening: "All I want, Mrs. Dunn, is some facts. I earnestly desire to make it as little painful as possible. There was a gathering of people at your country home in Rockland County last Tuesday, July llth, was there not?" "Yes." June turned to Prescott. "I want to say, Glenn, that I regard it as quite likely that May is right about this being a political ambush." "So do I." "Then should I answer this gentleman?" "Yes," said Prescott grimly. "If you refuse to it FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 65 will be worse. I'm here and if he--I can stop you. We'll have a record of it." "I wish John was here. I'd like to telephone him." "I doubt if you could get him. Trust me for this, June. And don't forget your son is here. He's a lawyer too, you know. What's your advice, Andy?" The kid patted his mother on the shoulder and said in a husky voice meant to be reassuring, "Go ahead. Mom. If he tries to get slick--" "I won't," said Skinner brusquely. "What was the gathering, Mrs. Dunn?" "It was to celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary." June met his eye and spoke clearly and composedly. "That's why my brother was there. I mean by that, my husband and my brother had not been together for some time. We were all aware of the slander that was being whispered about the loan to Argentina, and they thought it best not to give it color--" "That isn't necessary, June," Prescott put in. "If I were you I'd let backgrounds alone and stick to facts." "Yes, please do," Skinner agreed. "Who was present?"
"My husband. I. Our son, Andrew. My daughter, Sara--no, Sara got there after--afterwards, with Mr. Prescott. My sister May and my sister April. My brother and his wife. Mr. Stauffer, Osric 64 WHERE THERE'S A WILL Stauffer. It was a family party, but Mr. Stauffer came to give my brother a business message and was invited to stay. That's all." "Excuse me. I was there." June turned to the voice. "Oh, so you were, Celia. I beg your pardon. Miss Celia Fleet, my sister April's secretary." "Is that all, Mrs. Dunn?" "Yes." "Servants?" "Only a man and wife, country people. She cooks and he works outdoors. It is a modest place and we live on a modest scale." "Their names, please?" "I know *em," said Mr. Regan. "Good. Now, Mrs. Dunn, let's do it this way. You know, of course, that Dr. Gyger, the medical examiner of Rockland County, and Mr. Bryant, the sheriff, were summoned there and came. They asked some questions and took notes, and I have read those notes. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon your brother took a shotgun and went to the fields to shoot crows. Is that right?" "No. He went to shoot a hawk." "But I understand he shot two crows." "Maybe he did, but he went to shoot a hawk. He discussed it with my husband, and that's what he went to do." WHERE THERE'S A WILL 65 "Very well. He did shoot two crows. The shots were heard at the house, weren't they?" "Yes." "And your brother did not return. At a quarter to six your son, Andrew, and a young woman� you, I believe, Miss Fleet�emerging from a wood, stumbled upon his body. Half his head had been blown off by the shotgun, which was lying near by. Your son remained there and Miss Fleet went to the house, the other side of the woods some four hundred yards distant, to notify Mr. Dunn. Mr. Dunn himself telephoned to New City. Sheriff Bryant, with a deputy, arrived at the scene at 6:35, and Dr. Gyger a few minutes later. They came to the conclusion that Hawthorne had tripped on a, briar�the body lay in a patch of briars�or that the gun's trigger had caught on a briar�at any rate, that the gun had been accidentally discharged." "They agreed on that, and their official reports severally so stated," Mr. Regan put in. "If it hadn't been for Lon Chambers it would have stayed that way." "Who is Lon Chambers?" Prescott inquired. Skinner told him: "The deputy sheriff." His glance shot over June's shoulder at her son. "You're Andrew Dunn, aren't you?" The young man said he was. FR1;66 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "It was you--you and Miss Fleet--who discovered Hawthorne's body?" "It was." "You decided at once that he was dead?" "Of course. It was obvious." "You stayed there and" sent Miss Fleet to the house to notify your father?" ^, , "She offered to go. She was damn brave." The Idd's eyes were truculent and contemptuous as he met the other's gaze, and also his voice. "I told all this to the sheriff and medical examiner, and, as you say, they made notes. Have you read them?" "I have. Do you object to telling me about it, Mr. Dunn?" "No. Go ahead:-' "Thank you. Before Miss Fleet departed for the house, did you touch or move either the body or the gun?" "No. She left almost at once." Skinner's eyes circled. "Did you touch either the body or the gun before you left. Miss Fleet?" Celia displayed the state of her nerves by saying much louder and more explosively than was necessary, "Of course not!" "Did you, Mr. Dunn, touch or move either the body or the gun after Miss Fleet left?" "No." "How long were you there alone?" WHERE THERE^S A WILL 67 "About fifteen minutes." "Who came?" "First my father. He had phoned New City. Stauffer was with him. Then Titus Ames, the man who works there. That was all until the sheriff arrived."