Over My Dead Body

She shrugged.

Cramer barked, "We can prove that; and that's not all we can prove! After those clothes were delivered to you this morning, you put them on and left the hotel, and you were followed."

"Zat ees not true." She set her teeth on her lower lip for a moment, and then went on: "For one sing, if you had me followed, you would know where I was and you would not wait so late to get me and bring me here. For anozzer sing, I did not leave zee hotel, not once until zee men came-"

"That won't get you anywhere! Now, look here-"

"Please, Mr Cramer?" Wolfe opened his eyes. "If you don't mind? Remember what you said, that you'd be no better off if you had stood across the street yourself and seen her go in with him and emerge without him. There's no point in ru

"Have you?" the inspector demanded.

"I don't know, but I'd like to find out."

Cramer pulled out a cigar and stuck it between his teeth. "Go ahead."

Wolfe cleared his throat and focused on her. "Madame Zorka-is that your name?"

"Of course eet ees."

"I know it's the name on your letterheads and in the telephone book. But were you christened Zorka?"

"Eet ees my name."

"What's the rest of it?"

She fluttered a nervous hand. "Zorka."

"Now, my dear young lady. Last night, inferentially at least, you were drunk. But you're not drunk now, you're merely bedraggled. Do you intend to tell us the rest of your name or not?"

"I. " She hesitated, and then said with sudden determination, "No. I can't."

"Why can't you?"

"Because I-it would be dangerous."

"Dangerous to whom? To you?"

"No, not to me-as much as uzzer people." She took a deep breath. "I am a refugee. I escaped."

"Where from?"

She shook her head.

"Come, come," Wolfe said brusquely. "Not the place, the city, the village, if you think you can't. What country? Germany? Russia? Italy? Yugoslavia?"

"All right. Zat much. Yugoslavia."

"I see. Croatia? Serbia? Montenegro?"

"I said Yugoslavia."

"Yes, but. Very well." Wolfe shrugged. "How long ago did you escape?"

"About one year ago."

"And came to America? To New York?"

"First Paris. Paris some time, then America."

"Did you bring a lot of money with you?"

"Oh, no." She spread out her hands to reject an absurdity. "No money. No refugee could have money."

"But I understand you have a business here in New York which must have cost a good deal to set up."

She almost smiled at him. "I knew you would ask zat. A friend was very kind to me."

"Is the friend's name Donald Barrett?"

She sat silent a moment, just looking at him, and then said, "But I am foolish. Zaire is no disgrace. Anyway, eet ees known to a few people, and you would ask and find out. Zee kind friend who lent me money ees Mr Barrett. He ees, what you call eet, silent partner."

"You're in debt to Mr Barrett, then?"

"Debt?" She frowned. "Oh, debt. Yes, very much."

Wolfe nodded. "I sympathize with you, madame. I hate being in debt. Some people don't seem to mind it. By the way, those people in Yugoslavia-those who might be in danger if you told us the rest of your name-are they relatives of yours?"

"Yes, some. Some relatives."

"Are you Jewish?"

"Oh, no. I am very old Yugoslavian family."

"Indeed. Nobility?"

"Well. " She pulled her shoulders up and together, and released them again.

"I see. I won't press that. The danger to your relatives-would that be on account of your activities in New York?"

"But I have no activities in New York, except my business."

"Then I don't understand how revealing your name would place your relatives in peril."

"Zat ees. eet would be suspect."

"What would be suspect?"

She shook her head.

Cramer growled, "We know damn well she's not normal. I could have told you that much. When we went through her apartment this morning-"

Zorka's head jerked around at him and she squeaked in indignation, "You went through my apartment!"

"Yes, ma'am," he said calmly. "And your place of business. Anybody that stages the kind of performance you did last night can expect some unwelcome attention. You're lucky you're not down at headquarters right now phoning for your kind friend to furnish bail for you, and that's exactly where you'll be when we're through here, maybe." He resumed to Wolfe, "There's not a thing, not a scratch of anything, at her home or office either, that takes you back further than a year ago, the time she came to New York. That's why I say we already knew she wasn't normal."

"Did you find a passport?"

"No. That's another thing-"

"Where is your passport, madame?"

She looked at him. She wet her lips twice. "I am in zees country legally," she declared.

"Then you must have a passport. Where is it?"

For the first time her eyes had a cornered look. "I weel explain. to zee propaire officaire. "

"There's nothing improper about me," Cramer said grimly.

Zorka spread out her hands. "I lost eet."

"I'm afraid the water's getting hot," said Wolfe. "Now about last night. Why did you phone here and say that you saw Miss Tormic putting something in Mr Goodwin's pocket?"

"Because I did see eet."

"Then why hadn't you told the police about it?"

"Because I thought not to make trouble." She edged forward in her chair. "Now look. Zat happen precisely zee way I say. I thought not to make trouble. Zen I sink, murder ees so horrible, I have no right. Zen I phone you and say I weel tell zee police. Zen I sink, Mr Barrett ees friend of Mees Tormic, so to be fair I should tell heem what I do, and I phone heem. Of course, he know how I am refugee, how I escape, how I must not put people in danger-"

"By the way where did you first meet Mr Barrett?"

"I meet heem in Paris."

"Go ahead."

"So he say, good God, zee police kestion me so much, zey must know everysing about me, so dangerous to me and to so many people so why do I not go to veesit Mees Reade, so I pack my bags-"

There was a knock at the door and Fritz entered. He advanced and spoke over a dick's shoulder:

"Mr Panzer, sir."

"Tell him I'm engaged with Madame Zorka and Mr Cramer."

"I did so, sir. He said he would like to see you."

"Send him in."

Cramer bellowed, "So it was Donald Barrett that got you to take a powder-"

"Just a moment," Wolfe begged him. "I think we're getting a reinforcement."

Nobody seeing Saul Panzer for the first time would have regarded him as a valuable reinforcement for anything whatever, but they would have been wrong. A lot of people had underrated him, and a lot of people had paid for it. He had left his old brown cap and coat in the hall and, as he stood there absorbing a couple of million details of the little group with one quick glance, everything about him looked insignificant but his big nose.

Wolfe asked him, "Results, Saul?"

"Yes, sir."

"Definite?"

"Yes, sir."

"Indeed. Let us have them."

"I was going to bring her birth certificate along, but I thought that might make trouble, so I took a copy-"

He retreated a step, because Zorka had leaped to her feet, confronted him, and practically shrieked at him, "You didn't! You couldn't-"

A dick reached for her elbow and Cramer bawled, "Sit down!"

"But he-if he-"

"I said sit down!"

She backed up, stumbled on the other dick's foot, recovered her balance, and dropped into her chair. Her shoulders sagged, and she sat that way.

Saul said, "I didn't have to make any expenditure of the kind you contemplated, but I spent three dollars and ninety cents on a phone call. I thought it was justified."

"No doubt. Go ahead."

Saul took his step back. "First I went to Madame Zorka's apartment. There were four city detectives there making a search, and the maid was sitting in a bedroom crying. I had already decided what to do if I found that, so I merely went in-"