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Wolfe's gaze went along the line. They all met it. No one had anything to say, but neither was anyone impelled to look somewhere else. Finally Tully Strong, who had his spectacles back on, spoke: “We simply don't remember, Mr Wolfe.”
“Pfui.” Wolfe was disgusted. “Certainly you remember. No wonder Mr Cramer has got nowhere. You're lying, every one of you.”
“No,” Miss Fraser objected. “They're not lying really.”
“The wrong pronoun,” Wolfe snapped at her. “My comment included you, Miss Fraser.”
She smiled at him. “You may include me if you like, but I don't. It's like this.
These people are not only associated with one another in co
“What was left in the bottle was also poisoned.”
“All right, the bottle too. Or could you expect one of us to say-yes, I saw my friend give him the glass and bottle? And name the friend?”
“Then you're agreeing with me. That you're all lying.”
Not at all.” Miss Fraser was too earnest to smile now. “The pouring and passing the glasses and bottles was commonplace routine, and there was no reason for us to notice details enough to keep them in our minds at all. Then came that overwhelming shock, and the confusion, and later came the police, and the strain and tension of it, and we just didn't remember. That isn't the least bit surprising. What would surprise me would be if someone did remember, for instance if Mr Traub said positively that Mr Strong put that.glass and bottle in front of Mr Orchard, it would merely prove that Mr Traub hates Mr Strong, and that would surprise me because I don't believe that any one of us hates another one.”
“Nor,” Wolfe murmured dryly, “that any of you hated Mr Orchard-or wanted to kill him.”
“Who on earth could have wanted to kill that man?”
“I don't know. That's what I've been hired to find out-provided the poison reached its intended destination. You say you're not surprised, but I am. I'm surprised the police haven't locked you all up.”
“They damn' near did,” Traub said grimly.
“I certainly thought they would arrest me,” Madeline Fraser declared. “That was what was in my mind-it was all that was in my mind-as soon as I heard the doctor say cyanide. Not who had given him that glass and bottle, not even what the effect would be on my programme, but the death of my husband. He died of cyanide poisoning six years ago.”
Wolfe nodded. The papers haven't neglected that. It was what leaped first to your mind?”
“Yes, when I heard the doctor say cyanide. I suppose you wouldn't understand-or perhaps you would-anyway it did.”
“It did to mine too,” Deborah Koppel interposed, in a tone that implied that someone had been accused of something. “Miss Fraser's husband was my brother. I saw him just after he died. Then that day I saw Cyril Orchard, and-” She stopped. Having her in profile, I couldn't see her eyes, but I saw her clasped hands. In a moment she went on: “Yes, it came to my mind.”
Wolfe stirred impatiently. “Well, I won't pretend that I'm exasperated that you're such good friends that you haven't been able to remember what happened.
If you had, and had told the police, I might not have this job.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “It's after eleven. I had thought it barely possible that I might get a wedge into a crack by getting you here together, but it seems hopeless. You're much too fond of one another. Our time has been completely wasted. I haven't got a thing, not a microscopic morsel, that I hadn't already got from the papers. I may never get anything, but I intend to try. Which of you will spend the night here with me? Not all the night; probably four or five hours. I shall need that long, more or less, with each of you, and I would like to start now. Which of you will stay?”
There were no eager volunteers.
“My Lord!” Elinor Vance protested. “Over and over and over again.”
“My clients,” Wolfe said, “are your employer, your network, and your sponsors.
Mr Meadows?”
“I've got to take Miss Fraser home,” Bill objected. “I could come back.”
“I'll take her,” Tully Strong offered.
“That's foolish.” Deborah Koppel was a
“I'll go with you,” Elinor Vance suggested. “I'll drop you and keep the taxi on uptown.”
“I'll ride with you,” Tully Strong insisted.
“But you live in the Village!”
“Count me in,” Bill Meadows sdd stubbornly. “I can be back here in twenty minutes. Thank God tomorrow's Wednesday.”
“This is all u
“My car is outside and I can take all of you who are going uptown. You can stay here with Wolfe, Meadows.” He turned and stepped to the desk. “Mr Wolfe, I haven't been greatly impressed this evening. Hardly at all impressed.”
“Neither have I,” Wolfe agreed. “It's a dreary outlook. I would prefer to abandon it, but you and I are both committed by that press release.” Seeing that some of them were heading for the hall, he raised his voice. “If you please? A moment. I would like to make appointments. One of you tomorrow from eleven to one, another from two to four, another in the evening from eight-thirty to twelve, and another from midnight on. Will you decide on that before you go?”
They did so, with me helping them and making notes of the decisions. It took a little discussion, but they were such good friends that there was no argument.
The only thing that soured the leave-taking at all was when Owen made an opportunity to pass me a crack about no patch or cut being visible on Wolfe's face. He might at least have had the decency to let it lie.
“I said nothing about his face,” I told him coldly. “I said he cut himself shaving. He shaves his legs. I understood you wanted him in kilts for the pictures.”
Owen was too offended to speak. Utterly devoid of a sense of humour.
When the others had gone Bill Meadows was honoured with the red leather chair.
On a low table at his elbow I put a replenished glass, and Fritz put a tray holding three sandwiches made with his own bread, one of minced rabbit meat, one of corned beef, and one of Georgia country ham. I arranged myself at my desk with my notebook, a plate of sandwiches to match Bill's, a pitcher of milk and a glass. Wolfe had only beer. He never eats between di
In a way it's a pleasure to watch Wolfe doing a complete overhaul on a man, or a woman either, and in another way it's enough to make you grit your teeth. When you know exactly what he's after and he's sneaking up on it without the slightest sound to alarm the victim, it's a joy to be there. But when he's after nothing in particular, or if he is you don't know what, and he pokes in this hole a while and then tries another one, and then goes back to the first one, and as far as you can see is getting absolutely nowhere, and the hours go by, and your sandwiches and milk are all gone long ago, sooner or later the time comes when you don't even bother to get a hand in front of your yawns, let alone swallow them.