business.”
“You do. You come. Come now.”
“I would love to, but some other time. Mr. Wolfe
wants to discuss it with you himself.”
Silence. Then: “Will the policeman be there?”
The Homicide Trinity 61
“Certainly not.”
Silence, then: “You say six o’clock?”
“That’s right.”
“Very well. I’ll come.”
I hung up, turned, and told Wolfe, “All set. She wants
me to come there but that will have to wait. You have
less than three hours to cook up a charade, and for two
of them you’ll be with the orchids. Anything for me?”
“Get Mr. Otis,” he muttered.
Chapter 8
I felt then, and I still feel, that it was a waste of
money to have Saul and Fred and Orrie there; and
since we had no client it was Wolfe’s money. When
Saul phoned in at five o’clock I could just as well have
told him to call it a day. I do not claim that I can handle
five people all having a fit at once, even if one of them is
seventy-five years old and another one is a woman, but
there was no reason to suppose that more than one of
them would really explode, and I could certainly handle
him. But when Saul phoned I followed instructions, and
there went sixty bucks.
They weren’t visible when, at eight minutes after six,
the bell rang and I went and opened the door to admit
Rita Sorell, nor when I escorted her to the office, intro-
duced her to Wolfe, and draped her fur coat, probably
milky mink, over the back of the red leather chair. No
one was visible but Wolfe. The fact that she gave Wolfe
a smile and fluttered her long dark lashes at him didn’t
mean that she was a snob; I had got mine in the hall.
“I’m not in the habit,” she told him, “of going to see
men when they send for me. This is a new experience.
Maybe that’s why I came; I like new experiences. Mr.
Goodwin said you wanted to discuss something?”
62 Rex Stout
Wolfe nodded. “I do. Something private and per-
sonal. And since the discussion will be more productive
if it is frank and unreserved, we should be alone. If you
please, Archie? No notes will be needed.”
I objected. “Mrs. Sorell might want to ask me—”
“No. Leave us, please.”
I went. After shutting the door as I entered the hall,
I turned right, went and opened the door to the front
room, entered, shut that door too, and glanced around.
All was in order. Lament Otis was in the big chair by
a window, the one Ann Paige had left by, and she was on
one side of him and Edey on the other. Jett’s chair was
tilted back against the wall to the right. On the couch
facing me was Heydecker, in between Fred Durkin and
Orrie Gather. Saul Panzer stood in the center of the
room. Their faces all came to me and Edey started to
speak.
I cut him off. “If you talk,” I said, “you won’t hear,
and even if you don’t want to hear, others do. You can
talk later. As Mr. Wolfe told you, a speaker behind the
couch is wired to a mike in his office, and he is there
talking with someone. Since you’ll recognize her voice I
don’t need to name her. Okay, Saul.”
Saul, who had moved to the rear of the couch, flipped
the switch and Wolfe’s voice sounded.
“. . . and she described her problem to Mr. Goodwin
before he came up to me. She said that on Monday
evening of last week she saw a member of the firm in a
booth in a lunchroom in secret conference with you;
that she had concluded that he was betraying the inter-
est of one of the firm’s clients to you, the client being
your husband; that for reasons she thought cogent she
would not tell another member or members of the firm;
that she had finally, yesterday afternoon, told the one
she was accusing and asked for an explanation, and got
none; that she refused to name him until she had spoken
with me; and that she had come to engage my services.
Mr. Goodwin has of course reported this to the police.”
MRS. SORELL: “She didn’t name him?”
WOLFE: “No. As I said, Mrs. Sorell, this discussion
The Homicide Trinity 63
should be frank and unreserved. I am not going to
pretend that you have named him and are committed.
You told Mr. Goodwin on the phone today that you
were with a man in a booth in a lunchroom last Monday
evening, and you said his name is Gregory Jett; but you
could have been merely scattering dust, and at will you
can deny you made the call.”
Jett had caused a slight commotion by jerking for-
ward in his tilted chair, but not enough to drown the
voice, and a touch on his arm by me had stopped him.
MRS. SORELL: “What if I don’t deny it? What if I repeat
it, it was Gregory Jett?”
WOLFE: “I wouldn’t advise you to. If in addition to
scattering dust you were gratifying an animus you’ll
have to try again. It wasn’t Mr. Jett. It was Mr. Hey-
decker.”
Heydecker couldn’t have caused any commotion
even if he wanted to, with Fred at one side of him and
Orrie at the other. The only commotion came from
Lamont Otis, who moved and made a choking noise, and
Ann Paige grabbed his hand.
MRS. SORELL: “That’s interesting. Mr. Goodwin said I
would find it interesting and I do. So I sat in a booth
with a man and didn’t know who he was? Really, Mr.
Wolfe!”
WOLFE: “No, madam. I assure you it won’t do. I’ll
expound it. I assumed that one of three men—Edey,
Heydecker, or Jett—had killed Bertha Aaron. In view
of what she told Mr. Goodwin it was more than an
assumption, it was a conclusion. But three hours ago I
had to abandon it, when I learned that those three were
in conference together in Mr. Edey’s office at 5:45. It
was 5:39 when Mr. Goodwin left Miss Aaron to come up
to me. That they were lying, that they were in a joint
conspiracy, was most unlikely, especially since others
on the premises could probably impeach them. But
though none of them could have killed her, one of them
could have provoked her doom, wittingly or not. Of the
three, only Mr. Heydecker was known to have left
around the same time as Miss Aaron—he had said on a
64 Rex Stout
personal errand, but his movements could not be
checked. My new assumption, not yet a conclusion, was
that he had followed her to this address and seen her
enter my house, had sought a phone and called you to
warn you that your joint intrigue might soon be ex-
Eosed, and then, no doubt in desperation, had scurried
ack to his office, fifteen minutes late at the confer-
ence.”
It was Edey’s turn to make a commotion and he
obliged. He left his chair, moved to the couch, and stood
staring down at Heydecker. Saul and I were there, but
apparently he had no brilliant idea beyond the stare.
WOLFE: “Now, however, that assumption is a conclu-
sion, and I don’t expect to abandon it. Mr. Heydecker
does not believe, and neither do I, that upon receiving
his phone call you came here determined to murder.
Indeed, you couldn’t have, since you could have no
expectation of finding her alone. Mr. Heydecker be-
lieves that you merely intended to salvage what you
could—at best to prevent the disclosure, at worst to
leam where you stood. You called this number and she
answered and agreed to admit you and hear you. Mr.
Heydecker believes that when you entered and found
that she was alone and that she had not seen me, it was
on sudden impulse that you seized the paperweight and
struck her. He believes that when you saw her sink to
the floor, unconscious, and saw the necktie on this desk,
the impulse carried you on. He believes that you—”
MRS. SORELL: “How do you know what he believes?”
That would have been my cue if I were needed. I had
been instructed to use my judgment. If Heydecker’s
reaction made it doubtful I was to get to the office with
a signal before Wolfe had gone too far to hedge. It was
no strain at all on my judgment. Heydecker was
hunched forward, his elbows on his knees and his face
covered by his hands.
WOLFE: “A good question. I am not in his skull. I
should have said, he says he believes. You might have
known, madam, that he couldn’t possibly stand the
pressure. Disclosure of his treachery to his firm will
The Homicide Trinity 65
end his professional career, but concealment of guilty