“But if he-Noel-then he knows where the money is! He has the money!”
“Not too fast, Miss Tedder. That’s merely a surmise. We would have to consider all possibilities, all those who had frequent opportunity to see Miss Utley. I understand that your mother’s brother, Ralph Purcell, lives in that house. Was he on good terms with her?”
She was only half listening. He had darned near lost her with his suggestion about Noel. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had bounced up, granting that a person of her class and with her hips could bounce, and gone to have it out with her brother. Wolfe saw he would have to repeat his question, and did so.
“Oh,” she said, “he’s on good terms with everybody, or he tries to be. He ran errands for Dinah, but of course he would. He runs errands for me too. He’s all right, I like him, I really do, but he’s so-oh, well. He just doesn’t belong. He certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with any kidnaping; he wouldn’t have the nerve.”
“But he was friendly enough with Miss Utley to make it plausible that he knows the names of her associates not of your class, and possibly has met some of them.”
“Yes. No doubt of that. You won’t have to talk with my brother. I’ll talk with him.”
“That would help. That was the sort of thing I had in mind when I asked if I could count on your cooperation. I believe I have named all those who had- No, there’s another possibility. I saw in the newspaper the name of your mother’s attorney-Frost, I think?”
“Yes. Andrew Frost.”
“It might be that an attorney would have frequent contacts with a client’s secretary, especially if he is also the client’s business adviser. Did Mr Frost see much of Miss Utley?”
“I suppose he did, but I don’t know, after she came to work for my mother. Of course he saw her when she worked for him. She was his secretary. He let my mother take her. It was supposed to be a great favour, but he really did it for my father. My father died not long after that. My father was a true gentleman. I’d like to tell you something, I don’t know why, if you’ll promise not to repeat it. Do you promise?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes came to me. “Do you?”
“Sure.”
She went back to Wolfe. “My father told me once that his father was a bandit.”
There you are. She was actually human.
Wolfe nodded. “Then I merely corroborated him. I am obliged to you, Miss Tedder. Manifestly, if I took the job you offer, I would need to speak with Mr Purcell and Mr Frost. I would also need to be informed about the gathering in the library of your home Wednesday evening. For example, I understand that drinks were served. Who served them?”
She frowned again. “Why? Why do you need to know that?”
“You conceded the possibility that I am clever. Any discussion in which Mr Purcell and Mr Frost and your brother took part may be informative. You say that Mr Purcell likes to do errands. Did he serve the drinks?”
“No. The bar cart was there and we served ourselves, or someone-you know how it is. I think-yes, Uncle Ralph took brandy to Mr Frost. My mother likes a champagne cobbler after dinner, and she mixes it herself. She poured me some champagne, but I didn’t drink much.”
“What did your brother have?”
“Champagne. He gulps it.”
“And Mr Vail?”
“I didn’t notice, but probably bourbon and water. No matter how clever you are, this can’t possibly mean anything. You’re just trying to impress me.” She glanced at her wristwatch. “Do you want to see my uncle first? He would come tonight if I tell him to.”
“Not tonight.” Wolfe cocked his head. “I’m not trying to impress you, but I have imposed on you. I must reject your demand, Miss Tedder-I shouldn’t have called it an offer, since you have offered nothing. Your brother has. He was here this afternoon, and I have engaged with him to recover the money. My share will be one-fifth.”
She was gawking. Of course a person of her class shouldn’t gawk, but you can’t blame her. A person of my class would have thrown something at him. “You’re lying,” she said. “You’re trying to make me say you can have part of it. Of course one-fifth would be ridiculous. You already have more than enough from my mother, but I suppose, if you-very well, if you get it I’ll give you ten thousand dollars. If you get all of it. Of course you’ll have to do it, after everything I’ve told you.”
Wolfe was slowly moving his head from side to side. “Amazing,” he said. “How old are you?”
“I’m not a minor, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m twenty-one.”
“Amazing that a creature so obtuse could live so long without meeting disaster. I was at pains to make it clear that we were discussing a hypothesis, and the idea that you were being gulled never entered your mind. I don’t know how a brain that is never used passes the time. It will be futile to try to browbeat your brother into deferring to you; I shall hold him to his engagement with me. I was not lying when I said that he anticipated you. He was here when you telephoned.”
I suppose her father, Harold F. Tedder, was responsible for the way she took it. Naturally a true gentleman would teach his children never to argue with underlings. Since she couldn’t very well order him to leave, his office and his house, there was only one thing to do, and she did it. She got up and walked out, stiff hips and all. She did it all right too, no hurry and no prolonging it. I got to the hall ahead of her and had the door open when she reached the front, and she said thank you as she passed. Breeding will tell. I shut the door, bolted it for the night, returned to the office, and told Wolfe, “Taking candy from a baby.”
He grunted and pushed his chair back. “An insupportable day. I’m going to my bed.” He rose.
“What about Saul and Fred and Orrie?”
“The morning will do.” He moved.
CHAPTER 9
Saturday morning I heard the seven-o’clock news on the radio in my room, and the eight-o’clock news on the radio in the kitchen. Saul and Fred and Orrie had come and had gone up to Wolfe’s room. I was listening to the nine-o’clock news on the radio in the office when they came down. Ordinarily two or three times a day is often enough, but ordinarily I am not curious as to whether some dick or state cop or FBI hero has found half a million bucks, with or without a Mr Knapp in illegal possession of it.
I had also read the morning paper. The DA’s office was playing it safe on the death of Jimmy Vail. The cause of death had been Benjamin Franklin, definitely, and there was no evidence or information to indicate that it had not been an accident, but it was still under investigation. I doubted that last. The DA had to say it, to guard against the chance of something popping up, but I doubted if the five people who had last seen him alive were being pestered much.
There was no doubt at all that the kidnaping was being investigated. Since Jimmy had died before telling anyone how or where he had been snatched, or where and by whom he had been kept, or where he had been released, there was no lead at all. The caretaker of the country house near Katonah had been taken apart by a dozen experts, but he had stuck to it that Vail had left in his Thunderbird shortly after eight Sunday evening to drive back to town, and had returned in the Thunderbird about half past seven Wednesday morning, tired, mad, dirty, and hungry. He had told the caretaker nothing whatever. The theory was that the kidnapers had taken the Thunderbird and kept it wherever they had kept him, and, when they turned him loose, had let him have it to drive home in, which was a perfectly good theory, since they certainly wouldn’t want to use it. It was being examined by a task force of scientists, for fingerprints, of course, and for where and how far it had been, and who and what had been in it. It was described both in the paper and on the radio, and shown on television, with the request that anyone who had seen it between Sunday evening and Wednesday morning should communicate immediately with the police, the Westchester DA, or the FBI.
Also described, but not shown on television, was the suitcase the money had been in: tan leather, 28 by 16 by 9, old and stained, scuffed a little, three brass clasps, one in the middle and one near each end. Mrs Vail had taken it to the bank, where the money had been put in it, and the description had been supplied by the bank’s vice-president. It was the property of Jimmy Vail-or had been.