“Okay. You called me, and I came because I swear to God I don’t see what it gets me. It was you who got brilliant and made it that the poison was for the Fraser woman, not Orchard. Now that looks crazy, but what don’t? If it was for Orchard after all, who and why in that bunch? And what about Beula Poole? Were she and Orchard teaming it? Or was she horning in on his list? By God, I never saw anything like it! Have you been giving me a runaround? I want to know!” Cramer pulled a cigar from his pocket and got his teeth closed on it.
Wolfe shook his head. “Not I,” he declared. “I’m a little dizzy myself. Your description was sketchy, and it might help to fill it in. Are you in a hurry?” “Hell, no.” “Then look at this. It is important, if we are to see clearly the connection of the two events, to know exactly what the roles of Mr Orchard and Miss Poole were. Let us say that I am an ingenious and ruthless man, and I decide to make some money by blackmailing wholesale, with little or no risk to myself.” “Orchard got poisoned,” Cramer growled, “and she got shot.” “Yes,” Wolfe agreed, “but I didn’t. I either know people I can use or I know how to find them. I am a patient and resourceful man. I supply Orchard with funds to begin publication of Track Almanac. I have lists prepared, with the greatest care, of persons with ample incomes from a business or profession or job that would make them sensitive to my attack. Then I start operating. The phone calls are made neither by Orchard nor by me. Of course Orchard, who is in an exposed position, has never met me, doesn’t know who I am, and probably isn’t even aware that I exist. Indeed, of those engaged in the operation, very few know that I exist, possibly only one.” Wolfe rubbed his palms together. “All this is passably clever. I am taking from my victims only a small fraction of their income, and I am not threatening them with exposure of a fearful secret. Even if I knew their secrets, which I don’t, I would prefer not to use them in the anonymous letters; that would not merely harass them, it would fill them with terror, and I don’t want terror, I only want money. Therefore, while my lists are carefully compiled, no great amount of research is required, just enough to get only the kind of people who would be least likely to put up a fight, either by going to the police or by any other method. Even should one resort to the police, what will happen? You have already answered that, Mr Cramer, by telling what did happen.” “That sergeant was dumb as hell,” Cramer grumbled.
“Oh, no. There was the captain too. Take an hour sometime to consider what you would have done and see where you come out. What if one or two more citizens had made the same complaint? Mr Orchard would have insisted that he was being persecuted by an enemy. In the extreme case of an avalanche of complaints, most improbable, or of an exposure by an exceptionally capable policeman, what then?
Mr Orchard would be done for, but I wouldn’t. Even if he wanted to squeal, he couldn’t, not on me, for he doesn’t know me.” “He has been getting money to you,” Cramer Objected.
“Not to me. He never gets within ten miles of me. The handling of the money is an important detail and you may be sure it has been well organized. Only one man ever gets close enough to me to bring me money. It shouldn’t take me long to build up a fine list of subscribers to Track Almanac—certainly a hundred, possibly five hundred. Let us be moderate and say two hundred. That’s two thousand dollars a week. If Mr Orchard keeps half, he can pay all expenses and have well over thirty thousand a year for his net. If he has any sense, and he has been carefully chosen and is under surveillance, that will satisfy him. For me, it’s a question of my total volume. How many units do I have? New York is big enough for four or five, Chicago for two or three, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles for two each, at least a dozen cities for one. If I wanted to stretch it I could easily get twenty units working. But we’ll be moderate again and stop at twelve. That would bring me in six hundred thousand dollars a year for my share. My operating costs shouldn’t be more than half that; and when you consider that my net is really net, with no income tax to pay, I am doing very well indeed.” Cramer started to say something, but Wolfe put up a hand: “Please. As I said, all that is fairly clever, especially the avoidance of real threats about real secrets, but what makes it a masterpiece is the limitation of the tribute. All blackmailers will promise that this time is the last, but I not only make the promise, I keep it. I have an inviolable rule never to ask for a subscription renewal.” “You can’t prove it.” “No, I can’t. But I confidently assume it, because it is the essence, the great beauty, of the plan. A man can put up with a pain—and this was not really a pain, merely a discomfort, for people with good incomes—if he thinks he knows when it will stop, and if it stops when the time comes. But if I make them pay year after year, with no end in sight, I invite sure disaster. I’m too good a businessman for that. It is much cheaper and safer to get four new subscribers a week for each unit; that’s all that is needed to keep it at a constant two hundred subscribers.” Wolfe nodded emphatically. “By all means, then, if I am to stay in business indefinitely, and I intend to, I must make that rule and rigidly adhere to it; and I do so. There will, of course, be many little difficulties, as there are in any enterprise, and I must also be prepared for an unforeseen contingency. For example, Mr Orchard may get killed. If so I must know of it at once, and I must have a man in readiness to remove all papers from his office, even though there is nothing there that could possibly lead to me. I would prefer to have no inkling of the nature and extent of my operations reach unfriendly parties. But I am not panicky; why should I be? Within two weeks one of my associates—the one who makes the phone calls for my units that are managed by females—begins phoning the Track Almanac subscribers to tell them that their remaining payments should be made to another publication called What to Expect. It would have been better to discard my Track Almanac list and take my loss, but I don’t know that.
I only find it out when Miss Poole also gets killed. Luckily my surveillance is excellent. Again an office must be cleaned out, and this time under hazardous conditions and with dispatch. Quite likely my man has seen the murderer, and can even name him; but I’m not interested in catching a murderer; what I want is to save my business from these confounded interruptions. I discard both those cursed lists, destroy them, burn them, and start plans for two entirely new units. How about a weekly sheet giving the latest shopping information? Or a course in languages, any language? There are numberless possibilities.” Wolfe leaned back. “There’s your connection, Mr Cramer.” “The hell it is,” Cramer mumbled. He was rubbing the side of his nose with his forefinger. He was sorting things out. After a moment he went on: “I thought maybe you were going to end up by killing both of them yourself. That would be a connection too, wouldn’t it?” “Not a very plausible one. Why would I choose that time and place and method for killing Mr Orchard? Or even Miss Poole—why there in her office? It wouldn’t be like me. If they had to be disposed of surely I would have made better arrangements than that.” “Then you’re saying it was a subscriber.” “I make the suggestion. Not necessarily a subscriber, but one who looked at things from the subscriber’s viewpoint.” “Then the poison was intended for Orchard after all.” “I suppose so, confound it. I admit that’s hard to swallow. It’s sticking in my throat.” “Mine too.” Cramer was sceptical. “One thing you overlooked. You were so interested in pretending it was you, you didn’t mention who it really is. This patient ruthless bird that’s pulling down over half a million a year. Could I have his name and address?” “Not from me,” Wolfe said positively. “I strongly doubt if you could finish him, and if you tried he would know who had named him. Then I would have to undertake it, and I don’t want to tackle him. I work for money, to make a living, not just to keep myself alive. I don’t want to be reduced to that primitive extremity.” “Nuts. You’ve been telling me a dream you had. You can’t stand it for anyone to think you don’t know anything, so you even have the brass to tell me to my face that you know his name. You don’t even know he exists, any more than Orchard did.” “Oh yes I.do. I’m much more intelligent than Mr Orchard.” “Have it your way,” Cramer conceded generously. “You trade orchids with him. So what? He’s not in my department. If he wasn’t behind these murders I don’t want him. My job is homicide. Say you didn’t dream it, say it’s just as you said, what comes next? How have I gained an inch or you either? Is that what you got me here for, to tell me about your goddam units in twelve different cities?” “Partly. I didn’t know your precinct servant had been reminded of something. But that wasn’t all. Do you feel like telling me why Miss Koppel tried to get on an airplane?” “Sure I feel like it, but I can’t because I don’t know. She says to see her sick mother. We’ve tried to find another reason that we like better, but no luck.