Chapter 9
I put Anne Talbot in the chair nearest me because from her face and the way she moved it seemed likely that she might need smelling salts any minute, and there were some in my drawer. Next to her was Jules Khoury, then Mrs. Oliver, and then Ambrose Perdis. I had expected remarks as they entered, espe- cially from Mrs. Oliver, who had been waiting more than three hours, but there hadn't been a peep from anyone. I felt like an usher at a funeral.
Wolfe took them in. "Since you are here," he said, "I assume that you are prepared to act on my proposal. Mrs. Oliver?"'
I had her in profile and couldn't see her deep-set yellow eyes, and from that angle her sagging jowl was even less attractive. She opened her bag and took out a slip of paper. "This is a cashier's check," she said, "on the Knickerbocker Trust Company for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, made out to me. I'll endorse it. Or I won't."
"That will of course depend. Mrs. Talbot?"
Anne Talbot's lips parted but no sound came. She tried again and got it out. "I have a certified check for sixty-five thousand dollars and forty thousand dollars in cash. I'll pay the rest as soon as I can-I think I can pay it in a month, but it might take longer. Of course you'll want me to sign something, a note, whatever you say, I tried-" She had to swallow. "I tried-" Another swallow. "I did the best I could."
"Mr. Perdis?"
"I have a certified check for my share."
"The full amount?"
"Yes."
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"Mr. Khoury?"
"I have nothing."
"Indeed. Then why are you here?"
"I want to know what's in the box. If there's anything worth a quarter of a million to me, I'll buy it."
"The deadline is midnight." Wolfe glanced at the clock. "You would have ninety minutes."
"I don't think so. I don't think Mrs. Hazen knows about this. I think you're putting the screws on us without her knowledge. Whatever you're doing, I want to know what's in the box."
"Well." Wolfe's eyes left him to take in the others. "This situation was not covered by the terms of my proposal. Two of you are prepared to comply with the terms and should not suffer for Mr. Khoury's dissent. As for you, Mrs. Talbot, I am willing to accept your declaration of good faith, that you have done your best. You will of course commit yourself in writing to pay the balance. As for you, Mr. Khoury, if you are willful so am I. Whatever the box contains that relates to you will be turned over to the police at midnight. Archie, get the box and the key." Back to them: "We have procured a key that will serve."
Thinking it desirable to keep up appearances, I first got a Marley from the drawer and loaded it. Then to the cabinet for the key, and then to the safe. As I worked the combination my back was to them, but as I opened the door and took out the box I had an eye on them, not only for appearances. It was conceivable that Perdis or Khoury, or both, had come with the idea of getting something for nothing if a chance offered. All four of them had twisted around in their chairs to follow me, and they twisted back as I circled around to Wolfe's desk. As I was putting the box down the phone rang. It would. I was going to tell Wolfe to take it, but didn't have to.
He lifted the receiver. "Yes?… Yes, Saul… indeed… That isn't necessary… Satisfactory… No, stay there, Archie is here… How sure are
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you?… Very satisfactory… No, call again in an hour or so."
As he hung up there was a gleam in his eye. "Open it," he said. I inserted the key, fiddled with it a little, got it, lifted the lid all the way, stared a second for effect, and said, "It's empty," and when Perdis bounced up and came, my hand jerked up with the gun, not having been told that that part of the performance was over. I slipped the gun in my pocket and turned the box on its edge so that all could see the shiny inside. Perdis blurted at Wolfe, "Damn you! You've got it! You had a key!" Mrs. Oliver squawked something. Anne Talbot lowered her head and covered her face with her hands. Jules Khoury stood up, vetoed whatever he had in- tended, and sat down again. He spoke. "Use your head, Perdis. He didn't even know it was empty. Why would he-"
"You're wrong," Wolfe snapped. "I did know it was empty. I knew it last night when I made my proposal."
They were speechless. Anne Talbot lifted her head. "I made the proposal," Wolfe said, "not out of caprice, to plague you, but for a purpose, and the purpose has been served. You have the gun, Archie? Go and stand at the door. No one is to leave."
I obeyed. Perdis, still on his feet, was in the way, so I detoured around back of the chairs. He was yapping, and Khoury was up again. Of course I hadn't the dim- mest idea what was coming next as I shut the door and put my back to it, gun in hand, but apparently Wolfe had. Ignoring them, he had lifted the receiver and was dialing. Since he hadn't consulted the book and there were only three phone numbers he bothered to keep in his head, I knew who he must be getting, even before he spoke and asked for Mr. Cramer. In a moment he had him.
"Mr. Cramer? The situation has developed as I ex- pected. How soon can you be here with Mrs. Hazen?… No. I will not. I told you more than half an hour ago that I would almost certainly call you… No. I told you that her presence would be
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essential. If you come without her you won't be admitted… Yes. I am prepared to suggest a substitute… Yes… Yes!"
Mrs. Oliver was on her feet too; they all were, except for Anne Talbot, and as Wolfe hung up Perdis said through his teeth, "Damn you, you gave it to the po- lice!"
"No," Wolfe said. "Are you a dunce? Would I contrive such a hocus-pocus just to pass the time? Confound it, sit down! I have something to say that you would prefer to hear before Mr. Cramer arrives."
"I'm leaving," Mrs. Oliver said. "This was all a trick and you'll regret it. I'm going."
"No one is going. Mr. Goodwin wouldn't shoot you, but he wouldn't have to. Sit down."
Khoury, with his chair right back of his knees, merely had to bend them. Perdis, going to his chair, jostled Mrs. Oliver and didn't apologize. She turned to face me at the door, decided that Wolfe was right, I wouldn't have to shoot, and sat.
"You heard me on the phone," Wolfe told them. "Mr. Cramer will be here shortly, and Mrs. Hazen will be with him. The nature of your peculiar relations with Mr. Hazen will have to be divulged to him, that can't be helped, but he doesn't have to know of your invasion of that house yesterday evening. It's only fair-don't in- terrupt me, there isn't much time-"
Perdis persisted. "You have no evidence of our rela- tions with Hazen."
"Pfui. Your bid to Mr. Goodwin? It's only fair that three of you should know about the box. All that I told you about it last evening was true-Mr. Hazen showing it to his wife and telling her that if he died she should get it and bum the contents, and Mr. Goodwin getting it from beneath the drawer after sending you from the room. Asked by Mr. Perdis if I had opened it, I said no. But Mr. Goodwin had, and it was empty."
"I don't believe it," Mrs. Oliver said. "It's a trick."
Wolfe nodded. "I concocted a trick, that's true, but it's a fact that the box was empty. That's what you have
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a right to know, three of you. It's an understatement to say that you would like to know where the former contents are, but I have no idea and neither has Mr. Goodwin, and I'm sure Mrs. Hazen hasn't. The obvious conjecture is that Mr. Hazen transferred them to some other place which he preferred. If I could offer-"
"She has them," Mrs. Oliver said harshly. "Lucy Hazen. I suppose you don't know it or you wouldn't have had us come ready to pay. She took them after she killed him and now we'll have her. She'll be in prison but we'll have her the rest of our lives."
"I don't believe it," Anne Talbot said. She hadn't spoken since the box had been opened. "Lucy wouldn't do that. But this is even worse than it was… Now we don't know… and I tried so hard…"
"I don't believe the box was empty," Khoury told Wolfe. "I think you're lying."
"I don't," Perdis said. "Why would he? There's six hundred and five thousand dollars here ready for him." His eyes went to Wolfe. "But this Cramer-that's In- spector Cramer? You said he has to know about what you call our peculiar relations with Hazen. Why does
he?"
The doorbell rang. I was on post and could have let Fritz take it, but they were all in their chairs, so I opened the door to the hall and stepped through. I expected to see Cramer alone, since there hadn't been time for him to get Lucy from the jug, but she was there with him on the stoop, and at her elbow was Sergeant Purley Stebbins. He must have had her brought to 20th Street when Wolfe made his first phone call. And as I dropped the gun in my pocket and moved, the door to the front room opened and Theodore Weed darted out and to the front door. He couldn't possibly have heard through the soundproofed wall and door, so either he had been looking out a window or his feeling for her included some kind of a personal electronic receiver.
Seeing no reason to spoil his fun, I let him open the door. Cramer shot him a glance as he entered. Lucy crossed the threshold, saw him, and stopped. She
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stared, and he stared back. He lifted a hand and let it drop. Stebbins, back of her, growled, "On in, Mrs. Ha- zen." She looked at me, and back at Weed, and I said, "Everything's under control, Mrs. Hazen," and Weed backed up a step. I thought, and still think, that he had intended to warn her that Wolfe and I were a pair of Judases, but the mere sight of her paralyzed him. He stood and stared while Cramer and Stebbins got their coats off and I took hers and put it on a hanger. When we headed for the office he followed us, and there was no point in herding him back to the front room. Either Wolfe had the cards or he hadn't.
Three steps in, Cramer stopped to send his eyes around. I didn't envy him any. The four people there weren't a bunch of bums, anything but; they had posi- tion and connections and lawyers if necessary, and much wampum. And here he was, in the office of a private detective, with a woman charged with murder. Of course he had a good reason: he suspected he might have stubbed his toe. I hadn't been present when Wolfe had made his previous phone call, but presumably he had said that he expected soon to be ready to offer a substitute for Mrs. Hazen, and Cramer knew Wolfe only too well.
But naturally he didn't care to give that reason to that audience. He faced them. "I'm here because Wolfe told me that you four people would be here and I wanted to know what he had to say to you. I brought Mrs. Hazen because from something Wolfe said I got the idea that it would be in the interest of justice for her to be here. I want to make it plain that as an officer of the law I don't rely on any private detective to do my job for me, and what's more no private detective is going to interfere."
He went to the red leather chair and sat. Stebbins took Lucy to the extra chair, next to Perdis, and stood behind her. That way they had their murderer sur- rounded, with Cramer in front of her only three paces off. Weed went to a chair over by the big globe. As I circled around to get to my desk Wolfe spoke.
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"Mr. Stebbins. Mrs. Hazen is your prisoner, and of course it's your duty to guard her. But I doubt if she intends any outbreak. If you wish to stand by the mur- derer of Mr. Hazen I suggest that you move to Mr. Khoury."
Silence. Not a sound. For the record, for how people react, four of them-Cramer, Lucy, Mrs. Oliver, and Anne Talbot-kept their eyes at Wolfe. Perdis and Sergeant Stebbins moved theirs to Khoury. Weed, over by the globe, got up, took a step, and stopped. Khoury's head tilted back, slowly, until his eyes were forced on Wolfe past the tip of his long thin nose. "That's my name," he said. "I'm the only Khoury here."
"You are indeed." Wolfe's head turned. "Mr. Cramer. As I said, I am prepared to offer a substitute for your consideration, but that's all. Not only have I no conclu- sive evidence, I have none at all. I have only some suggestive facts. First, Mr. Hazen was a blackmailer. He extorted large sums, not only from these four peo- ple, but also from others, using his public-relations business as a cover. He had in his possession-"
"You can't prove that," Mrs. Oliver blurted.
"But I can," he told her. "Item, you have in your bag a check for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For what? Account for it. I advise you, madam, to hold your tongue. I would prefer to tell Mr. Cramer only what I must to support my suggestion, and I'll go beyond that only if you force me to. You shouldn't have challenged me. Now that you have, were the amounts that you paid Mr. Hazen, ostensibly for professional services, actu- ally paid under coercion?"
She looked down at the bag in her lap, looked up again, and said, "Yes."
"Then don't interrupt me." Wolfe returned to Cramer. "Mr. Hazen had in his possession various ob- jects, I don't know what, to substantiate his demands. Last evening I told these four people that I had secured these objects and that I would surrender them for one million dollars, giving them twenty-four hours to meet my terms. They are here. Three of them-"
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"The objects are here?" Cramer demanded.
"No. I don't know where they are. I have never seen them. The people are here. This will go better if you keep your questions until I'm through. Three of them- Mrs. Oliver, Mrs. Talbot, and Mr. Perdis-came pre- pared to pay, and that was what I was after. I was acting on the premise, certainly worth a test, that one of Hazen's victims had killed him, and to kill him might have been futile unless he got the object or objects that had made it possible for Hazen to bleed him. For a moment I abandon fact for surmise. Mr. Khoury did get the object or objects. By some ruse, probably with the promise of a large sum of money as a lure, he induced Hazen to get his car from the garage Monday night and drive somewhere, and to have with him the object or objects. That surmise is not haphazard. The others came here this evening prepared to pay, but not Mr. Khoury. He knew I had nothing to support my threat. Even when I told him that the objects pertaining to him would be given to the police in ninety minutes he was unmoved."
"Get back to facts," Cramer growled. His head turned. "Mr. Khoury, do you want to comment?"
"No." From Khoury's smile you might have thought he was enjoying it. "This is fascinating. I thought I had decided not to bring my share of the million because I didn't believe he had anything that threatened any- body."
Wolfe, ignoring him, stayed at Cramer. "For a fact I submit the conversation at the gathering Monday evening after Mrs. Hazen and Mr. Weed had left. Of course you and your staff have it in detail, but you didn't know that Hazen was a blackmailer and that he not only bled his prey, he was pleased to torment them. In that conversation he introduced topics that obvi- ously referred to the pinch he had them in-for in- stance, poison. I don't know which of those present that touched, and am not concerned. But one of his topics pointed clearly at Mr. Khoury. He remarked that his wife's father had been a great inventor, a genius; and
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his wife's father, Titus Postel, had been associated with Mr. Khoury. So it seemed likely that his hold on Mr. Khoury was in some way connected with Titus Postel, but at the time I learned that, yesterday evening, I had no reason to single out Mr. Khoury for special attention, so I merely noted it for possible future application."
Wolfe took a breath. "But two incidents today did single out Mr. Khoury. Shortly after one o'clock you phoned me to say that the gun I had given you had been the property of Titus Postel and that he had committed suicide with it five years ago; and soon after that, on the telephone with Mr. Khoury, he informed me that he would be present this evening but that he was declining my proposal. He didn't put it in those terms, but that was the gist."
Khoury made a noise, a subdued snort. Cramer said, "Yes, Mr. Khoury?"
"Nothing," Khoury said.
Wolfe resumed. "Now the guns. Call them Gun H, Mr. Hazen's, the one he was shot with, left in his car;
and Gun P, Mr. Postel's, which I gave you this morning. My account of them is not established fact, but it is more than mere surmise because it is based on a high degree of probability. When Mr. Khoury went to that grotesque dinner party Monday evening he had Gun P with him. During the-"
"You can prove he had it?"
"Certainly not. I'm telling you what happened, not what I can prove. During the evening he found or made an opportunity to go to Mr. Hazen's bedroom, took Gun H from the drawer, and put Gun P in its place. With a double purpose: first, and minor, so that Hazen would find a gun there-they were the same make-if he looked for it. Second, and major, to implicate Mrs. Ha- zen. He intended to leave Gun H in the car after he killed Hazen. The police would of course learn that it had been Hazen's, kept in that drawer in his room, and when they found Gun P there in its place, the gun that had belonged to Mrs. Hazen's father, they would natu- rally assume that she had put it there in a witless effort
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to mislead them. By the way." His head turned. "Mrs. Hazen. The gun that had belonged to your father-was it in your possession?"
Lucy's lips formed a "No," but there was almost no sound where I sat, five steps away.
"When did you see it last?"
She shook her head. "I don't understand." I could hear her now. "When they told me the gun I brought you was the one my father shot himself with I thought they were lying. I don't understand."
"No wonder. Neither do the police. Did you ever have that gun-your father's?"
"I had it for a while. They gave it to me after… after he died. I kept it with some of his things. But it disappeared."
"How long after his death did it disappear?"
"I don't know. It was about two years after that I noticed it was gone."
"Had you any idea who took it?"
"I didn't know, but I thought perhaps Mrs. Khoury had. I didn't ask her. She thought I shouldn't keep it because it only reminded me…" She let it hang. "Is it true that my husband was a blackmailer?"
"Yes. And your former employer is not only a mur- derer, he tried to make you his scapegoat. You have been unfortunate in your choice of male associates, but I can relieve your mind about one you didn't choose, your father. He didn't commit suicide; he was mur- dered. By Mr. Khoury."
"No," Khoury said. "Another one? You're piling it on."
Wolfe leveled his eyes at him. "Your aplomb is admi- rable, sir," he said, no sarcasm. "Of course you're count- ing on what I said at the beginning, that I have no evidence. You're too sanguine. The evidence almost certainly exists, but to get it will require authority and a large trained staff, and I have neither. I am obliged to Mr. Hazen for a valuable hint, his remark that Mrs. Hazen's father was a great inventor and a genius. That suggested that you might have cheated him out of the
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proceeds of his genius, and immediately after talking with you on the phone today I put a man on it."
Wolfe fumed to Cramer. "The man was Saul Panzer. You know his capacities. He phoned me about an hour ago, just before I called you, and what he reported was the basis for my statement to Mrs. Hazen, that Khoury killed her father. I don't tell you what he reported because you will get it from him, and also because I don't want Mr. Khoury to know what has been uncov- ered, and neither do you. As I said, I am only offering a suggestion, but I trust it is cogent enough to persuade you to restrict Mr. Khoury's movements, and to put some men to work. He may have taken Hazen's keys on the chance that they might be useful, and he may still have them, though not on his person. Find them. Ran- sack his premises. He may even still have the object or objects he certainly took; find them. If you see his wife before he is allowed to communicate with her you may leam something about Gun P." He flipped a hand. "But this is superfluous; you know your job. If I have-"
Khoury had moved. No rush, he wasn't a bit dis- turbed, but he was on his feet. "Really," he said, "there's a limit." His straight line to the door was in front of Mrs. Oliver and Perdis and Lucy, but it would have been bad manners to cross their bows, so he started around. On past Mrs. Oliver, and Perdis, and Lucy, with Stebbins at her shoulder, before Cramer spoke. "Stop him, Purley." Khoury whirled, saying through his teeth, "Don't touch me."
"Nuts," Purley said, and began going over him for a gun. Gun X, maybe. Anyway, Khoury couldn't have made it to the hall because Theodore Weed was there filling the door.