Curtains for Three

by Rex Stout

  .Cramer called a recess on the questions to take steps. He called men in and gave orders. Colonel Brown was to be photographed and fingerprinted and headquarters records were to be checked for him and Cynthia. The file on the murder of Doris Hatten was to | be brought to him at once. The lab reports were to be j rushed. Saul Panzer and Fritz Brenner were to be] brought in.

  Curtains for Three 14?

  came. Fritz stood like a soldier at attention, nd grave. Saul, only five feet seven, with the ; eyes and one of the biggest noses I have ever in his impressed brown suit, and his necktie -he stood like Saul, not slouching and not ie would stand like that if he were being I the Medal of Honor or if he were in front of a Hf^uad. - ” .

  s Cramer knew both of them. He picked on ift>u and Fritz were in the hall aU afternoon?” 1 nodded. The hall and the front room, yes.” f did you see enter or leave the office?”

  Archie go in about four o’clock—I was just fout of the front room with someone’s hat and saw Mrs. Carlisle come out just after she In between those two I saw no one either cleave. We were busy most of the time, either or the front room.” 1 grunted. “How about you, Fritz?” no one.” Fritz spoke louder than usual. “I ren see Archie go in.” He took a step forward, , soldier. “I would like to say something.” ad.” : a great deal of all this disturbance is un. My duties here are of the household and not but I cannot help hearing what reaches , and I am aware of the many times that Mr. i found the answer to problems that were too This happened here in his own house, it should be left entirely to him.” i, “Fritz, I didn’t know you had it in you!” i disturbance,” he insisted firmly, goddamned.” Cramer was goggling at him. you to say that, huh?”

  M& Rex Stout

  “Bah.” Wolfe was contemptuous. “It can’t be helped, Fritz. Have we plenty of ham?”

  “Yes,sir.”

  “Sturgeon?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Lateiy probably. For the guests in the front room, but not the police. Are you through with them, Mr Cramer?”

  ^o.‘VCramer went back to ���auL “You checked the guestsin?”

  “Yes.” ‘ .-‘ “- .. . ‘ .. - : ‘.”. ‘ “How?r ‘…;,. ;’ ‘ / ‘;. …’ ,. ”’.

  “I had a list of the members of the Manhattan Flower Club. They had to show their membership cards. I checked on the list those who came. If they brought a wife or husband, or any other guest, I took

  ‘^Mil*f$?”~,: ‘

  :^NnNfe��� you have a record of everybody?”

  ^^*5BB*&,.:/.r;— . . : “How cdnpete is it?” “It^seo^lete and it’s accurate.”

  **About how many names?” “Two hundred and nineteen.” “This place wouldn’t hold that many.” Saul nodded. They came arid went. There wasn’t . marexthan a hundred or so at any one time.”

  That’s a help.” Cramer was getting more and more disgusted, and I didn’t blame him. “Goodwin says he was there at the door with you when that woman screamed and came running out of the office, but that you hadn’t seen her enter the office. Why not?”

  *We had our backs turned. We were watching a man who had just left go down the steps. Archie had asked him for his name and he had said that was ridiculous. If you want it, his name is Malcolm Vedder.”

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  s ten it i& How do you know?” 1 checked him in along with the rest”

  stared. “Are you telling me that you could many names to that many faces after seeing ;onee?”

  shoulders went slightly up and down, i more to people than faces. I might go wrong , but not many. I was at that door to do a job lit” ‘ -..-.. .< “. should know by this time,” Wolfe rumbled, r. Panzer is an exceptional man.”

  spoke to a dick standing by the door. “You name, Levy-*-Malcomi Vedder. 3teflSteb ; it on that list and send a man to bring him

  -dick went. Crsmer returned to Saul. Tut ft y. Say I sit you here with that list, and a man or l is brought in, and I point to a name on the list you if that person came this afternoon under Could you tell me positively?” 1 tell you positively whether the person had I or not, especially if he was wearing the same land hadn’t been disguised. On fitting him to his t might go wrong in a few cases, but I doubt it.” i*‘t believe you.” Wolfe does,” Saul said complacently. “Archie | have developed my faculties.” tsure have. All right, that’s all for now. Stick

  ‘ - . : : ‘>’ -. .. :- .; -;- “

  I and Fritz went. Wolfe, in his own chair at the sdining table, where ordinarily, at this hour,

  for a quite different purpose than the one at (red a deep sigh and closed his eyes. I, seated t Cramer at the side of the table that put us fac

  ; door to the hall, was beginning to appreciate

  ;-Iflfc-: Rex Stout …’….’

  the kind of problem we were up against. The look on drainer’s face indicated that he was appreciating it too. The look was crossing my bow, direct at Wolfe.

  “Goodwin’s story,” Gramer growled. “I mean her story. What do you think?”

  Wolfe’s eyes cane open a little. “What followed seems to support it. I doubt if she would have arranged for that”—he flipped a hand in the direction of the office across the hall—“just to corroborate a tale. I accept it. I credit it.”

  “Yeah. I don’t heed to remind you that I know you well and I know Goodwin well. So I wonder how much chance there is that in a day or so you’ll suddenly remember that she had been here before today, or one or more of the others had, and you’ve got a client, and there was something leading up to this.”

  ���osto^ IToJfe said dryly. “Even if it were like that, and it isn’t, yon would be wasting tame. Since you know us, you know we wouldn’t remember until we got eady:to.””’ /,. :. - “-. : .

  CJramer glowered. Two scientists came in from across the hall to report. Stebbins came to announce the arrival of an .assistant district attorney. A dick came to relay a phone call from a deputy commissioner. Another dick came hi to say that Homer Carlisle was raising hell in the front room. Meanwhile Wolfe sat with his eyes shut, but I got an idea of his state of mind from the fact that intermittently his forefinger was making little circles on the polished top of the table.

  Cramer looked at him* “What da youknow,” he asked abruptly, “about the killing of that Doris Hat ten?”.- : <: :-. . — ‘ ‘.;… ; ,

  “Newspaper accounts,” Wolfe muttered. “And what Mr. Stebbins has told Mr. Goodwin, casually.” “Casual is right.” Cramer got out a cigar, conveyed

  Cm-tains for Three 171

  mouth, and sank his teeth in it. He never Et hose damn houses with self-service elevators than walk-ups for a checking job. No one ‘.sees anyone coming or going. If you’re not inter, I’m talking to hear mysetfi” Nm interested.” Wolfe’s eyes stayed shut.

  1.1 appreciate it. Even so, self-service eleva not, the man who paid the rent for that apart, was lucky. He may have been clever and careful, i he was lucky. Never to have anybody see him i to give a description of him—that took hick.”

  Miss Hatten paid the rent herself.” e,” Cramer conceded, “she paid it all right, tot (did she get it from? No visible means of support : wasn’t visible, and three good men spent a (trying to start a trail, and one of them is still at was no doubt about its being that kind of a we did get that far. She had only been “living two months, and when we found out how well who paid for it had kept himself covered, as a drum, we decided that maybe he had in sner there just for the purpose. That was why we it all we had. Another reason was that the started hinting that we knew who he was and n was such a big shot we were sitting on the lid.” ner shifted his cigar one tooth over to the left. pond of thing used to get me sore, but what the newspapers that’s just routine. Big shot or s didn’t need us to do any covering for him—he i too good a job himself. Now, if we’re to take this Cynthia Brown gave it to Goodwill, it have been the man who paid the rent and it That makes & pie. I would hate to tell you [think of the feet that Goodwin sat ther
e in your I was told right here on these premises and all

  47* Bex Stoat

  he did was go upstairs and watch te see if anybody squeezed a flowerpot!”

  -,.f!K^^^]ri4bM>*^Iv^‘dlrib^^ “Not that he wo��� ���n the premises, that he had been. Also I was taking it with salt. Abo she was saving specifications for Mr. Wotfe. Atee—”

  “Also I know you. How many of those two hundred and nineteen people were men?” ���T sroiaM say a little over half.” Then how do you like it?” . ‘ ^hateA” / :- …:.;. -.. . ‘ ., .-.-. Wolfe grunted, “Judging from your attitude, Mr. Cramer, something that has occurred to me has not weoafedtoy���t” -‘- —:. ;-;.:,. - ‘.��� ���iiatura%t%Ki’re a genius. What is ft?”

  Something that Mr. Goodwin told us. I want to con^teita^tte.”

  **We could consider it together.” ^?5Latef.-v.‘I^OBe:—peo|ile-,i��� tiie front room are my gue^s. Can’t you dispose of them?”

  “One of your guests,” Cramer rasped, “was a beaut, all right.” He spoke to the dick by the door. “Bring in that woman—what’s her name? Carlisle.”

  ..’”……. ‘.*’… “.- : ‘Iv”. .. -“. — .

  Mrs. Homer N. Carlisle came in with all her belongings: her caracul coat, her gaily colored scarf, and her husband. Perhaps I should say that her husband brought her. As soon as he was through the door he strode across to the dining table and delivered a harangue. I don’t suppose Cramer had heard that speech, with variations, more titan a thousand (rases. This time it was pretty offensive. Solid and broad-shouldered,

  Curtains for Three 173

  Carlisle looked the part His sharp dark eyes and his long gorilla-like arms were good for . At the first opening Gramer, controlling him1 he was sorry ami asked them to sit down. Carlisle did. Mr. Carlisle didn’t. We’re nearly two hoars late now,” he stated. “I * you have your duty to perform, but citizens have rights left, thank God. Our presence here is adventitious.” I would have been impressed by ventitious if he hadn’t had so much time to think “I warn you that if my name is published in with this miserable affair, a murder in the sxrf a private detective, I’ll make trouble. I’m in a t to. Why should it be? Why should we be de’ What if we had left five of ten minutes earlier, idid?” _”v.; ;” ; ; ; .-‘:” ; , . ” t’s not quite logical^” Cramer objected, hynotr l : i matter when you left it would”have been the s if your wife had acted the same. She discovered

  “$”, : . ;; -“;.: .

  ly accident!”

  ay I say something, Homer?” the wife put in. ; depends on what you say.” )h���” Cramer said significantly. v : ���

  ; do you mean, oh?” Carlisle demanded, mean that I sent for your wife, not you, but you ^with her, and that tells me why^Jfow wanted to Mi that she wasn’t indiscreet.”

  at the hell has she got to be indiscreet about?” don’t know. Apparently you do. If she hasn’t, it you sit down and relax while I ask her a few

  ons?”- …,. ; .;- , ;-.,-.. .’

  , sir,” Wolfe advised him. “You came in

  174 ftex Stoat

  here angry, and you blundered. An angry man is a

  It was a struggle for the executive vice-president, but he made it. He damped his Jaws and sat. Cramer went to the wife. :

  “You wanted to say something, Mrs. Carlisle?”

  “Only that I’m sorry.” Her bony hands, the fingers twined, were on the table before her. “For the trouble I’ve caused.”

  “I wouldn’t say you caused it exactly—except for yourself and your husband.” Cramer was mild. The woman was dead, whether you went in there or not. Jfeut, if only as a matter of form, it was essential for me to see you, since you discovered the body. That’s all there is to it as tax as I know. There’s no question of your being involved mere than that.”

  “Howthe hell couldthere be?” Carlisle blurted.

  Cramer ^rK���ed him. “Goodwin here saw .you standing in the hall not more than two minutes, probably less, prior to the moment you screamed and ran out of the office. How long had you then been downstairs?”

  “We had just come down. I was waiting for my husband to get his things.”

  “Had you been downstairs before that?”

  “No—only when we came in.”

  “What time did you arrive?”

  *A>-&mm&three, I think-”

  TVen^r past three,” the husband put in.

  “Were yon and your husband together all the time? CoBtinuousty?^

  ; *Wcourse. Welt—yon know how it i���-^he would want to look longer at something, and I would move on aHttte-���

  “Certainly we were,” Carlisle said irritably. “You can see why I made that remark about it depending on

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  , she said. She has a habit of being vague. This is ito be vague.” am not actually vague,” she protested with no ; not to her husband but to Cramer. “It’s just that is relative. There would be no presence if t were no absence. There would be no innocence if were no sin. Nothing can be cut off sharp from ; else. Who would have thought my wish to see Wolfe’s office would link me with a horrible

  God!” Carlisle exploded. “Hear that? Link. hy did you want to see Wolfe’s office?” Cramer

  hy, to see the globe.” awked at her. I had supposed that naturally she say it was curiosity about the office of a great oils detective. Apparently Cramer reacted the las me. “The globe?” he demanded. STes, I had read about it and I wanted to see how it , I thought a globe that size, three feet in diame

  : be fantastic in an ordinary room—Oh!” ^iwhat?” ; didn’t see it!”

  ler nodded. “You saw something else instead, way, I forgot to ask, did you know her? Had ever seen her before?”

  i mean—her?” STes. Her name was Cynthia Brown.”^ .

  had never known her or seen her or heard of 1 the husband declared. ,-. .

  . you, Mrs. Carlisle?”

  *o.” –.-‘- . –— . course she came as the guest of a Mrs. Orwin;

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  she wasn’t a member of this flower club. Are you a member?”

  “Myhusband is.”

  “We both are,” Carlisle stated. *Vague again. It’s a joint membership. In my greenhouse at my country home I have over four thousand plants, including several hundred orchids.” He looked at his wrist watch. “Isn’t this about enough?” ;

  “Plenty,” Cramer conceded, “Thank you, both of you. We won’t bother you again unless we have to. Levy, pass them put,”

  Mrs. Carlisle got to her feet and moved off, but halfway to the door she turned. “I don?t suppose— would it be possible for me to look at the globe now? Justapeek?”

  “For God’s sake!” Her husband took her by the arjm, “Come on. Come on!” ,

  When the door had closed behind them Cramer glared at me and then at Wolfe. “This is sure a sweet one,” he said grimly. “Say it’s within the range of possibility that Carlisle is it, and the way it stands right now, why not? So we look into him. We check back on him for six months, and try doing it without getting roars out of him—a man like that, in his position. However, it can be done—by three or four men in two or threes we^ksl Multiply that by what? How many men .werehere?*’” u<:’ . ”’-’”*’ ‘ ” :

  “Around a hundred and twenty,” I told him. “Ten dozen. But you’ll find that at least half of them are disqualified one way or another. As I told you, I took a sttrtfey^&iy sMly,”

  “All right, multiply ft by s&ty. Do you care for it?”

  “No.”

  “Neither do I.” Cramer took the cigar from his mouth, removed a nearly severed piece with his fin Curtains for Three 177

  and put it in an ashtray, and replaced the cigar a fresh tooth-hold. “Of course,” he said sarcasti* , “when she sat in there telling you about him the ;idn was different. You wanted her to enjoy being t you. You couldn’t reach for the phone and tell us a self-confessed crook who could p
ut a quick on a murderer and let us come and take over— a! You had to save it for a fee for Wolfe! You had and admire her legs!” Dn’t be vulgar,” I said severely, ifou had to go upstairs and make a survey! You

  Well?”

  aeutenant Rowcliff had opened the door and en. There were some city employees I liked, some I some I had no feeling about, some I could done without easy—and one whose ears-1 was to twist someday. That was Rowcliff. fle was ong, handsome, and a pain in the neck, e’re all through in there, sir,” he said impor”We’ve covered everything. Nothing is being away, and it is all in order. We were especially with the contents of the drawers of Wolfe’s J and also we—” ly desk!” Wolfe roared.

  ffes, your desk,” Rowcliff said precisely, smirking, i blood was rushing into Wolfe’s face, he was killed there,” Cramer said gruffly. “She ;led with something, and murderers have jpmown to hide things. Did you get anything at

  l^don’t think so,” Rowcliff admitted. “Of course ats have to be sorted, and there’ll be lab re< How do we leave it?”

  it up and we’ll see tomorrow. You stay here

  178 Bex Stout

  and keep a photographer. The others can go. Tell Steb bins to send that woman in—Mrs. Irwin.”

  “Orwm;gir.”

  ^raae^lwr.”

  ^^rfr.” Eowcliff turned to go.

  “Wait a minute ” I objected, “Seal what up? The ‘office?” /.-. V :. - . ‘-:’ ,v.;:

  <*Ce3rtaiftiy/’ KowcKff sneered.

  I said firmly, to Cramer, not to ban, “You don’t mean it. We work there. We live there. All our stuff is

  there.” - ,.- .’, … . ‘.. .-..-. - ‘

  “Go ahead, Lieutenant,” Cramer told Roweliff, and he wheeled and went.