Homicide Trinity

by Homicide Trinity (lit)

  "About where you are. About three feet closer to

  me."

  "What did she say?"

  "That she wanted to see Nero Wolfe about something

  46 Rex Stout

  urgent. No, she said that at the door. She said her case

  was private and very confidential."

  "She used the word 'case'?"

  "Yes."

  "What else did she say?"

  "That her name was Bertha Aaron and she was the

  private secretary of Mr. Lament Otis, senior partner in

  the law firm of Otis, Edey, Heydecker, and Jett."

  "What else did she say?"

  Naturally I had known that the time would come to

  lie, and decided this was it. "Nothing," I said.

  "Absolutely nothing?"

  "Right."

  "You are Nero Wolfe's confidential assistant. He was

  engaged elsewhere. Do you expect me to believe that

  you did not insist on knowing the nature of her case

  before you went to him?"

  The phone rang. "Not if you'd rather not," I said, and

  swiveled, lifted the receiver and spoke. "Nero Wolfe's

  residence, Archie Goodwin speaking."

  I recognized the voice. "This is Rita Sorell, Mr. Good-

  win. I have decided—"

  "Hold it please. Just a second." I pressed a palm over

  the transmitter and told Wolfe, "That woman you sent

  a card to. The one who told me I was handsome." He

  reached for his receiver and put it to his ear and I

  returned to mine. "Okay. You have decided?"

  "I have decided that it will be best to tell you what

  you came this morning to find out. I have decided that

  you were too clever for me, not mentioning at all what

  you had written on the card, when that was what you

  came for. Your saying that you made it up, that you

  tried to write something that would make me curious—

  you didn't expect me to believe that. You were too

  clever for me. So I might as well confess, since you

  already know it. I did sit with a man in a booth in a

  lunchroom one evening last week—what evening was

  it?"

  "Monday."

  The Homicide Trinity 47

  "That's right. And you want to know who the man

  was. Don't you?"

  "It would help."

  "I want to help. You are very handsome. His name is

  Gregory Jett."

  "Many thanks. If you want to help—"

  She had hung up.

  Chapter 6

  I cradled the receiver and rotated my chair. Wolfe

  pushed his phone back and said, "She is a con-

  founded nuisance."

  "Yes, sir."

  "I suppose we'll have to humor her."

  "Yes, sir. Or shoot her."

  "Not a welcome option." He arose. "Gentlemen, I

  must ask you to excuse me. Come, Archie." He headed

  for the hall and I got up and followed. Turning left, he

  pushed the door to the kitchen. Fritz was there at the

  big table, chopping an onion. The door swung shut.

  Wolfe turned to face me. "Very well. You know her.

  You have seen her and talked with her. What about it?"

  "I'd have to toss a coin. Several coins. You have seen

  Jett and talked with him. It could be that she merely

  wanted to find out if we already knew who it was, and if

  so she might have named the right one and she might

  not. Or it might have been a real squeal; she decided

  that Jett killed Bertha Aaron, and either she loves

  justice no matter what it costs her, or she was afraid

  Jett might break and her spot would be too hot for

  comfort. I prefer the latter. Or it wasn't Jett, it was

  Edey or Heydecker, and she is trying to ball it up—and

  she may be sore at Jett on account of the episode. If it

  backfires, if we already know it was Edey or Hey-

  48 Rex Stout

  decker, what the hell. Telling me on the phone isn't

  swearing to it on the stand. She can deny she called me.

  Or she might—"

  'That's enough for now. Have you a choice?"

  "No, sir. I told you she's a gem."

  He grunted. He reached for a piece of onion, put it in

  his mouth, and chewed. When it was down he asked

  Fritz, "Ebenezer?" and Fritz told him no, Elite. He

  turned to me. "In any case, she has ripped it open. Even

  if she is merely trying to muddle it we can't afford to

  assume that she hasn't communicated with him—or

  soon will."

  "She couldn't unless he phoned her. They've been at

  the DA's office all morning."

  He nodded. "Then we'll tell him first. You'll have to

  recant."

  "Right. Do we save anything?"

  "I think not. The gist first and we'll see."

  He made for the door. In the hall we heard a voice

  from the office, Edey's thin tenor, but it stopped as we

  appeared. As I passed in front of Heydecker he stuck a

  foot out, but possibly not to trip me; he may have been

  merely shifting in his chair.

  When Wolfe was settled in his he spoke. "Gentlemen,

  Mr. Goodwin and I have decided that you deserve can-

  dor. That was Mrs. Morton Sorell on the phone. What

  she said persuaded us—"

  "Did you say Sorell?" Heydecker demanded. He was

  gawking and so was Edey. Evidently Jett never

  gawked.

  "I did. Archie?"

  I focused on Heydecker. "If she had called twenty

  seconds earlier," I told him, "I wouldn't have had to

  waste a lie. I did insist on knowing the nature of Bertha

  Aaron's case before I went to Mr. Wolfe, and she told

  me. She said she had accidentally seen a member of the

  firm in secret conference with Mrs. Morton Sorell, the

  firm's opponent in an important ease. She said that

  after worrying about it for a week she had told him

  about it that afternoon, yesterday, and asked for an

  The Homicide Trinity 49

  explanation, and he didn't have one, so he was a traitor.

  She said she was afraid to tell Mr. Otis because he had a

  weak heart and it might kill him, and she wouldn't tell

  another firm member because he might be a traitor too.

  So she had come to Nero Wolfe."

  I had been wrong about Jett. Now he was gawking

  too. He found his tongue first. "This is incredible. I

  don't believe it!"

  "Nor I," Heydecker said.

  "Nor I," Edey said, his tenor a squeak.

  "Do you expect us to believe," Heydecker demanded,

  "that Bertha Aaron would come to an outsider with a

  story that would gravely damage the firm if it became

  known?"

  Wolfe cut in. "No more cross-examination, Mr. Hey-

  decker. I indulged you before, but not now. If questions

  are to be asked I'll do the asking. As for Mr. Goodwin's

  bona fides, he has given a signed statement to the

  police, and he is not an ass. Also—"

  "The police?" Edey squeaked. "Good God!"

  "It's absolutely incredible," Jett declared.

  Wolfe ignored them. "Also I allowed Mr. Otis to read

  a copy of the statement when he came here last night.

  He agreed not to divulge its contents when he came

  here last night. He agreed not to divulge i
ts contents

  before ten o'clock tomorrow morning, to give me till

  then to plan a course—a course based on the natural

  assumption that Miss Aaron was killed by the man she

  had accused of treachery—an assumption I share with

  the police. Evidently the police have preferred to re-

  serve the statement, and so have I, but not now—since

  Mrs. Sorell has named the member of your firm she was

  seen with. On the phone just now. One of you."

  "This isn't real," Edey squeaked. "This is a night-

  mare." Heydecker sputtered, "Do you dare to

  suggest—"

  "No, Mr. Heydecker." Wolfe flattened a palm on his

  desk. "I will not submit to questioning; I will choose the

  facts I'm willing to share. I suggest nothing; I am

  reporting. I neglecting to say that Miss Aaron did not

  50 Rex Stout

  name the member of the firm she had seen with Mrs.

  Sorell. Now Mrs. Sorell has named him, but I am not

  satisfied of her veracity. Mr. Goodwin saw her this

  morning and found her devious. I'm not going to tell you

  whom she named, and that will make the pressure on

  one of you almost unendurable."

  The pressure wasn't exactly endurable for any of

  them. They were exchanging glances, and they weren't

  glances of sympathy and partnership. In a spot like that

  the idea I mentioned might be expected to work, but it

  didn't. Two of them were really suspicious of their

  partners and one was only pretending to be, but it

  would have taken a better man than me to pick him;

  better even than Wolfe, whose eyes, narrowed to slits,

  were taking them in.

  He was going on. "The obvious assumption is that

  you—one of you—followed Miss Aaron when she left

  the premises yesterday after she had challenged you,

  and when you saw her enter my house your alarm was

  acute and exigent. You sought a telephone and rang

  this number. In Mr. Goodwin's absence she answered

  the phone, and consented to admit you. If you can—"

  "It was pure chance that she was alone," Edey ob-

  jected. The idea man.

  "Pfui. If I'm not answering questions, Mr. Edey,

  neither am I debating trifles. With your trained minds

  that is no knot for you. Speaking again to one of you: if

  you could be identified by inquiry into your where-

  abouts and movements yesterday afternoon the police

  would have the job already done and you would be in

  custody. All that they have been told by you and by the

  entire personnel of your office is being checked by an

  army of men well qualified for the task. But since they

  have reserved the information supplied by Mr. Good-

  win, I doubt if they have asked you about Monday

  evening of last week. Eight days ago. Have they?"

  "Why should they?" It was Jett.

  "Because that was when one of you was seen by Miss

  Aaron in conference with Mrs. Sorell. I'm going to ask

  you now, but first I should tell you of an understanding

  The Homicide Trinity 51

  I had with Mr. Otis last night. In exchange for informa-

  tion he furnished I agreed that in exposing the mur-

  derer I would minimize, as far as possible, the damage

  to the reputation of his firm. I will observe that agree-

  ment, so manifestly, for two of you, the sooner this is

  over the better. Mr. Jett. How did you spend Monday

  evening, December twenty-ninth, say from six o'clock

  to midnight?"

  Jett's eyes were still deep-set, but they weren't

  dreamy. They had been glued on Wolfe ever since I had

  recanted, and he hadn't moved a muscle. He spoke. "If

  this is straight, if all you've said is true, including the

  phone call from Mrs. Sorell, the damage to the firm is

  done and you can do nothing to minimize it. No one

  under heaven can."

  "I can try. I intend to."

  "How?"

  "By meeting contingencies as they arise."

  Heydecker put in, "You say Mr. Otis knows all this?

  He was here last night?"

  "Yes. I am not a parrot and you are not deaf. Well,

  Mr. Jett? Monday evening of last week?"

  "I was at a theater with a friend."

  "The friend's name?"

  "Miss Ann Paige."

  "What theater?"

  "The Drew. The play was Practice Makes Perfect.

  Miss Paige and I left the office together shortly before

  six and had dinner at Rusterman's. We were together

  continuously until after midnight."

  "Thank you. Mr. Edey?"

  "That was the Monday before New Year's," Edey

  said. "I got home before six o'clock and ate dinner there

  and was there all evening."

  "Alone?"

  "No. My son and his wife and two children spent the

  holiday week with us. They went to the opera with my

  wife and daughter, and I stayed home with the chil-

  dren."

  "How old are the children?"

  52 Rex Stout

  "Two and four."

  "Where is your home?"

  "An apartment. Park Avenue and Sixty-ninth

  Street."

  "Did you go out at all?"

  "No."

  "Thank you. Mr. Heydecker?"

  "I was at the Manhattan Chess Club watching the

  tournament. Bobby Fischer won his adjourned game

  with Weinstein in fifty-eight moves. Larry Evans drew

  with Kaime and Reshevsky drew with Mednis."

  "Where is the Manhattan Chess Club?"

  "West Sixty-fourth Street."

  "Did play start at six o'clock?"

  "Certainly not. I was in court all day and had things

  to do at the office. My secretary and I had sandwiches

  at my desk."

  "What time did you leave the office?"

  "Around eight o'clock. My secretary would know."

  "What time did you arrive at the chess club?"

  "Fifteen or twenty minutes after I left the office."

  Heydecker suddenly moved and was on his feet. "This

  is ridiculous," he declared. "You may be on the square,

  Wolfe, I don't know. If you are, God help us." He

  turned. "I'm going to see Otis. You coming, Frank?"

  He was. The brilliant idea man, judging from his

  expression, had none at all. He pulled his feet back,

  moved his head slowly from side to side to tell hope

  good-by, and arose. They didn't ask the eleven-percent

  partner to join them, and apparently he wasn't going to,

  but as I was reaching for Edey's ulster on the hall rack

  here came Jett, and when I opened the door he was the

  first one out. I stood on the stoop, getting a breath of

  air, and watched them heading for Ninth Avenue three

  abreast, a solid front of mutual trust and understand-

  ing, in a pig's eye.

  In the office, Wolfe was leaning back with his eyes

  closed. As I reached my desk the phone rang. It was

  Saul Panzer, to report that there had been no sign of

  Mrs. Sorell. I told him to hold the wire and relayed it to

  The Homicide Trinity 53

  Wolfe, and asked if he wanted to put them on the alibis

  we had just collected. "Pfui," he said, and I told Saul t
o

  carry on.

  I swiveled. "I was afraid," I said, "that you might be

  desperate enough to try it, checking their alibis. It's

  very interesting, the different ways there are of crack-

  ing a case. It depends on who you are. If you're just a

  top-flight detective, me for instance, all you can do is

  detect. You'd rather go after an alibi than eat. When

  you ask a man where he was at eleven minutes past

  eight you put it in your notebook, and you wear out a

  pair of shoes looking for somebody who says he was

  somewhere else. But if you're a genius you don't give a

  damn about alibis. You ask him where he was only to

  keep the conversation going while you wait for some-

  thing to click. You don't even listen—"

  "Nonsense," he growled. "They have no alibis."

  I nodded. "You didn't listen."

  "I did listen. Their alibis are worthless. One with his

  fiancee, one watching a chess tournament, one at home

  with young children in bed asleep. Bah. I asked on the

  chance that one of them, possibly two, might be elimi-

  nated, but no. There are still three."