Three Men Out

by Rex Stout

  "I agree. What did you see?" "I was sleeping on the floor above this, and so was Mrs. Huck. She came and got me up; she was in great pain and didn't want to disturb her husband. I got her back to bed and called a doctor--it was after midnight--and I got Mrs. O'Shea, but there wasn't much we could do until the doctor came. It was a question about telling Mr. Huck--he couldn't even go in the room where she was, because the door was too narrow for his chair, but of course we had to tell him. She died about eight o'clock." Wolfe went to Huck. "Naturally there was some inquiry--a death under those circumstances." "Certainly." Huck was curt. "Was there an autopsy?" "Yes. It was ptomaine." "Was the source identified?" "Not by analysis." A spasm ran over Huck's face. He was having a little trouble with the controls. "Before dinner there had been a large assortment of hors d'oeuvres, and among them was a kind of pickled artichoke which my wife was very fond of. No 77 one else had taken any of them, and apparently she had eaten them all, since there were none left. Since no one else was ill, it was assumed that the ptomaines, which were definitely present, had been in the artichokes."

  Wolfe grunted. "I'm not a ptomaine scholar, but this afternoon I looked them up a little. Do you know how thoroughly the possibility of the presence of a true alkaloid was excluded?" "No. I don't know what you mean." "Isn't ptomaine an alkaloid?" Dorothy Riff asked. "Yes," Wolfe conceded, "but cadaveric. However, for that there is the record. You were here the night of Mrs. Huck's death, Miss Riff?" "I was here for the party. I left around eleven o'clock." "Did you know that she was fond of pickled artichokes?" "We all did. It was a kind of standing joke." "How did you know that ptomaines are alkaloids?" She flushed a little. "When Mrs. Huck died I read up about them." "Why? Was there something about her 78 death or about the artichokes that made you suspect something?" "No! Of course not!" Wolfe's head went right and left. "Did any of you suspect that Mrs. Huck's death was not accidental?" He got a unanimous negative with no abstentions, but he insisted, "Have any of you felt, at any time, that the possibility of foul play was insufficiently explored?" Unanimous again. Mrs. O'Shea snapped, "Why should we feel that if we didn't suspect anything?" Wolfe nodded. "Why indeed?" He leaned back, cleared his throat, and looked judicious. "I am impressed, naturally, by the total absence of any currents of mistrust among you. Three women like you--young, smart, alive to opportunity, inevitably competitive in a household like this--are ideal soil for the seeds of suspicion if there are any around, but evidently none have sprouted in you. That is more than indicative, it is almost conclusive, and I could not expect, here in an hour or so, to reach the haven of certainty. It would be unreasonable to challenge you to convince me utterly; the law itself assumes innocence until guilt is ^demonstrated; and that leaves us only with 79 the question, how much is it worth to you IF to have me employ my talent and energy to persuade Mr. Lewent that his suspicions are unfounded, and to keep him persuaded? Shall we say one hundred thousand dollars?" They were unanimous again, this time with gasps. Miss Riff, quickest to find words, cried, "I told you it was blackmail!"

  Wolfe showed them his palms. "If you please. I am indifferent to what you call it, blackmail or brigandage, but it would be childish for you to suppose I would perform so great a service for you as a benefaction. My spring of philanthropy is not so torrential. The sum I named would surely not be exorbitant. I'll be considerate on details; I don't even insist on an IOU; it will be sufficient if Mr. Huck will state, all of us hear- . ing him, that he guarantees payment of the full amount to me within one month. With one provision, which I insist on, that no word of this arrangement ever reaches Mr. Lewent. On that I must have explicit and firm assurance. I require the guarantee from Mr. Huck because I know he is good for it and I know nothing of the financial status of any of the rest of you, and of course it is to his interest as well as yours that Mr. Lewent 80 [ should be persuaded that his suspicions are unfounded." He took them in. "Well?" "It's blackmail," Miss Riff said firmly. Paul Thayer muttered, "Lewent picked a lulu when he picked you." Miss Marcy and Mrs. O'Shea were silent. They were looking at Huck, obviously wanting a lead. Huck, his head cocked to one side, was frowning at Wolfe, studying him, as if in doubt whether he had heard correctly.

  He spoke. "What makes you think," he asked, "that you can manage my brother-in- law?" "Mainly, sir, my self-conceit. I undertake it, and I too am financially responsible. You guarantee to pay, and I guarantee to deliver. You guarantee to pay me one hundred thousand dollars within one month, and I guarantee that Mr. Lewent will not again accuse any person here present of serious misconduct prior to this moment; and if he does so I forfeit the entire amount paid me." "Is there a time limit to your guarantee?" "No." "Then I accept it. I guarantee to pay you one hundred thousand dollars within one month, as consideration for the guarantee 81 you have given, as stated by you. Is that satisfactory?" "Perfectly. Now the provision. It is understood by all of you that no word of this arrangement is ever to get to Mr. Lewent. You agree that you will give him no hint of it either directly or indirectly. To indicate your agreement please raise your hands." Mrs. O'Shea's hand went up first, then Miss Marcy's, then Miss Riff's. Wolfe asked, "Mr. Huck?" "I thought it unnecessary. Certainly I agree." "Mr. Thayer?" With all eyes on him, Paul Thayer looked highly uncomfortable. He glanced at his uncle. "Oh, nuts," he said, and raised both hands as high as they would go. "Then that's settled." Wolfe made a face. "Now I must go to work, and I must have your help. First I'll speak with Mr. Lewent privately, but it may be that after a preliminary I'll want to bring him in here for a brief colloquy. So you will please remain here a while--not long, I think." He got to his feet. "Archie, you said Mr. Lewent is in his room on this floor?" I was a little tardy answering and moving because I was trying to see all their faces at 82 once as they heard that we were going for Lewent. But Wolfe repeated my name, and I was up and with him, detouring around him to get to the door and open it. I led the way to Lewent's room, opened that door too, and, entering, flipped the wall switch for light and then stepped over Lewent's legs to get out of the way for Wolfe to come in. He did so and shut the door and stood looking down at his client. "Lift him so I can see the back of his head." That was no great strain, considering the size of the corpse and the fact that it was fairly stiff by then. When Wolfe finished his inspection and straightened up, I lowered it to the rug again, to its former position. "As you know," Wolfe said, "it is regarded as undesirable to leave a corpse unguarded, especially when violence is indicated. I'll stay here. You will go and tell them what we have found, instructing them to remain together in Mr. Huck's room, and then call the police." "Yes, sir. Call from Huck's rooms or go down to the study?" "Either. As you choose." "When the cops go into details with me, 83 does my memory fail me anywhere besides my one trip to this room?" "No. Everything else as it was." "Including the way I got up here?" "Yes. Confound it, go." I went. It had been twenty minutes to ten when Wolfe and I had left the gathering in Huck's room to go and have a talk with our client. It was a quarter past twelve, more than two and a half hours later, that we were in Huck's room again with a gathering--the same cast of characters with a few additions. Meanwhile some two dozen highly trained city employees, including a deputy police commissioner and two assistant district attorneys, had put on an expert performance in the house that Herman Lewent's father had built and that Herman had after all managed to die in. I witnessed very little of the performance, since for most of the 155 minutes I was up in the sewing room answering questions and explaining previous answers, but I knew it was expert because 1 had seen most of them in action bef ore. I11 84 ^yay at least it was too damn expert to uit me, because at a couple of points I wouldn't have minded a chance to exchange ^ words with Wolfe, but I wasn't allowed to. We were expertly kept apart, and I had no sight or sound of him between nine-forty-five, when I left him guarding the corpse, and twelve-fifteen, when Sergeant Purley Stebbins, who has called me Archie eight times over the years in fits of absent-mindedness, came up to the sewing room for me and escorted me down to Huck's
room. It was the same cast of characters, but they were visibly the worse for wear. Huck himself, in his chair, still in the maroon tie and jacket, looked so pooped that I was surprised the official brass wasn't showing more consideration for a guy in his bracket whose bum legs gave them such a good excuse. It seemed likely that Paul Thayer had shown some temperament which required a little handling, since his tie was crooked and his hair mussed and a dick was standing at his elbow. On the whole the "^e women were apparently taking it a ue better than the men, but they were by n0 means jaunty. Mrs. O'Shea sat stiff, her u b^e eyes directed at Inspector Cramer, 85 who was seated near Wolfe. She didn't bother to glance at Purley and me as vp entered. And damned if Miss Riff and Miss Marcy weren't holding hands! They were side by side on a couch, sharing it with Assistant DA Mandelbaum and Deputy Po. lice Commissioner Boyle. I had to hand it to Wolfe. He had the big chair he had had before, and this time I hadn't been there to nab it for him. And he didn't look fagged. As I came into range and caught his eye, I thought, oh-oh, here we go. I knew that look well. He was about to make some fur fly, or thought he was. He snapped at me, "Archie!" "Yes, sir." "Sit down. I have told Mr. Cramer I want to go home, and as an inducement have offered some comments on this affair, insisting on your presence. You have of course answered all questions and given all the information you have." "Yes, sir." "So have I. Move your chair�it obstructs my view of Mr. Thayer. That's better. Mr. Cramer, I could have done this much earlier�indeed, immediately after your arrival�but you were not then ready to listen? and besides, there was the possibiL ^lat 86 nr men would uncover something that would weaken or even negate my assumptions. I don't know that they haven't, so I need to ask a few questions." Inspector Cramer's round red face was not sympathetic. He rasped, "You didn't say you had questions, you said you had comments. You practically said you know who killed Lewent." "I do, unless you know better. That's all my questions are for. Are you ready to charge anyone?" "No." "Have you found a weapon that satisfies you?" "No." "Have you any evidence that would contradict an assumption that Lewent was killed elsewhere and his body was transported to his room and dumped there?" "No." "Have you evidence pointing to any other place in this house as the spot where he was killed?" "No." Have you for any reason, evidential or ^Peculative, excluded any of these people "from suspicion?" "No." 87 Boyle cut in from the couch. "How long do you intend to let this go on. Inspector?" "You could have stopped it before it started," Wolfe said dryly. "But here's a comment. It is close to unbelievable that Lewent was killed where he was found. From such a blow he died instantly, and surely it was not struck in that narrow passage, particularly since it was moving upward at the moment of impact. With no sign of any struggle, with no displacement of the rug even, I can't believe that such a blow could be struck--" "Skip it," Cramer growled. "Neither can we." "You think he was killed elsewhere?" "Yes." "But you don't know where?" "No." Mandelbaum exploded, "What do you think this is, Wolfe, twenty questions?" Wolfe ignored him. "My second comment. If he was killed elsewhere, why was the body moved? Because the murderer didn't want it found where it was. How was it moved? That's the real question. For vertical transport there was the elevator, but to and from the elevator, how? Was it dr agged- That would leave marks, and of course you have looked for them. Have you found any?" "No." "Then it wasn't dragged. Carried? By whom? None of these women would be up to it. Lewent was undersized, but he weighed more than a hundred pounds. By Mr. Huck? It has been established that his legs will take him, with no burden, only a few steps. Then Mr. Thayer? He's all we have left, but why? That's another question I must ask you, Mr. Cramer, Why did Mr. Thayer kill Mr. Lewent?" T don't know." "i 'Have you even a decent surmise?" "i 'At present no." � 'Neither have I. But there's another reason for excluding him, at least provisionally--that he's not a lunatic. Only a lunatic would carry the body of a man he had just murdered up and down these halls at that ^me of day, with so great a probability of "eing seen. No, I think we may conclude "^t the body was neither dragged nor car^d. It only remains--" �i By God!" That was me. It popped out. It is not ^ten ^at I let myself interrupt Wolfe when e "fls steam up and is rolling, but that time 89 it hit me so hard that I didn't even know I was speaking. Eyes came to me, and Wolfe turned his head to inquire, "What is it Archie?" I shook my head. "I'll save it." "No, we're through saving. What is it?" "Nothing much, only that I suddenly realized that I actually saw the murderer in the act of transporting the corpse. I stood and looked straight at him while he was moving it, and we exchanged words. I don't like to brag, but don't you agree?" "Yes, I think it likely--" "This is one hell of a time to realize it," Sergeant Stebbins blurted at me. "I suggest," Wolfe told him, "that you post yourself near Mr. Huck. He could have almost anything hidden around that chair, especially under that quilt, and I don't--" "Just a minute, Wolfe." Mandelbaum had left the couch and was marching. "If y011 have any evidence against anyone, including Mr. Huck, we want to hear it or see it first." "This is the man," Huck said in a voice not very steady, "who tried to extort one hundred thousand dollars from me!' ^'m "And succeeded," Wolfe declare 90 no means sure I couldn't collect, u " though-- He stopped, startled. So was I, and the others. Purley Stebbins, who knew Wolfe from away back, had quietly moved to Huck's chair, at his right elbow, and all of a sudden Huck had jerked his head around and snarled at him in a spasm of fury, "Get away!" It was such a nasty snarl that Mandelbaum, also startled, forgot about Wolfe to stare at Huck. Purley, who had been snarled at by experts in his day, was unmoved. "I offered comments, not evidence," Wolfe reminded them. "Here is one regarding the location and nature of the wound on Mr. Lewenfs head, and the direction of the blow. Suppose I am Mr. Huck; here I am in my wheelchair, in my study. It is shortly before five in the afternoon, and my brotherin-law, Mr. Lewent, is with me. I have decided that he must die because I believe "lat he is a deadly menace to me. He has ^gaged Nero Wolfe, a detective who does not ^ste his time or talent on inanities, to sw an investigation in my household on a pretext ^ absurd that it is manifestly a fake. Got only know that my wife would not we left a sum of money secretly to be I 91 given to her brother; I also know that he knows she would not have done that. in addition, Wolfe's assistant, Goodwin, in talking with my secretary and housekeeper and nurse, has dwelt on the possibility that one of them poisoned my wife, pretending that he is merely being facetious. One of them has told me about it. You might check that detail by inquiry." "We have," Cramer admitted. "It was Miss Riff." "Good. So I am convinced that my brother-in-law has become suspicious about his sister's death and therefore mortally threatens me. For the purpose of this comment, let us say the threat is possible disclosure of the fact that I poisoned his sister --my wife--by putting toxic material into a dish of artichokes. The inducement, which I realized, was inheritance of her wealth, amounting to millions. By the way, I don't suppose Mr. Huck can prove that Mr. Lewent did not come to his study between four and five o'clock?" "No. He sent Miss Riff for him about half-past four. He says Lewent w;is with him about ten minutes and then left. "Was Miss Riff present?" "No. She left the house on an ern ^d. 92 yolfe nodded. "Good again. And in fair(o you, Mr. Cramer and gentlemen, it ^ould be said that I have had one big ad- ^ntage which you lacked. You haven't seen Ur Huck propel himself in that vehicle, have you?" They said no. "I haven't either, but I have heard Mr. Goodwin describe the operation and was impressed. It was my memory of that description that put me on the path of these comments. At present Mr. Huck does not look as if he would care to demonstrate his machine, but you can manage that later. To go back: I am now Mr. Huck, here in my chair in my study, shortly before five o'clock." Wolfe pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wadded it in his right hand. "This is a paperweight, a heavy ball of green marble with a segment sliced off. Actually it isnt in my hand, not quite yet, I merely have it ready, here on a shelf of my chair, holding down some papers. Archie, you are Mr- Lewent. Stand there in front of me, Please--of course you could be either stand^S or sitting. A little closer would be more natura1- Now
I lift the paperweight with my lght ^d, and with my left pick up a per to show you, but it slips from my 93 fingers and falls to the floor. It's quite likgi,, that before sending for you I practiced dronping that paper. Of course you bend over to retrieve it for me--that would be automatic with me a cripple--and when you do so I strike with the paperweight." I bent over, and he tapped me on the nape. I wasn't in the mood to ham it by dropping dead, but it didn't seem fitting to straighten up immediately, so I compromised by sinking to a knee. "God save us," muttered Mrs. O'Shea, and there was no other sound. Wolfe went on. "In our relative positions, me sitting and you stooping, the impact would be upward on your skull. I must now move as fast as my disability will permit. Twenty seconds is enough to satisfy me that no second blow is needed; you are dead. I am sound and strong from the hips up, and in another twenty seconds I have you lifted and draped over my legs and covered with the shawl that I am never without. I push a button and grasp the lever, and off we go. 1 must dump you on another floor. It is a risk, certainly, but I must take it." "Evidence, damn it," Mandelbauin growled. . "By all means," Wolfe conceded, '