Rex Stout - And be a Villian

Wolfe leaned back, closed his eyes, pursed his lips, and in a moment began: “Regarding the murder of Cyril Orchard, I send you this information by Mr Goodwin, who is taking Miss Nancylee Shepherd to you. He will explain how Miss Shepherd was brought to New York from Atlantic City. Paragraph.

I suggest that Miss Madeline Fraser should be arrested without delay, charged with the murder of Cyril Orchard. It is obvious that the members of her staff are joined in a conspiracy. At first I assumed that their purpose was to protect her, but I am now convinced that I was wrong. At my office Tuesday evening it was ludicrously transparent that they were all deeply concerned about Miss Eraser's getting home safely, or so I then thought. I now believe that their concern was of a very different kind. Paragraph.

“That evening, here, Mr Meadows was unnecessarily explicit and explanatory when I asked him how he decided which bottles to take from the refrigerator. There were various other matters which aroused my suspicion, plainly pointing to Miss Fraser, among them their pretence that they cannot remember who placed the glass and bottle in front of Mr Orchard, which is of course ridiculous. Certainly they remember; and it is not conceivable that they would conspire unanimously to defend one of their number from exposure, unless that one were Miss Fraser. They are moved, doubtless, by varying considerations-loyalty, affection, or merely the desire to keep their jobs, which they will no longer have after Miss Fraser is arrested and disgraced-and, I hope, punished as the law provides. Paragraph.

“All this was already in my mind, but not with enough conviction to put it to you thus strongly, so I waited until I could have a talk with Miss Shepherd. I have now done that. It is plain that she too is in the conspiracy, and that leaves no doubt that it is Miss Fraser who is being shielded from exposure, since Miss Shepherd would do anything for her but nothing for any of the others.

Miss Shepherd has lied to me twice, that I am sure of, once when she said that she didn't know why the glasses that they drank from were changed, and once when she would give no explanation of her contradiction of the others regarding the number of bottles put in the refrigerator. Mr Goodwin will give you the details of that. Paragraph.

“When you have got Miss Fraser safely locked in a cell, I would suggest that in questioning her you concentrate on the changing of the glasses. That happened nearly a year ago, and therefore it seems likely that the murder of Mr Orchard was planned far in advance. This should make it easier for you, not harder, especially if you are able to persuade Miss Shepherd, by methods available to you, to tell all she knows about it. I do not-Archie”

If Nancylee had had a split personality and it had been the gungirl half of her that suddenly sprang into action, I certainly would have been caught with my fountain pen down. But she didn't pull a gat. All she did was come out of her chair like a hurricane, get to me before I could even point the pen at her, snatch the notebook and hurl it across the room, and turn to blaze away at Wolfe: “That's a lie! It's all a lie!”

“Now, Nan,” came from Mrs Shepherd, in a kind of shaky, hopeless moan.

I was on my feet at the hurricane's elbow, feeling silly. Wolfe snapped at me: “Get the notebook and we'll finish. She's hysterical. If she does it again put her in the bathroom.”

Nancylee was gripping my coat sleeve. “No!” she cried. “You're a stinker, you know you are! Changing the glasses had nothing to do with it! And I don't know why they changed them, either-you're just a stinker-”

“Stop it!” Wolfe commanded her. “Stop screaming. If you have anything to say, sit down and say it. Why did they change the glasses?”

“I don't know!”

In crossing the room for it I had to detour around Mom, and, doing so, I gave her a pat on the shoulder, but I doubt if she was aware of it. From her standpoint there was nothing left. When I got turned around again Nancylee was still standing there, and from the stiffness of her back she looked put for the day. But as I reached my desk suddenly she spoke, no screaming: “I honestly don't know why they changed the glasses, because I was just guessing, but if I tell you what I was guessing I'll have to tell you something I promised Miss Fraser I would never tell anybody.”

Wolfe nodded: “As I said. Shielding Miss Fraser.”

“I’m not shielding her! She doesn't have to be shielded!”

“Don't get hysterical again. What was it you guessed?”

“I want to phone her.”

“Of course you do. To warn her. So she can get away.”

Nancylee slapped a palm on his desk.

“Don't do that!” he thundered.

“You're such a stinker!”

“Very well. Archie, lock her in the bathroom and phone Mr Cramer to send for her.”

I stood up, but she paid no attention to me. “All right,” she said, “then I'll tell her how you made me tell, and my mother can tell her too. When they got the new glasses I didn't know why, but I noticed right away, the broadcast that day, about the bottles too. That day Miss Vance didn't take eight bottles, she only took seven. If it hadn't been for that I might not have noticed, but I did, and when they were broadcasting I saw that the bottle they gave Miss Fraser had a piece of tape on it. And every time after that it has always been seven bottles, and they always give Miss Fraser the one with tape on it. So I thought there was some connection, the new glasses and the tape on the bottle, but I was just guessing.”

“I wish you'd sit down, Miss Shepherd. I don't like tipping my head back.”

“I wouldn't care if you broke your old neck!”

“Now, Nan,” her mother moaned.

Nancylee went to the red leather chair and lowered herself on to the edge of it.

“You said,” Wolfe murmured, “that you promised Miss Fraser not to tell about this. When did you promise, recently?”

“No, a long time ago. Months ago. I was curious about the tape on the bottle, and one day I asked Miss Vance about it, and afterwards Miss Fraser told me it was something very personal to her and she made me promise never to tell. Twice since then she has asked me if I was keeping the promise and I told her I was and I always would. And now here I am! But you saying she should be arrested for murder…just because I said it I didn't know…”

“I gave other reasons.”

“But she won't be arrested now, will she? The way I've explained?”

“We'll see. Probably not.” Wolfe sounded comforting. “No one has ever told you what the tape is on the bottle for?”

“No.”

“Haven't you guessed?”

“No, I haven't, and I'm not going to guess now. I don't know what it's for or who puts it on or when they put it on, or anything about it except what I've said, that the bottle they give Miss Fraser has a piece of tape on it. And that's been going on a long time, nearly a year, so it couldn't have anything to do with that man getting murdered just last week. So I hope you're satisfied.”

“Fairly well,” Wolfe conceded.

“Then may I phone her now?”

“I'd rather you didn't. You see, she has hired me to investigate this murder, and I'd prefer to tell her about this myself-and apologize for suspecting her.

By the way, the day Mr Orchard was poisoned-did Miss Fraser's bottle have tape on it that day as usual?”

“I didn't notice it that day, but I suppose so, it always did.”

“You're sure you didn't notice it?”

“What do you think? Am I lying again?”

Wolfe shook his head. “I doubt it. You don't sound like it. But one thing you can tell me, about the tape. What was it like and where was it on the bottle?”

“Just a piece of Scotch tape, that's all, around the neck of the bottle, down nearly to where the bottle starts to get bigger.”

“Always in the same place?”

“Yes.”

“How wide is it?”

“You know, Scotch tape, about that wide.” She held a thumb and fingertip about half an inch apart.

“What colour?”

“Brown-or maybe it looks brown because the bottle is.”

“Always the same colour?”

“Yes.”

“Then it couldn't have been very conspicuous.”

“I didn't say it was conspicuous. It wasn't.”

“You have good eyesight, of course, at your age.” Wolfe glanced at the clock and turned to me. “When is the next train for Atlantic City?”

“Four-thirty,” I told him.

“Then you have plenty of time. Give Mrs Shepherd enough to cover all expenses.

You will take her and her daughter to the station. Since they do not wish it to be known that they have made this trip, it would be unwise for them to do any telephoning, and of course you will make sure that they board the right train, and that the train actually starts. As you know, I do not trust trains either to start or, once started, to stop.”

“We're going back,” Mom said, unbelieving but daring to hope.

There was one little incident I shouldn't skip, on the train when I had found their seats for them and was turning to go. I had made no effort to be sociable, since their manner, especially Nancylee's, had made it plain that if I had stepped into a man-hole they wouldn't even have halted to glance down in. But as I turned to go Mom suddenly reached up to pat me on the shoulder. Apparently the pat I had given her at one of her darkest moments had been noticed after all, or maybe it was because I had got them Pullman seats. I grinned at her, but didn't risk offering to shake hands in farewell. I ride my luck only so far.

Naturally another party was indicated, but I didn't realize how urgent it was until I got back to the office and found a note, on a sheet from Wolfe's memo pad, waiting for me under a paperweight on my desk-he being, as per schedule, up in the plant rooms. The note said:

Have all seven of them here at six o'clock.NW Just like snapping your fingers. I scowled at the note. Why couldn't it be after dinner, allowing more time both to get them and to work on them? Not to mention that I already had a fairly good production record for the day, with the 11 a.m. delivery I had made. My watch said ten to five. I swallowed an impulse to mount to the plant rooms and give him an argument, and reached for the phone.

I ran into various difficulties, including resistance to a summons on such short notice, with which I was in complete sympathy. Bill Meadows balked good, saying he had already told Wolfe everything he knew, including the time he had thrown a baseball through a windowpane, and I had to put pressure on him with menacing hints. Madeline Fraser and Deborah Koppel were reluctant but had to admit that Wolfe should either be fired or given all possible help. They agreed to bring Elinor Vance. Nathan Traub, whom I got first, at his office, was the only one who offered no objection, though he commented that he would have to call off an important appointment. The only two I fell down on were Savarese and Strong. The professor had left town for the weekend, I supposed to hunt formulas, and Tully Strong just couldn't be found, though I tried everywhere, including all the sponsors.

Shortly before six I phoned up to Wolfe to report. The best he had for me was a grunt. I remarked that five out of seven, at that hour on a Friday, was nothing to be sneezed at. He replied that seven would have been better.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I've sent Savarese and Strong telegrams signed A, but what if they don't get them on time?”

So there were five. Wolfe doesn't like to be seen, by anyone but Fritz or me, sitting around waiting for people, I imagine on the theory that it's bad for his prestige, and therefore he didn't come down to the office until I passed him the word that all five were there. Then he favoured us by appearing. He entered, bowed to them, crossed to his chair, and got himself comfortable. It was cosier and more intimate than it had been three days earlier, with the gate-crashers absent.