LORD BYRON, ALIAS Alec Gallant, and the red leather chair went together fine. He sat well back, unlike most people I have seen there. Usually they are either too mad or too upset. Any of the other four probably would have been; they looked it. They were on yellow chairs that I had moved up to make a row facing Wolfe, with Emmy Thorne nearest me, then Anita Prince, then Carl Drew, then Flora Gallant. That put Flora nearest her brother, which seemed appropriate.
Wolfe was turned to Gallant. 'You ask me, sir, why I sent Mr. Goodwin to ask you people about Sarah Yare. Of course I'm under no compulsion to reply, and I'm not sure that I am prepared to. Instead, I may ask why his questions, certainly not provocative, so disturbed you. Apparently they have even impelled you to call on me in a body. Why?'
'Talk,' Gallant said. 'Vent. Wind.' There was an ashtray on the little table at his elbow, but not a heavy one.
Anita Prince put in, 'The police have insisted on knowing why he was there, what he wanted.'
Wolfe nodded. 'And you refused to say. Why?'
'Because,' Emmy Thorne declared, 'it was none of their business. And we have a right to know why you sent him, whether his questions were provocative or not.' That girl was strong on rights.
Wolfe's eyes went from right to left and back again. 'There's no point,' he said, 'in dragging this out. I'll grant your question priority and we'll go on from there. I sent Mr. Goodwin to see you because I suspected I had been gulled and wanted to find out; and further, because I had guessed that there was a connection between Sarah Yare, and her death, and the murder of Bianca Voss. By coming here en masse you have made that guess a conviction, if any doubt had remained.'
'I knew it,' Flora Gallant mumbled.
'Tais-toi,' her brother commanded her. To Wolfe: 'I'll tell you why we came here. We came for an explanation. We came-'
'For an understanding,' Carl Drew cut in. 'We're in trouble, all of us, you know that, and we need your help, and we're ready to pay for it. First we have to know what the connection is between Sarah Yare and what happened to Bianca Voss.'
Wolfe shook his head. 'You don't mean that. You mean you have to know whether I have established the connection, and if so, how. I'm willing to tell you, but before I do so I must clarify matters. There must be no misunderstanding. For instance, I understand that all of you thought yourselves gravely endangered by Miss Voss's presence. You, Miss Prince, you, Miss Thorne, and you, Mr. Drew-your dearest ambitions were threatened. Your future was committed to the success and glory of that enterprise, and you were convinced that Miss Voss was going to cheapen it, and perhaps destroy it. Do you challenge that?'
'Of course not.' Emmy Thorne was scornful. 'Everybody knew it.'
'Then that's understood. That applies equally to you, Miss Gallant, but with special emphasis. You also had a more intimate concern, for your brother. You told me so. As for you, Mr. Gallant, you are not a man to truckle, yet you let that woman prevail. Presumably you were under severe constraint. Were you?'
Gallant opened his mouth and closed it. He looked at his sister, returned to Wolfe, and again opened his mouth and closed it. He was under constraint now, no doubt about that.
He forced it out. 'I was under her heel.' He clamped his jaw. He unclamped it. 'The police know. They found out enough, and I have told them the rest. She was a bad woman. I met her in France, during the war. We were in the Resistance together when I married her. Only afterward I learned that she was perfide. She had been a traitor to France-I couldn't prove it, but I knew it. I left her and changed my name and came to America-and then last year she found me and made demands. I was under her heel.'
Wolfe grunted. 'That won't do, Mr. Gallant. I doubt if it has satisfied the police, and it certainly doesn't satisfy me. In that situation you might have killed her, but surely you wouldn't have let her take charge of your business and your life. What else was there?'
'Nothing. Nothing!'
'Pfui. Of course there was. And if the investigation is prolonged the police will discover it. I advise you to disclose it and let me get on and settle this affair. Didn't her death remove her heel?'
'Yes. Thank God, it did.' Gallant hit the arms of the chair with his palms. 'With her gone there is no evidence to fear. She had two brothers, and they, like her, were traitors, and I killed them. I would have killed her too, but she escaped me. During the war it would have been merely an episode, but it was later, much later, when I found out about them, and by then it was a crime. With her evidence I was an assassin, and I was doomed. Now she is gone, thank God, but I did not kill her. You know I did not. At half past eleven yesterday morning I was in my workshop with Miss Prince and many others, and you can swear that she was killed at that moment. That is why we came to see you, to arrange to pay-'
'Hold it, Alec.' Anita Prince headed him off. 'Mr. Wolfe wants to clarify matters. Let him.'
'The cat's head is out,' Wolfe told her, 'but I had already heard it scratch. Let's get on. I cannot swear that Bianca Voss was killed 'at that moment.' On the contrary, I'm sure she wasn't, for a variety of reasons. There are such minor ones as the extraordinary billingsgate she spat at me on the phone, quite gratuitous; and her calling me a gob of fat. A woman who still spoke the language with so marked an accent would not have the word 'gob' so ready, and probably wouldn't have it at all.'
He waved 'gob' away. 'But the major reasons are more cogent. In the first place, it was too pat. Since the complexities of nature permit a myriad of coincidences we cannot reject one offhand, but we can discriminate. That one-that the attack had come just at the moment when Miss Gallant had got Mr. Goodwin and me on the phone with her, was highly suspect. Besides, it was indiscreet to strike just then. Why not wait until she had hung up'Whoever was talking with her would certainly hear the sounds and take alarm. As I told Mr. Cramer, it was open to challenge circumstantially, though not intrinsically. However, there was another challenge, on surer ground. Miss Gallant did not dial Plaza two, nine-oh-two-two, Miss Voss's number, as she pretended. She dialed Algonquin nine, one-eight-four-seven, Sarah Yare's number.'
A noise, a sort of low growl, came from the waterfall. I was farthest away, and I heard it distinctly, so it must have reached their ears too, but Wolfe's last words had so riveted their attention that it didn't register.
It did with Wolfe, and he added hastily, 'I didn't know that yesterday. I became certain of it only after you rang my doorbell, when Mr. Goodwin handed me this note.' He tapped it, there on his desk. 'It's first words are 'That phone works.' I had sent him to learn if Sarah Yare's phone was in operation. Obviously, Miss Gallant had arranged with Miss Yare to impersonate Bianca Voss, and it is a reasonable-'
'Wait a minute.' Gallant had come forward in the red leather chair. 'You can't prove that.'
'Directly, no. Inferentially, yes.'
'And how do you know she dialed Sarah Yare's number'You weren't where you could see the dial, and neither was Goodwin.'
Wolfe nodded. 'Evidently you have discussed it with her. You're quite right, Mr. Gallant; we couldn't see the dial. Nevertheless, we can supply evidence, and we think it will be persuasive. I am not-'
'What kind of evidence?'
'That's no good, Alec.' It was Emmy Thorne, the contact girl. 'You can't push Nero Wolfe. He has his teeth in it, you can see that. You know what we decided.'
'I'm not sure,' Anita Prince objected, 'that we decided right.'
'I am. Carl?'
'Yes.' Drew was chewing his lip. 'I think so. Yes.'
'Flora'It's up to you.'
'I guess so.' Flora's voice was cracked, and she tried again. 'I guess so.' A little better.
Emmy nodded. 'Go ahead, Alec. You can't push him.'
'My God.' Gallant looked at his sister, and back at Wolfe. 'All right. We will pay you to help us. I will pay you. My sister is innocent and she must not suffer. It would be an offense against nature, against God Himself. She has told me all about it, and she was stupid, but she is innocent. She did arrange with Sarah Yare, as you said, but only to move you. She had read much about you and had a great opinion of your abilities. She was desperate about Bianca Voss. She knew you demanded high fees, much beyond her resources, so she conceived a plan. She would persuade you to talk with Bianca Voss on the phone, and she would get Sarah instead, and Sarah would abuse you with such violence that you would be offended and resent it, and you would be moved to act against Bianca Voss. It was stupid, yes, very stupid, but it was not criminal.'
Wolfe's eyes, at him, were half closed. 'And you want to pay me to help her.'
'Yes. When I told her you had sent your man to inquire about Sarah Yare I saw she was frightened and asked her why, and she told me. I consulted the others, and it was apparent that you knew something, and that was dangerous. We decided to come and ask you to help. My sister must not suffer.'
Wolfe's eyes moved. 'Miss Gallant. You heard your brother. Did he quote you correctly?'
'Yes!' That time it was too loud.
'You did those things'As he related them?'
'Yes!'
Wolfe returned to Gallant. 'I agree with you, sir, that your sister was stupid, but you are not the one to proclaim it. You say that she arranged with Sarah Yare to abuse me on the phone, but Miss Yare didn't stop at that. She ended by making noises indicating that she had been violently attacked, and jerked the phone off onto the floor, and made other noises, and then hung up the phone and cut the connection. Was that on her own initiative'Her own idea'Your sister's stupidity can bow to yours if you expected me to overlook that point-or worse, if you missed it yourself.'
'I am not stupid, Mr. Wolfe.'
'Then you are devious beyond my experience.'
'Devious?'
'Rus9?. Subtil.'
'No. I am not.' Gallant clamped his jaw. He released it. 'Bein. Suppose, only to suppose, she arranged that too, that comedy. Suppose even that she killed Bianca Voss. Was that a crime'No; it was justice; it was the hand of God. Bianca Voss was an evil woman. She was vilaine. Are you so virtuous that you must crucify my sister'Are you a paragon'For she is in your hands, at your mercy. You know about Sarah Yare, but the police do not. You know she dialed that number, but the police do not, and they will not unless you tell them. By your word it can be that my sister was here with you at the time that Bianca Voss was killed. As I have said, I will pay you. It will be a great service from you, and it deserves payment. I will trust you. I will pay you now.'
Wolfe grunted. 'That was quite a speech.'
'It was not a speech. I do not make speeches. It was an appeal to your charity. From my heart.'
'And to my cupidity.' Wolfe shook his head. 'No. I am not a paragon. I am not even a steward of the law. But you have ignored two important factors: one, my self-esteem. Even if Bianca Voss deserved to die, I will not permit a murderer to take me for a simpleton. Two, another woman died too. Was Sarah Yare also evil'Was she vilaine?'
'But she-Sarah killed herself!'
'No. I don't believe it. That's another coincidence I reject. Granted that she may have been wretched enough for that extreme, why did she choose that particular moment'Again too pat. According to the published account, she died between ten o'clock yesterday morning and two in the afternoon, but I can narrow it a little. Since she spoke with me on the phone at eleven-thirty, she died between that hour and two o'clock. I believe that the person who killed Bianca Voss at some time prior to eleven-thirty, and arranged with Sarah Yare to enact that comedy, as you call it, went to Sarah Yare's apartment later and killed her. Indeed, prudence demanded it. So you ask too much of my charity. If only Bianca Voss had died-'
'No!' Gallant exploded. 'Impossible! Totally impossible! My sister loved Sarah! She killed her'Insane!'
'But you believe she killed Bianca Voss. You came here believing that. That was stupid too. She didn't.'
Gallant gawked at him. Lord Byron shouldn't gawk, but he did. So did the others. Also they made noises. Carl Drew demanded, 'Didn't'You say she didn't?' Emmy Thorne asked coolly, 'What's this, Mr. Wolfe'A game?'
'No, madam, not a game. Nor a comedy-Mr. Gallant's word. As a man I know said yesterday, murder is no joke.' Wolfe's eyes went to Flora. 'There was much against you, Miss Gallant, especially the fact that you dialed that other number before you dialed Sarah Yare's, and asked someone you called Doris if Miss Voss was around. Are you too rattled to remember that?'
'No.' She was clutching the rim of her bag with both hands. 'I remember.'
'Of course the reason for it was obvious, if you had killed Bianca Voss before you came here; you had to know that the body had not been found before you proceeded with your stratagem. Since you had not killed Bianca Voss, why did you make that call?'
'I wanted to make sure that she hadn't gone out. That she was there in her office. You might call her again after I left and find out she hadn't been there. I didn't care if you called her and she denied she had talked to you like that. I thought you would think she was lying. I suppose that was stupid.' Her mouth worked. 'How did you know I didn't kill her?'
'You told me. You showed me. If you had devised that elaborate humbug, certainly you would have decided how to act at the moment of crisis. You would have decided to be alarmed, and shocked, and even perhaps a little dazed. But it wasn't like that. You were utterly stunned with bewilderment. When Mr. Goodwin told us what Mr. Drew had said, what did you say'You said, 'But how-' And repeated it, 'But how-' If you had killed Bianca Voss you would have had to be a master dramatist to write such a line, and an actress of genius to deliver it as you did; and you are neither.'
Wolfe waved it away. 'But that was for me. For others, for a judge and jury, I must do better, and I think I can. If you are innocent, someone else is guilty. Someone else learned of the arrangement you had made with Sarah Yare, either from you or from her, and persuaded her to add a dramatic climax. Someone else killed Bianca Voss and then established an invulnerable alibi for the crucial period. Someone else had secured the required amount of cyanide-it doesn't take much. Someone else, having established the alibi, went to Sarah Yare's apartment and poisoned her glass of whisky. That was done before two o'clock, and that should make it simple. Indeed, it has made it simple. Shortly before you came I learned from Mr. Cramer of the police that you arrived at your brother's place yesterday a few minutes after noon. Since you left here at a quarter of twelve, you hadn't had time to go first to Thirteenth Street and dispose of Sarah Yare; and you were continuously under the eyes of policemen the rest of the afternoon. That is correct?'