Helen Yarmis still had her dignity, but the corners of her wide, curved mouth were apparently down for good, and since that was her best feature she looked pretty hopeless. All I can do, she said stiffly, is say what I think. I think Faith killed herself. I told her it was dumb to take that poison along to a party where we were supposed to have a good time, but I saw it there in her bag. Why would she take it along to a party like that if she wasnt going to use it?
Wolfes understanding of women has some big gaps, but at least he knows enough not to try using logic on them. He merely ignored her appeal to unreason. When, he asked, did you tell her not to take the poison along?
When we were dressing to go to the party. We lived in an apartment together. Just a big bedroom with a kitchenette, and the bathroom down the hall, but I guess thats an apartment.
How long had you and she been living together?
Seven months. Since August, when she left Grantham House. I can tell you anything you want to ask, after the way Ive been over it the last two days. Mrs Robbins brought her from Grantham House on a Friday so she could get settled to go to work at Barwicks on Monday. She didnt have many clothes
If you please, Miss Yarmis. We must respect the convenience of Miss Varr and Miss Tuttle. During those seven months did Miss Usher have many callers?
She never had any.
Neither men nor women?
No. Except once a month when Mrs Robbins came to see how we were getting along, that was all.
How did she spend her evenings?
She went to school four nights a week to learn typing and shorthand. She was going to be a secretary. I never saw how she could if she was as tired as I was. Fridays we often went to the movies. Sundays she would go for walks, thats what she said. I was too tired. Anyway,
sometimes I had a date, and
If you please. Did Miss Usher have no friends at all? Men or women?
I never saw any. She never had a date. I often told her that was no way to live, just crawl along like a worm
Did she get any mail?
I dont know, but I dont think so. The mail was downstairs on a table in the hall. I never saw her write any letters.
Did she get any telephone calls?
The phone was downstairs in the hall, but of course I would have known if she got a call when I was there. I dont remember she ever got one. This is kinda funny, Mr Wolfe. I can answer your questions without even thinking because theyre all the same questions the police have been asking, even the same words, so I dont have to stop to think.
I could have given her a hug and kiss too, though not in the same spirit as with Ethel Varr. Anyone who takes Wolfe down a peg renders a service to the balance of nature, and to tell him to his face that he was merely a carbon copy of the cops was enough to spoil his appetite for dinner.
He grunted. Every investigator follows a routine up to a point. Miss Yarmis. Beyond that point comes the opportunity for talent if any is at hand. I find it a little difficult to accept your portfolio of negatives. Another grunt. It may not be outside my capacity to contrive a question that will not parrot the police. Ill try. Do you mean to tell me that during the seven months you lived with Miss Usher you had no inkling of her having any social or personal contactexcluding her job and night school and the visits of Mrs Robbinswith any of her fellow beings?
Helen was frowning. The frown deepened. Say it again, she commanded.
He did so, slower.
They didnt ask that, she declared. Whats an inkling?
An intimation. A hint.
She still frowned. She shook her head. I dont remember any hints.
Did she never tell you that she had met a man that day that she used tomorrow? Or a woman? Or that someone, perhaps a customer at Barwicks, had annoyed her? Or that she had been accosted on the street? Did she never account for a headache or a fit of ill humour by telling of an encounter she had had? An encounter is a meeting face to face. Did she never mention a single name in connection with some experience, either pleasant or disagreeable? In all your hours together, did nothing ever remind herWhat is it?
Helens frown had gone suddenly, and the corners of her mouth had lifted a little. Headache, she said. Faith never had headaches, except only once, one day when she came home from work. She wouldnt eat anything and she didnt go to school that night, and I wanted her to take some aspirin but she said it wouldnt help any. Then she asked me if I had a mother, and I said my mother was dead and she said she wished hers was. That didnt sound like her and I said that was an awful thing to say, and she said she knew it was but I might say it too if I had a mother like hers, and she said she had met her on the street when she was out for lunch and there had been a scene, and she had to run to get away from her. Helen was looking pleased. So that was a contact, wasnt it?
It was. What else did she say about it?
That was all. The next dayno, the day aftershe said she was sorry she had said it and she hadnt really meant it, about wishing her mother was dead. I told her if all the people died that I had wished they were dead there wouldnt be room in the cemeteries. Of course that was exaggerated, but I thought it would do her good to know that people were wishing people were dead all the time.