Wolfe breathed deep again. Exertion right after a meal was pretty rugged. Of course, madam, he said, my reason for speaking with you and Mr Byne separately is transparent: to see if your account will agree with his. Since you have had no opportunity for collusion, agreement would be, if not conclusive, at least persuasive.
She smiled. You use big words, dont you? Something in her tone and her look conveyed the notion that for years she had been wanting to meet a man who used big words.
Wolfe grunted. I try to use words that say what I mean.
So do I, she declared, but sometimes its hard to find the ones I want. I dont know what Mr Byne told you, but all I can do is tell you the truth. You want to know how I happened to be with him there tonight, isnt that it?
Thats it.
Well, I phoned him this morning and said I wanted to see him and he said he would meet me there at Toms Joint, I had never heard of it before, at a quarter past seven. So I went. Thats
not very thrilling, is it?
Only moderately. Have you known him long?
I dont really know him at all. I met him somewhere about a year ago, and I wish I could tell you where, but Ive been trying to remember and I simply cant . It was a party somewhere, but I cant remember where. Anyhow, it doesnt matter. But yesterday I was sitting at the window thinking about my daughter. My dear daughter Faith. She stopped to gulp, but it wasnt very impressive. And I remembered meeting a man named Byne, Austin Byne, and someone telling me, maybe he told me himself, that he was the nephew of the rich Mrs Robilotti who used to be Mrs Albert Grantham. And my daughter had died at Mrs Robilottis house, so maybe he could tell me about her, and maybe he could get Mrs Robilotti to see me so I could ask her about her. I wanted to learn all I could about my daughter. She gulped.
It didnt look good. In fact, it looked bad. Byne had been smart enough to invent one that she couldnt be expected to corroborate; he had even warned that she would probably deny it; and what was worse, it was even possible that he hadnt invented it. He might have been telling the truth, like a gentleman. The meeting of Wolfes two bright ideas at Toms Joint, which had looked so rosy when Saul told me they were together, might fizzle out entirely. Maybe he wasnt a genius after all.
If he was sharing my gloom it didnt show. He asked, Since your rendezvous with Mr Byne was innocuous, why were you alarmed by his threat to call the police? What were her words, Archie?
Not the cops. My God, not the cops.
Yes. Why, Mrs Usher?
I dont like cops. I never have liked cops.
Why did you leave your home and go to a hotel and register under another name?
Because of how I felt, what my daughter had done. I didnt want to see people. I knew newspapermen would come. And cops. I wanted to be alone. You would too if
The doorbell rang, and I went. Sometimes I let Fritz answer it when I am engaged, but with her there and Byne in the front room I thought I had better see who it was, and besides, I was having a come-down and felt like moving. It was only Orrie Gather. I opened up and greeted him, and he crossed the sill, and I shut the door. When he removed his coat there was disclosed a leather thing, a zippered case, that he had had under it.
Whats that? I asked. Your week-end bag?
No, he said. Its Mrs Ushers sec
My hand darted to clap on his mouth. He was startled, but he can take a hint, and when I headed down the hall and turned right to the dining-room he followed.
I shut the door, moved away from it, and demanded, Mrs Ushers what?
Her secret sin. There was a gleam in his eye. I want to give it to Mr Wolfe myself.
You cant. Mrs Usher is in the office with him. Where did
Shes here? How come?
That can wait. Where did you get that thing?
I may have sounded magisterial, but my nerves were a little raw. It put Orrie on his dignity. His chin went up. Its a pleasure to report, Mr Goodwin. Mr Panzer and I were covering the Christie Hotel . When the subject appeared and hopped a taxi he followed in one before I could join him. That left me loose and I phoned in. Mr Wolfe asked me if there had been any indication how long she would be gone, and I said yes, since she took a taxi it certainly wouldnt be less than half an hour and probably longer, and he said it would be desirable to take a look at her room, and I said fine. It took a while to get in. Do you want the details?
That can wait. Whats in it?
It was in a locked suitcasenot the one the messenger took today, a smaller one. The suitcase was easy, but this thing had a trick lock and I had to bust it.
I put out a hand. He hated to give it up, but protocol is protocol. I took it to the table, unzipped it, and pulled out two envelopes, one nine by twelve and the other one smaller. Neither was sealed, and hadnt been. I slipped out the contents of the big one.
They were pictures that had been clipped from magazines and newspapers. I would have recognized him even if there had been no captions, since I had been old enough to read for some years, and you often run across a picture of a multi-millionaire philanthropist. The one on top was captioned: Albert Grantham (left) receiving the annual award of the American Benevolent League. They were all of Grantham, twenty or more. I started to turn them over, one by one, to see if anything was written on them.