Not him. By God. Youve been threatening to call the police. Ill call them myself. Ill tell them a man has broken into my apartment, and hes there now, and theyll get him.
I left my chair. Here, Dinky, use my phone.
He ignored me. Its not the agreement, he told Wolfe. Its your goddamn nerve. He wont find the agreement because its not there. Its in a safe-deposit box and its going to stay there.
Then it must wait until Monday. Wolfes shoulders went up an eighth of an inch and down again. However, Mr Gather will not have his trouble for nothing. Aside from the chance that he may turn up other interesting items, he will use your typewriter, if you have one. I told him if he found one there to write something with it. I even told him what to write. This: Have you found out yet that Edwin Laidlaw is the father of Faith Ushers baby? Ask him about his trip to Canada in August 1956. He will type that and bring it to me. You smile. You are amused? Because you dont have a typewriter?
Sure I have a typewriter. Did I smile? He smiled again, a poker smile. At you dragging Laidlaw in all of a sudden. I dont get it, but I suppose you do.
I didnt drag him in, Wolfe asserted. Someone else did. The police received an unsigned typewritten communication which I have just quoted. And you were wrong to smile; that was a mistake. You couldnt possibly have been amused, so you must have been pleased, and by what? Not that you dont have a typewriter, because you have. Ill try a guess. Might it not have been that you were enjoying the idea of Mr Gather bringing me a sample of typing from your machine when you know it is innocent, and that you know it is innocent because you know where the guilty machine is? I think that deserves exploration. Unfortunately tomorrow is Sunday; it will have to wait. Monday morning Mr Goodwin, Mr Panzer, and Mr Gather will call at places where a machine might be easily and naturally available to youfor instance, your club. Another is the bank vault where you have a safe-deposit box. Archie. You go to my box regularly. Would it be remarkable for a vault customer to ask to use a typewriter?
Remarkable? I shook my head. No.
Then that is one possibility. Actually, he told Byne, I am not sorry that this must wait until Monday, for it does have a drawback. The samples collected from the machines must be compared with the communication received by the police, and it is in their hands. I dont like that, but theres no other way. At least, if my guess is good, I will have exposed the sender of the communication, and that will be helpful. On this point, sir, I do not threaten to go to the police; I am forced to.
You goddamn snoop, Byne said through his teeth.
Wolfes brows went up. I must have made a lucky guess. Its the machine at the vault?
Bynes head jerked to Mrs Usher. Beat it, Elaine. I want to talk to him.
Chapter 14
You win, he told Wolfe. So I spill my guts. Where do you want me to start?
Wolfe was leaning back with his elbows on the chair arms and his palms together. First, lets clear up a point or two. Why did you send that thing about Laidlaw to the police?
I havent said I sent it.
Pfui. Wolfe was disgusted. Either youve submitted or you havent. I dont intend to squeeze it out drop by drop. Why did you send it?
Byne did have to squeeze it out. His lips didnt want to part. Because, he finally managed, they were going on with the investigation and there was no telling what they might dig up. They might find out that I knew Faiths mother, and about myabout the arrangement. I still thought Faith had killed herself, and I still do, but if she had been murdered I thought Laidlaw must have done it and I wanted them to know about him and Faith.
Why must he have done it? You invented that, didnt you? About him and Miss Usher?
I did not.
I sort of kept an eye on Faith, naturally. I dont mean I was with her, I just kept an eye on her. I saw her with Laidlaw twice, and the day he left for Canada I saw her in his car. I knew he went to Canada because a friend got a card from him. I didnt have to invent it.
Wolfe grunted. You realize, Mr Byne, that everything you say is now suspect. Assuming that you knew that Laidlaw and Miss Usher had in fact been intimate, why did you surmise that he had killed her? Was she menacing him?
Not that I know of. If he had a reason for killing her I didnt know what it was. But he was the only one of the people there that night who had had anything to do with her.
No. You had.
Damn it, I wasnt there!
Thats true, but those who were there can also plead lack of opportunity. In the circumstances as I have heard them described, no one could have poisoned Miss Ushers champagne with any assurance that it would get to her. And you alone, of all those involved, had a motive, and not a puny one. An increase in annual income of 127,000 or more, tax exempt, is an alluring prospect. If I were you I would accept almost any alternative to a disclosure of that agreement to the District Attorney.