I am. Im sitting here while you pile it on.
So you are. Wolfe looked at his palms and put them on the chair arms. Now. Did you know that Miss Usher kept a bottle of poison on her person?
No hesitation. I knew that she said she did. I never saw it. Her mother told me, and Mrs Irwin at Grantham House mentioned it to me once.
Did you know what kind of poison it was?
No.
Was it Mrs Ushers own idea to seclude herself in a hotel under another name, or did you suggest it?
Neither one. I mean I dont remember. She phoned me Thursdayno, Wednesdayand we decided she ought to do that. I dont remember who suggested it.
Who suggested your meeting this evening?
She did. She phoned me this morning. I told you that,
What did she want?
She wanted to know what I was going to do about payments, with Faith dead. She knew that by the agreement it was left to my discretion. I told her that for the present I would continue to send her half.
Had she been using any of the money you sent her to support her daughter?
I dont think so. Not for the last four or five years, but it wasnt her fault. Faith wouldnt take anything from her. Faith wouldnt live with her. They couldnt get along. Mrs Usher is veryunconventional. Faith left when she was sixteen, and for over a year we didnt know where she was. When I found her she was working in a restaurant. A waitress.
But you continued to pay Mrs Usher her full share?
Yes.
Is that fund in your possession and control without supervision?
Certainly.
It has never been audited?
Certainly not. Who would audit it?
I couldnt say. Would you object to an audit by an accountant of my selection? Now that I know of the agreement?
I certainly would. The fund is my property and 1 am accountable to no one but myself, as long as I pay Mrs Usher her share.
I must see that agreement. Wolfe pursed his lips and slowly shook his head. It is extremely difficult, he said, to circumvent the finality of death. Mr Grantham made a gallant try, but he was hobbled by his vain desire to guard his secret even after he became food for worms. He protected you and Mrs Usher, each against the frailty or knavery of the other, but what if you joined forces in a threat to his repute? He couldnt preclude that. He lifted a hand to brush it aside. A desire to defeat death makes any man a fool. I must see that agreement. Meanwhile, a few points remain. You told Mr Goodwin that your selection of Miss Usher to be invited to that party was fortuitous, but now that wont do. Then why?
Of course, Byne said. I knew that was coming.
Then youve had time to devise an answer.
I dont have to devise it. I was a damn fool. When I got the list from Mrs Irwin and saw Faiths name on itwell, there it was. The idea of having Faith as a guest at my aunts houseit just appealed to me. Mrs Robilotti is only my aunt by marriage, you know. My mother was Albert Granthams sister. Youve got to admit there was a kick in the idea of having Faith sitting at my aunts table. And then
He left it hanging. Wolfe prodded him. Then?
That suggested another idea, to have Laidlaw there too. I know j was a damn fool, but there it was. Laidlaw seeing Faith there, and Faith seeing him. Of course, my aunt could cross Faith off and tell Mrs IrwinHe stopped. In a second he went on, I mean you never knew what Faith would do, she might refuse to go, but Laidlaw wouldnt know she had been
asked, so what the hell. So I suggested that to my aunt, to invite Laidlaw, and she did.
Did Miss Usher know that Albert Grantham had fathered her?
My God, no. She thought her father had been a man named Usher who had died before she was born.
Did she know you were the source of her mothers income?
No. I think No, I dont think, I know. She suspected that her mothers income came from friends. From men she knew. That was why she left. About my picking Faith to be invited to that party and suggesting Laidlaw, after I had done that I got cold feet. I realized something might happen. At least Faith might walk out when she saw him, and it might be something worse, and I didnt want to be there, so I decided to get someone to go in my place. The first four or five I tried couldnt make it, and I thought of Archie Goodwin.
Wolfe leaned back and closed his eyes, and his lips started to work. They pushed out and went back in, out and in, out and in Sooner or later he always does that, and I really should have a sign made, GENIUS AT WORK>, and put it on his desk when he starts it. Usually I have some sort of idea as to what genius is working on, but that time not a glimmer. He had cleared away some underbrush, for instance who had sicked the cops on Laidlaw and how Faith and Laidlaw had both got invited to the party, but he had got only one thing to chew on, that he had at last found somebody who had had a healthy motive to kill Faith Usher, and Byne, as he liked to point out himself, hadnt even been at the party. Of course, that could have been what genius was at, doping out how Byne could have poisoned the champagne by remote control, but I doubted it.