I expected more turmoil when, at ten-forty, the bell rang and Inspector Cramer was on the stoop, but it wasnt Wolfe he had come early for. He merely asked if Mrs Robilotti had arrived, and, when I told him no, stayed outside. Theoretically, in a democracy, a police inspector should react just the same to a dame with a Fifth Avenue mansion as to an unmarried mother, but a job is a job, and facts are facts and one fact was that the Commissioner himself had taken the trouble to make a trip to the mansion. So I didnt chalk it up against Cramer that he waited out on the sidewalk for the Robilotti limousine; and anyway, he was there to greet the three unmarried mothers when Sergeant Purley Stebbins arrived with them in a police car. The three chevaliers, Paul Schuster, Beverly Kent, and Edwin Laidlaw, came singly, on their own.
I had promised myself a certain pleasure, and I didnt let Cramers one-man reception committee interfere with it. When the limousine finally rolled to the curb, a few minutes late, and he convoyed Mrs Robilotti up the stoop steps, followed by her husband, son, daughter, and butler, I held the door for
them as they entered and then left them to Fritz. My objective was the last one in, Hackett. When he had crossed the sill I put my hands ready for his coat and hat, in the proper manner exactly.
Good morning, sir, I said. A pleasant day. Mr Wolfe will be down shortly.
It got him. He darted a glance at the others, saw that no eye was on him, handed me his hat, and said, Quite. Thank you, Goodwin.
That made the day for me personally, no matter how it turned out professionally. I took him to the office and then went to the kitchen, buzzed the plant rooms on the house phone, and told Wolfe the cast had arrived.
Mrs Usher? he asked.
Okay. In her room. Shell stay put.
Mr Byne?
Also okay. In the office with the others, with Saul glued to him.
Very well. Ill be down.
I went and joined the mob. They were scattered around, some seated and some standing. I permitted myself a private grin when I saw that Cramer, finding the red leather chair gone, had moved one of the yellow ones to its exact position and put Mrs Robilotti in it, and was on his feet beside it, bending down to her. As I threaded my way through to my desk the sound of the elevator came, and in a moment Wolfe entered.
No pronouncing of names was required, since he had met the Robilottis and the Grantham twins at the time of the jewellery hunt. He made it to his desk, sent his eyes around, and sat. He looked at Cramer.
You have explained the purpose of this gathering, Mr Cramer?
Yes. Youre going to prove that Goodwin is either wrong or right.
I didnt say prove. I said I intend to satisfy myself and deal with him accordingly. He surveyed the audience. Ladies and gentlemen. I will not keep you longat least, not most of you. I have no exhortation for you and no questions to ask. To form an opinion of Mr Goodwins competence as an eye-witness, I need to see, not what he saw, since these quarters are too cramped for that, but an approximation of it. You cannot take your positions precisely as they were last Tuesday evening, or re-enact the scene with complete fidelity, but well do the best we can. Archie?
I left my chair to stage-manage. Thinking that Mrs Robilotti and her Robert were the most likely to baulk, I left them till the last. First I put Hackett behind the table, which was the bar, and Laidlaw and Helen Yarmis at one end of it. Then Rose Tuttle and Beverly Kent, on chairs over where the globe had stood. Then Celia Grantham and Paul Schuster by the wall to the right of Wolfes desk, with her sitting and him standing. Then I put Saul Panzer on a chair near the door to the hall, and told the audience, Mr Panzer here is Faith Usher. The distance is wrong and so are the others, but the relative positions are about right. Then I put an ashtray on a chair to the right of the safe, and told them, This is Faith Ushers bag, containing the bottle of poison. With all that arranged, I didnt think Mrs Robilotti would protest when I asked her and her husband to take their places in front of the bar, and she didnt.
That was all, except for Ethel Varr and me, and I got her and stood with her at a corner of my desk, and told Wolfe, All set.
Miss Tuttle and I were much farther away, Beverly Kent objected.
Yes, sir, Wolfe agreed. It is not presumed that this is identical. Now. His eyes went to the group at the bar. Mr Hackett, I understand that when Mr Grantham went to the bar for champagne for himself and Miss Usher, two glasses were there in readiness. You had poured one of them a few minutes previously, and the other just before he arrived. Is that correct?
Yes, sir. Hackett had fully recovered from our brush in the hall and was back in character. I have stated to the police that one of the glasses had been standing there three or four minutes.
Please pour a glass now and put it in place.
The bottles in the cooler on the table were champagne, and good champagne 5 Wolfe had insisted on it. Fritz had opened two of them. Pouring champagne is always nice to watch, but I doubt if any pourer ever had as attentive an audience as Hackett had, as he took a bottle from the cooler and filled a glass.