Before Midnight

Assa shifted in the chair. I had noticed that he seemed to be having trouble getting comfortably adjusted. "You realize," he said, "that our main problem is solved, thanks to you. The problem that brought us to you last Wednesday in a state of panic. There was no chance of finishing the contest without confusion and some discord after what happened to Dahlmann, and the wallet gone, but as it looked when we came to you we were headed for complete disaster, and you have prevented it. Hansen is certain that legally we are in the clear. With the contestants receiving the answers as they have, and it won't do Miss Frazee any good to deny she got them, if we repudiate those verses and replace them with others, as of course we will, our position would be upheld by any court in the land. There is still serious embarrassment, but that couldn't be helped. You have rescued the contest from utter ruin by a brilliant stroke and are to be congratulated."

"Mr. Assa." Wolfe's eyes, on him, were half closed. "Are you speaking for my client, the firm of Lippert, Buff and Assa, or for yourself?"

"Well… I am a member of the firm, as you know, but I came here on my own initiative and responsibility."

"Do your associates know you're here and what for?"

"No. I didn't want to start a long and complicated discussion. I decided to come only half an hour ago. Your meeting starts at nine, and it's nearly seven now."

"I see. And you are assuming that I sent the answers to the contestants--or had them sent."

Assa passed his tongue over his lips. "I didn't put it baldly like that, but I suppose it doesn't matter. Goodwin is in your confidence anyway. It was impossible to figure why one of the contestants would have sent them, if he had killed Dahlmann and got them from the wallet, and that leaves only you."

"Not impossible," Wolfe objected. "Not if he found to his dismay that in the situation he had created they were worse than useless to him."

Assa nodded. "I considered that, of course, but still thought it impossible. Another reason I didn't mention my coming to my associates was that I realize you can't acknowledge what you did to save us. I don't expect you to acknowledge it even to me, and you certainly wouldn't if one or two of them had come along, especially Hansen. We wouldn't want you to acknowledge it anyhow, because we've hired you, and the legal position would probably be that we did it ourselves, and that would be disastrous. So you see why I didn't put it baldly."