Before Midnight

Wolfe's tone sharpened. "Whether or not you knew of his visit to me beforehand, you knew its result. He told you that I had refused to cancel the meeting, and that both of you would of course have to come. This raises an interesting point. If it was his report of his talk with me that so heightened your alarm that you decided to kill him, then you went to the cabinet to get the poison after seven o'clock. If your fatal resolve was formed earlier, before he came to me, you might have gone to the cabinet earlier. The former seems more likely. Dread feeds on itself. At first you were satisfied that Assa believed you, that he had no slight suspicion that you had killed Dahlmann, but that sort of satisfaction is infested with cancer--the cancer of mortal fear. The fear that Assa might himself suspect you, or already did; the fear that if he didn't suspect you, I would; the fear that if I didn't suspect you, the police would. When Assa told you of his failure to persuade me to cancel the meeting, the fear became terror; though you believed him when he said that he had given me no hint of his knowledge regarding the wallet, there was no telling what he would do or say under pressure from me with the others present. As I said, it seems likely that it was then, when fear had festered into the panic of terror, that you resolved to kill him. Therefore it--"

"This is drivel," Hansen said curtly. "Pure speculation. If you have a fact, what is it?"

"Out there, Mr. Hansen." Wolfe aimed a thumb over his shoulder at the door. "It could even be conclusive if that bottle has identifiable fingerprints, but I doubt if you--one of you--had lost his mind utterly. That's my fact, and it justifies a question. Mr. Assa left my office yesterday at ten minutes past seven. Who was on these premises later than that? Were you, Mr. Hansen?"

"No. I told you. I was here from four o'clock on, but left before six-thirty."

"Were you, Mr. Heery?"

"No. I told you when I was here."

"Mr. O'Garro?"

"Don't answer, Pat," Hansen commanded him.

"Pah." Wolfe was disgusted. "Something so easy to explore? If you prefer the plague--"