Before Midnight

"We have considered it. That wouldn't even be risky, it would be certain. By tomorrow morning it would have got out that the answers to the contest had been stolen, and it would be a national scandal, and LBA would have a black eye they might never recover from."

Wolfe was stubborn. "I must be sure you have thought it through. Even if I get the culprit before the deadline it will likewise come out that the answers were stolen."

"Yes, but then we will have the thief, and we'll have arranged to decide the contest in a way agreed to by everybody else concerned. A totally different situation. LBA will be admired and congratulated for dealing with a crisis promptly, boldly, and brilliantly."

"Not by the police."

"No. But by the advertising and business world, the press, and the American people."

"I suppose so." Wolfe's head turned. "I would like to make sure of the decision to dodge with the police. You concur in it, Mr. Buff?"

Buffs big red face had been getting redder, and his brow was moist. "I do," he said. "Because I have to."

"Mr. O'Garro?"

"Yes. We had that out before we came to you."

"Mr. Assa?"

"Yes. You're wasting time!"

"No. If it were a simple matter of catching a murderer --but it isn't. This is full of complexities, and I must know things." Wolfe turned a palm up. "For example. If I were sure that the one who took the wallet actually got the paper with the answers, that would help. But what if he didn't? What if the paper Dahlmann displayed was something else, and it was in fact a hoax, and the thief got nothing for his pains? That would make my job much more difficult and would require a completely different procedure."

"Don't worry," O'Garro assured him. "It was the answers all right. I was there and saw him. Vern?"

"I would say twenty to one," Assa declared. "Louis would get a kick out of showing them the paper with the answers, but just faking it, no. What do you think, Oliver?"