Champagne for One

Fred Durkin frowned, concentrating. He had decided long ago that there was a clue in every word Wolfe uttered, and he wasn’t going to miss one if he could help it. Orrie Gather smiled to show that he recognized a gag when he heard it, and finally appreciated it. Saul Panzer said, "Then the job is to invent one."

Wolfe nodded. "It may come to that, Saul. Either that or abandon it. Usually, as you know, I merely give you specific assignments, but in this case you will have to be told the situation and the background. We are dealing with the death of a woman named Faith Usher who drank poisoned champagne at the home of Mrs Robert Robilotti. I suppose you have heard of it."

They all had.

Wolfe drank coffee. "But you should know all that I know, except the identity of my client. Yesterday morning Archie got a phone call from a man he knows, by name Austin Byne, the nephew of Mrs Robilotti. He asked Archie…"

Seeing that I could be spared for a while, and thinking it was time for another try at Byne, I got up, circled around the trio, went to the kitchen, and dialled the number on the extension there. After five rings I was thinking I was going to draw a blank again, but then I had a voice saying hallo.

"Byne?" I asked. "Dinky Byne?"

"Who is this?"

"Archie Goodwin."

"Oh, hallo there. I’ve been thinking you might call. To give me hell for getting you into a mess. I don’t blame you. Go on and say it."

"I could all right, but I’ve got another idea. You said you’d return the favour some day, and tomorrow is the day. I want to run up to Grantham House and have a talk with someone there, preferably the woman in charge, and they’re probably having too many visitors and won’t let me in. So I thought you might say a word for me-on the phone, or write a letter I can take, or maybe even go along. How about it?"

Silence. Then: "What makes you think a word from me would help?"

"You’re Mrs Robilotti’s nephew. And I heard somebody say, I forget who, that she has sent you there on errands."

Another silence. "What are you after? What do you want to talk about?"

"I’m just curious about something. Some questions the cops have asked me because I was there last night, the mess you got me into, have made me curious."

"What questions?"