Champagne for One

Wolfe nodded. "So. The quarry, as I told you Wednesday evening, was evidence of some significant association of one of those people with Miss Usher. That was a legitimate line of inquiry, but it was precisely the one the police were following, and I offer my apologies. We shall now try another line, where you will at least be on fresh ground. I want to see Faith Usher’s mother. You are to find her and bring her."

Fred and Orrie pulled out their notebooks. Saul had one but rarely used it. The one inside his skull was usually all he needed.

"You won’t need notes," Wolfe said. "There is nothing to note except the bare fact that Miss Usher’s mother is alive and must be somewhere. This may lead nowhere, but it is not a resort to desperation. Whatever circumstance in Miss Usher’s life resulted in her death, she must have been emotionally involved, and I have been apprised of only two phenomena which importantly engaged her emotions. One was her experience with the man who begot her infant. A talk with him might be fruitful, but if he can be found the police will find him; of course they’re trying to. The other was her relationship with her mother. Mrs Irwin, of Grantham House, told Archie that she had formed the conclusion, from talking with Miss Usher, that her mother was alive and that she hated her. And yesterday Miss Helen Yarmis, with whom Miss Usher shared an apartment the last seven months of her life, told me that Miss Usher had come home from work one day with a headache and had said that she had encountered her mother on the street and there had been a scene, and she had had to run to get away from her; and that she wished her mother was dead. Miss Yannis’s choice of words."

Fred, writing in his notebook, looked up. "Does she spell Irwin with an E or an I?"

Wolfe always tried to be patient with Fred, but there was a limit. "As you prefer," he said. "Why spell it at all? I’ve told you all she said that is relevant, and all that I know. I will add that I doubt if either Mrs Irwin or Miss Yarmis mentioned Miss Usher’s mother to the police, so in looking for her you shouldn’t be jostled."

"Is her name Usher?" Orrie asked. Of course Saul wouldn’t have asked it, and neither would Fred.

"You should learn to listen, Orrie," Wolfe told him. "I said that’s all I know. And no more is to be expected from either Mrs Irwin or Miss Yarmis. They know no more." His eyes went to Saul. "You will direct the search, using Fred and Orrie as occasions arise."