Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

Good-by, fifty grand, I thought as I crossed to my desk. They had Fleming, and ten to one they would open him up, no matter how Stella had handled him. Maybe they already had.

Wolfe said, "You're fuming, Mr. Cramer."

"You're damn right I am."

"Then you're at a disadvantage. Don't you want to compose your mind?"

"I want you to answer questions!"

"If I know the answers. You say that I knew that Barry Fleming killed Isabel Kerr. I remind you that last evening I told you that I had no evidence that would help to convict anyone of that murder, that I had only a surmise. I repeat that. I still have no evidence. Have you?"

"Yes."

"Is Barry Fleming in custody?"

"No." Cramer's jaw was set. "Look, Wolfe. You've got what you wanted. You wanted to spring Cather, and you've worked it. He's clear. Now. I don't need evidence for Fleming, even if you've got it. I want some facts. I want to know if Barry Fleming fired those shots at Julie Jaquette, and if so why."

Wolfe's shoulders went up an eighth of an inch and down again. "Is that important? Important to you? Since you have him for murder – or have you? You say he's not in custody. If by any chance you think I have him here, waiting for you, I haven't. Is it -"

"You haven't got him here. He's dead."

"Indeed. By violence?"

"Yes."

A corner of Wolfe's mouth twisted up. "Mr. Goodwin and Miss Jaquette and I haven't left the house all day. So if you had any expectation -"

"Oh, cork it. He shot himself. About three hours ago. In the temple with a Bristol twenty-two automatic. It was his, he had a permit. And I want -"

"If you please. At his home?"

"Yes. I -"

"Was a policeman there? Had he been questioned?"

"No. If you -"

"Then how the devil do you know he killed Isabel Kerr? How do you know anything at all? Don't expect me to clear it up. I have told you twice, I have no evidence -"

"Goddammit, I don't need evidence. Not about Isabel Kerr. If you want it about him, okay. When he got home this afternoon, he and his wife had a talk, she says, and he wrote something and signed it. She went out to buy some groceries and was gone about half an hour and when she went back he was dead. How do I know he killed Isabel Kerr? She had it, what he wrote and signed."

He got a piece of folded paper from his breast pocket. "It has been checked with his handwriting, but the laboratory will verify it." He unfolded it. "It's his printed letterhead. Dated today." He read:

"To Whom It May Concern: