Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

"Then you know about things. You said I wouldn't want the man that killed my sister to go free, and no, I wouldn't, but if he's arrested and there's a trial, no one is going to say about my sister what you said about her. If anyone said that at the trial it would be in the newspapers. If anyone is going to say that there mustn't be any trial. Even if he goes free. So you didn't know what I want."

That made the second woman in one day who didn't want a trial, though for a different reason. "I do now," I told her, "and from your standpoint there's no argument. I even agree with you, at least part way. You don't want a trial even if they get the right man. What I don't want is a trial of the wrong man, and that's what is going to happen unless someone stops it. Of course you read the papers."

"I read all of them."

"Naturally. Then you know they are holding a man named Orrie Cather and that he has worked for Nero Wolfe. Had you ever heard or seen that name before? Orrie Cather?"

"No."

"Are you sure? Didn't your sister ever mention him?"

"No. I'm sure she didn't."

"Mr. Wolfe and I know him very well. We do not believe he killed your sister. I don't say we know all about him. He may have had, he may have, some – uh – connections that we don't know about. I will even concede that he may have been the one who was paying the rent for your sister's apartment, and her other – You're shaking your head."

"She didn't shake her head," Fleming said.

"Sorry, I thought you did. Anyway, whether he was paying the rent or not, we do not believe he killed her, and that's why Mr. Wolfe sent me to see you. If they bring him to trial – you know what will happen. Everything they have found out about your sister will be on record. As you know, a jury is supposed to acquit a man if there's a reasonable doubt. We want to establish a reasonable doubt for the police so it won't get in a courtroom for a jury, and we thought you might help. You saw your sister fairly often, didn't you?"

"That's pretty clever," Fleming said. "But I must remind you that for my wife a trial of the right man might be just as bad as a trial of the wrong man. I don't agree with her, not at all, but Isabel was her sister."