Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

He wanted an answer, and Wolfe supplied it. "Yes."

"Then he knew my name, but no one else did. Then he's a scoundrel and a blackmailer. I have been paying him a thousand dollars a month for four months. Almost certainly he is also a murderer. He killed her. I don't know why he killed her, but he's a scoundrel."

Wolfe's eyes came to me, and I met them. I put one brow up. His eyes went back to Ballou. "Why the devil," he demanded, "didn't you tell me this before? Two days ago."

"I didn't see it then. Not as I do now, after considering it. You had given me a bad jolt. And you had said that Cather didn't kill her. I think he did. He's a blackguard. I think he'll be tried and convicted, and that's why I'm here. You said the other day that if he is tried my name will inevitably be divulged, and that must not happen. My name connected not merely with a diversion but with a sensational murder – it must not happen." He pointed to the package he had put on Wolfe's desk. "That parcel contains fifty thousand dollars in fifty-dollar bills. You told me the other day that you were committed, but you don't have to stay committed to a blackmailer and a murderer."

He took a breath. "That fifty thousand is just a retainer. I'm in a tougher trap than I realized, and I have to get out, no matter what it costs. I admit I don't see how it can be done, but you know Cather and you'll know how to deal with him. I'm not asking or expecting anything crooked. If they have the evidence to try him and convict him, all right, that's the law. But my name must not appear. You said that, since no one has called on me, my name isn't in that diary, and also evidently Cather hasn't mentioned my name to the police. Isn't that true?"

"Yes." Wolfe was pinching his lip with a thumbtip and a fingertip. "You're going much too fast, Mr. Ballou. I concede that I don't have to stay committed to a blackmailer and a murderer, but am I? I need to know more. Describe the man you paid the money to."

"I have never seen him. I mailed it to him."

"When and how did he demand it?"