Final Deduction

"Sure, we were there." He shook his head. "Holy Christ. My mother, that's crazy. Me, I liked Jimmy. He couldn't see me, but I liked him. Uncle Ralph-"

"That's irrelevant, Mr Tedder. The murder resulted from the kidnaping-my assumption. The kidnaper wished him no harm and rendered him none; he only wanted the money. Logically that excludes your mother, but not you. There are several possibilities. For one, Miss Utley was killed because she demanded too large a share of the loot. For another, Mr Vail was killed because he had learned that one of those present Wednesday evening was responsible for the kidnaping, and of course that wouldn't do. We ignore the mysterious Mr Knapp perforce, because we don't know who or where he is. Presumably he was a confederate whose chief function was to make the phone calls, but he may also have got the money from your mother, since he spoke to her, and if he has bolted with it, we're done before we start. We could expose the murderer, to no profit, but that's all. I say `we.' Is it `we'? Do we proceed?"

"How?"

"First I would need to speak at length, separately, with those who were present Wednesday evening, beginning with you. You would have to bring them here, or send them, by some pretext-or some inducement, perhaps a share of the money. Then I'll see."

"Great. Just great. I ask them-my sister, for instance-to come and let you grill her to find out if she kidnaped Jimmy and then killed him. Great."

"You might manage to put it more tactfully."

"Yeah, I might." He leaned forward. "Look, Mr Wolfe. Maybe you've got it right, your deductions and assumptions, and maybe not. If you have and you find the money, okay, I'll get mine and you'll get yours. I don't owe my uncle a damn thing, and God knows I don't owe that lawyer, Andrew Frost, anything. He talked my mother out of letting me have-oh, to hell with it. As for my sister, I'm not her keeper, repeat not-she can look out for herself. You try putting it to her tactfully and see what-"

The phone rang. I swiveled and got it. "Nero Wolfe's residence, Archie Goodwin speaking."

"This is Margot Tedder. I'd like to speak to Mr Wolfe."

I told her to hold it and turned. "Margot Tedder wants to speak to you."

Noel made a noise. Wolfe frowned at his phone to remind it that he resents being summoned by it, no matter who, then reached for it. "Yes, Miss Tedder?"

"Nero Wolfe?"

"Yes."

"You never go anywhere, do you?"

"No."

"Then I'll have to come there. I'll come now."

"You won't be admitted. I'll be at dinner. Why do you wish to come?"

"I want you to help me do something."

"What?"

"I'd rather- Oh, it doesn't matter. About the money my mother gave the kidnapers. You know about that."

"Yes. What about it?"

"She has told me that if I can find it I can have it, and I want you to help me. We'll have to hurry. I'll come now. Your dinner can wait."

"I can't. More precisely, I won't. You may come at nine o'clock, not before. I'm busy. You will excuse me. I'm hanging up." He cradled the phone and turned. "Your sister says that her mother told her that if she finds the money paid to the kidnaper she can have it, and she is coming at nine o'clock to enlist my help. I'll tell her you have already engaged me. We have twenty minutes until my dinner time. Where were you from eight o'clock Sunday evening until eight o'clock Wednesday morning?"

CHAPTER 8

A man's time-and-place record as given by him may or may not prove anything, even if it doesn't check. There are a lot of people who wouldn't tell you exactly where they had been and what they had done between eight P.M. Sunday and eight P.M. Wednesday even if they hadn't kidnaped or murdered anybody. Wolfe, knowing how easy it is to frame an alibi, has seldom tried to crack one. In all the years I have been with him I haven't checked more than four or five. He has sometimes had Saul Panzer or Fred Durkin or Orrie Cather look into one, but not often. I put what Noel Tedder told him in my notebook, but I knew it wouldn't be checked unless developments nominated Noel for the tag. Besides, only one time and place was essential, either for Noel or for one of the others. It didn't have to be that he himself had snatched Jimmy Vail Sunday evening, or had helped to keep him wherever he had been kept, or had put notes in telephone books Tuesday evening, or had been at Iron Mine Road Tuesday night. The one essential time and place was the Harold F. Tedder library Wednesday evening, and we knew he had been there. They all had. The question had to be asked; if Noel had gone up in a balloon with six United States Senators Sunday morning and hadn't come down until Wednesday noon, he couldn't be expected to know where the money was, and that was the point. But I won't waste my space and your time reporting his whereabouts for those sixty hours.