Final Deduction

"That's enough." Wolfe turned. "As you see, Mr Frost, I realize that my perspicacity is not infallible. Of course some of Mr Panzer's items invite further inquiry-for example, is the estate on Long Island unencumbered? Is there a mortgage?"

Frost was no longer frosty; he was too near boiling. "This is unbelievable," he declared. He was close to sputtering. "You have actually paid this man to collect a dossier on me? To examine the possibility that I'm a kidnaper and murderer? Me?"

Wolfe nodded. "Certainly. You're a lawyer with wide experience; you know I could exclude no one who was there. Mr Panzer is discreet and extremely competent; I'm sure he-"

The doorbell rang. I got up and went to the hall for a look, returned to my desk, scribbled "Cramer" on the scratch pad, tore off the sheet, and handed it to Wolfe. He glanced at it, closed his eyes, opened them in three seconds, and turned to Frost.

"Inspector Cramer of the police is at the door. If you would prefer not to-"

Frost's wires snapped. He jerked forward, his eyes blazing. "Damn you! Damn you! You phoned him!"

"I did not," Wolfe snapped. "He is uninvited and unexpected. I don't know why he's here. He deals only with death by violence. If he has heard of my conclusion that Mr Vail was murdered, I don't know when or from whom. Not from Mr Goodwin or me." The doorbell rang. "Do you want him to know you are here?"

"You're a liar! You're to blame-"

"Enough!" Wolfe hit the desk. "The situation is precisely as I have described it. Archie, admit Mr Cramer. Do you want him to see you or not? Yes or no."

"No," Frost said, and left the chair. Wolfe told Saul to take him to the front room, and when Saul had gone to the connecting door and opened it, and Frost was moving, I went to admit the law. From the expression on Cramer's face I expected him to march on by to the office, but when I turned after shutting the door, he was there facing me.

"What were you doing with Noel Tedder last night?" he demanded.

"Don't snap my head off," I said. "I'd rather tell you before a witness. Mr Wolfe will do." I walked to the office, entered, and told Wolfe, "He wants to know what I was doing with Noel Tedder last night. He didn't say please."

Cramer was at my elbow. "The day I say please to you," he growled, and went to the red leather chair, sat, and put his hat on the stand.

"I suppose," Wolfe said, "it's futile to complain. You have been a policeman so long, and have asked so many people so many impertinent questions, and so frequently have got answers to them, that it has become spontaneous. Have you any ground at all for expecting Mr Goodwin to answer that one?"

"We might arrange a deal," I suggested. "I'll ask an impertinent question. Why have you got a tail on Noel Tedder if Jimmy Vail's death was an accident?"

"We haven't got a tail on him."

"Then how did you know he was with me?"

"A detective happened to see you with him on the street and followed you." Cramer turned to Wolfe. "Day before yesterday you refused to tell me where you and Goodwin had been for twenty-four hours. You said you had no further commitment to Mrs Vail and you had no client. You repeated that in your signed statement. You did not repeat it to Draper of the FBI when he asked you last night. Your answer was evasive. That's not like you. I have never known you to hedge on a lie. Now this, Goodwin with Noel Tedder. You're not going to tell me that was just social. Are you?"

"No."

"Goodwin?"

"No."

"Then what was it?"

Wolfe shook his head. "You have a right to expect answers only to questions that are relevant to a crime. What crime are you investigating?"

"That's typical. That's you. I'm investigating the possibility that Jimmy Vail didn't die by accident."

"Then you aren't satisfied that he did."

"Satisfied, no. The District Attorney may be, I don't know, you can ask him. I say I have a right to expect Goodwin to answer that question. Or you."

Wolfe tilted his chair back, then his head, pursed his lips, and examined the ceiling. Cramer took a cigar from a pocket, rolled it between his palms, which was silly with a cigar that wasn't going to be lit, held it at an angle with his thumb and forefinger, frowning at it, and returned it to his pocket. Evidently he had asked it an impertinent question and it had refused to answer. Wolfe let his chair come forward and said, "The paper, Archie." I went to the safe and got it from the shelf and took it to him. He put it on his desk pad and turned to Cramer.