Final Deduction

"You guess right," I told him. "Fred and Orrie, you stay here and keep the peace. Noel and Saul and I will look around some more. But it has occurred to me that I may have overlooked something. Wait till I see." I went to the corner where the big trunk was, lifted the lid, took out the top tray, and put it on the floor gently. Then I reached in and got the loops at the ends of the second tray and eased it up and out, and I damn near dropped it. There at the bottom of the trunk was an old tan leather suitcase. I took three seconds out to handle my controls, staring at it, then carefully put the tray on the floor to one side, straightened up, and said, "Come and take a look, Noel." He came and stooped over to see, then reached a hand in and heaved, and out it came. At that point I decided that he might really have two feet. I had expected him to squeak something like "Jesus Holy Christ what the hell," but he squeaked nothing. He just reached in and got it, put it on the floor, undid the clasps, and opened the lid; and there was the biggest conglomeration of engraved lettuce I had ever had the pleasure of looking at. I glanced around. Purcell was at my elbow, and Jake was at his elbow, and Saul was right behind them. Margot was approaching, hips stiff as ever. Noel, squatting, with a hand flattened out on top of the find, tilted his head back to look up at me and said, "I didn't believe him, but I thought I might as well come. How in the name of God did he know it was here?"

Orrie, still in the doorway with Fred, called over, "Damn it, have you got it?" Margot was saying something which I didn't bother to hear, and Purcell was making noises. I looked at my wrist; it's nice to know exactly what time you found half a million bucks. Eight minutes to three. I went and put the trays back in the trunk, gently and carefully, closed the lid, and came back. Noel was fastening the lid of the suitcase, paying no attention to what his sister was saying.

"Okay," I said, "we'll move. Saul and Noel will take it out to the car." I put out a hand to Saul. "The gun. I'll unload it and leave it on the kitchen table. Fred and Orrie will follow Saul and Noel. I'll stay in the kitchen to guard the phone until you have the car turned around and headed out. When you tap the horn I'll come. Miss Tedder, if you came to see about that leaky roof, don't neglect it just because we got in the way. As Mr Wolfe remarked to your brother just this afternoon, a leaky roof should be attended to."

CHAPTER 14

When the doorbell rang at five minutes to six Monday afternoon I was in my chair in the office, leaning back, my feet up on the corner of the desk, looking at the headline on the front page of the Gazette:

VAIL RANSOM FOUND

$500,000 in Birds' Egg Trunk

With that second hot exclusive given to Lon Cohen in three days, our credit balance with him was colossal. The picture of the suitcase on page 3, with the lid open, had been taken by me. The article, which I had read twice, was okay. I was given a good play, and so was Wolfe, and Saul and Fred and Orrie were named. I had given Lon nothing about Margot or Uncle Ralph, but had mentioned Jake's gun. A gun improves any story.

The money was in the bank, but not the one it had come from. Noel had demonstrated that he was neither a piker nor a soft touch. When I had put the suitcase on the couch in the office, and he had opened it, and we had all gathered around to admire the contents, including Wolfe, he had taken out a couple of bundles of cees, counted off two grand and handed it to Orrie, then two grand to Fred, two to Saul, and five to me. Then he had asked Wolfe, "Do you want yours now?" and Wolfe had said it would have to be counted first since his share was a percentage; and Wolfe had gone to the kitchen to tell Fritz there would be four guests for dinner. It was then five o'clock, but at seven, just two hours later, Fritz had served us the kind of meal you read about. No shad roe.

The arrangement for the night was determined by two facts: one, there wasn't room in the safe; and two, Noel didn't want to take it home, which was understandable. So when bedtime came I got pajamas for him and took him up to the south room, which is above Wolfe's, checked the towel supply and turned the bed down, and took the suitcase up another flight to my room. It wouldn't go under my pillow, so I made room for it on the bed stand right against the pillow. We hadn't counted the money.