Over My Dead Body

"I know he didn't, so he wasn't actually fencing at the moment he was killed. Miltan says no one ever fences with the йpйe without a mask. The one Ludlow had been wearing was on a bench over by the wall. And the йpйe that was sticking through him had no button on it, just the blunted end, and it couldn't possibly have pierced him like that. But there was that thing in the cabinet in the office which Mrs Miltan discovered was missing while your Mr Goodwin was present. Which she calls a culdymore. You talk French; you can say it better than I can."

"Col de mort."

"Right. Anyone could have taken it from the cabinet. The chances are a million to one it was used on the йpйe that killed Ludlow. At a distance of a few feet, and especially with the йpйe in motion, he would never have seen it was that and not the ordinary fencing button. But the culdymore was not on the йpйe. So it had been removed. So everyone was searched and twenty men went through that joint like molasses through cheese-cloth. They didn't find it. One person and only one had left that building, namely Goodwin here. You don't imagine he took it with him for a souvenir?"

Wolfe smiled slightly. "I wouldn't suppose so. Thrown out of a window perhaps?"

"It could have been. They're still looking, in the damn dark with flashlights. Also for the other objects which may be missing. Miss Tormic has an idea a glove is gone, one of the ladies'-size fencing gauntlets, from the cupboard in the locker room. Miss Lovchen and the dame that calls herself Zorka don't think so. Mrs Miltan won't commit herself. Nobody seems to know for sure exactly how many there were."

"What about the button that had to be removed from the йpйe before the col de mort could be used?"

"They're all over the place. Right in the fencing rooms in drawers."

"Would the handle of the йpйe show fingerprints if it had been grasped without a glove?"

"No. Wrapped with cord or something for a grip."

"Well." Wolfe looked sympathetic. "The only two objects that might have helped aren't there. I'll promise you one thing, Mr Cramer, if Archie did take them away I shall see that they are handed over to you as soon as we finish with them. But to go on, how many persons were in the building at the time the body was found?"

"Counting everybody, twenty-six."

"How many have you eliminated?"

"All but eight or nine."

"Namely?"

"First and foremost, the one who was fencing with him. Your client."