Over My Dead Body

"I wouldn't expect that. If she is still my client after I see her I'll eliminate her myself. The others?"

"Mr and Mrs Miltan. They alibi each other, which would be a drug on the market at two for a nickel. The girl that came to see you, Carla Lovchen. That's four. She had been fencing with Driscoll, but they had quit and had gone to the locker rooms, and she could have sneaked to the end room and done it. Driscoll. He's unlikely but not eliminated. Zorka. She was in the big room on that floor with a young man named Ted Gill. He claims not to be a fencer and was in there with her learning how to start."

I said, "It was him that was with Belinda Reade yesterday when they saw our client in the hall as she was going to the locker room not to pinch Driscoll's diamonds."

"Right. Then there's the Reade girl and young Barrett. They were moving around and it's hard to tell. Of course if it's Donald Barrett you can have it. Also there's a kind of a man named Rudolph Faber."

"The chinless wonder."

"Not original but good. It's him, by the way, that's responsible for the fact that there's been no arrest. How many does that make?"

"Ten."

"Then it's ten. And no discovered motive in the whole damn bunch. I wouldn't-"

The phone rang. I performed and, after a moment, beckoned to Cramer.

"For you. It's the boss."

"Who?"

"The police commissioner, by gum."

He got up, said in a resigned tone, "Oh, poop," and came and took it.

Chapter Six

That telephone conversation was in two sections. During the first section, which was prolonged, Cramer was doing the talking, in a respectfully belligerent tone, reporting on the situation and the regrettable lack of progress to date. During the second, which was shorter, he was listening and apparently to something not especially cheerful, judging from the inflection of his grunts, and from the expression on his face when he finally cut the connexion and returned to his chair.

He sat and scowled.

Wolfe said, "You were lamenting the lack of motive."

"What?" He looked at Wolfe. "Yeah. I'd give my afternoon off to know what you know right now."

"It would cost you more than an afternoon, Mr Cramer. I read a lot of books."