Plot It Yourself

This time there were seven instead of six. In addition to the three from the BPA-Gerald Knapp, Thomas Dexter, and Reuben Imhof-and the three from NAAD-Amy Wynn, Mortimer Oshin, and Philip Harvey-there was a middle-aged woman named Cora Ballard whose spine stayed as stiff as a poker both standing and sitting. Harvey had explained that she was not a committee member but was there ex officio. She was the executive secretary of the NAAD. Harvey had seen to it that she was seated next to him, at his left. I had noted glances directed at her by Dexter and Knapp which led me to suspect that in a national poll to choose the Secretary of the Year the book publishers’ vote would not go to Cora Ballard, and her return glances indicated that she most certainly wouldn’t want it to. She had a stenographer’s notebook on her lap and a pencil in her hand.

Philip Harvey, in the red leather chair, was yawning, probably because he had had to get up and out before noon for the second time in a week. Gerald Knapp was explaining that he had been willing to cancel two appointments in order to be present because he agreed with Mr Imhof that the charge now made by Alice Porter against Amy Wynn and the Victory Press made it imperative that immediate and vigorous action be taken, and he agreed with Mr Harvey that they should see Mr Wolfe in a body to learn what progress had been made. Wolfe, his lips pressed tight, sat and scowled at him.

“That is,” Knapp finished, “if there has been any progress. Has there?”

“No,” Wolfe said. “To the contrary. There has been regress.”

They all stared. Cora Ballard said, “Really.” Mortimer Oshin demanded, “How the hell could there be?”

Wolfe took a breath. “I’ll explain briefly, and if you would like me to return the five thousand dollars you have advanced you have only to say so. I told you last Tuesday that this may be a laborious and costly operation; it now appears that it may take more labour than I am prepared to give, and cost more than you are prepared to pay. You were assuming that Alice Porter’s success in hoodwinking Ellen Sturdevant had led others to imitate her, but you were wrong. Alice Porter was merely a tool, and so were Simon Jacobs, Jane Ogilvy, and Kenneth Rennert.”

Cora Ballard looked up from her notebook. “Did you say ‘tool’?”