Prisoner's Base

"I don't have to explain it."

"Do you decline to try?"

"I don't see that it needs more explanation than you already have. She knew that I was coming that evening with documentary proof that Miss Duday was utterly incompetent to direct the affairs of the corporation. I told her so that morning on the phone. I think it likely that she was already aware that she would have to abandon her idea of putting Miss Duday in control, and she didn't want to face me and admit it. Also she knew that Miss Duday would not give her a moment's peace for the week that was left."

"What a monstrous liar you are, Perry," Viola Duday said in her clear, pleasant voice.

He looked at her. That was the first time I had seen him give her a direct and explicit look, and, since she was just off the line from him to me, I had a good view of it. It demolished one detail of his exposition-the claim that a man of his training and temperament couldn't possibly commit a murder. His look at her was perfect for a guy about to put a cord around a neck and pull tight. It was just one swift, ugly flash, and then he returned to Wolfe.

"I should think," he said, "that would explain her leaving and her note to me. Whether it also explains what she said to you I can't say, because I don't know what that was."

"What about Miss O'Neil?"

"I have nothing to say about Miss O'Neil."

"Oh, come. She may be a mere voluptuous irrelevance, but I need to know. What was her manner of play? Was she intimate with both Mr. Brucker and you, or neither? What was she after-diversion, treasure, or a man?"

Helmar's jaw worked. It jutted anyway, and when he gave it muscle it was as outstanding as the beak of a bulldozer. He spoke. "It was stupid to submit to this at all. With the police it's unavoidable, there's no help for it, but with you it's absurd-your ignorant and malicious insinuations about a young woman whom you are not fit to touch. In her innocence and modest merit she is so far above all this depravity-no! I was a fool to come!" He set the jaw for good.