The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

Her eyes were still on me, but her mind wasn't. She was considering something. "I see no reason…" she said, and stopped.

I waited a little, then said, "Yes, Mrs Althaus?"

"I see no reason why I shouldn't tell you. I have suspected it was the FBI, ever since Mr Yarmack told me that nothing about them was found in the apartment. So has Mr Yarmack, and so has Miss Hinckley. I don't think I am a vindictive woman, Mr Goodwin, but he was my-" Her voice was going to quiver, and she stopped. In a moment she went on. "He was my son. I am still trying to realize that he-he's gone. Did you know him? Did you ever meet him?"

"No."

"You're a detective."

"Yes."

"You're expecting me to help you find-to fix the blame for my son's death. Very well, I want to. But I don't think I can. He rarely spoke to me about his work. I don't remember that he ever mentioned the FBI. Miss Hinckley has asked me that, and Mr Yarmack. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything about it, I'm truly sorry, because if they killed him I hope they will be punished. It says in Leviticus 'Thou shalt not avenge', but Aristotle wrote that revenge is just. You see, I have been thinking about it. I believe-"

She turned to face the arch. A door had closed, and there were voices, and then a girl appeared. As she approached I got up, but Mrs Althaus kept her chair. The pictures in the Gazette file understated it. Marian Hinckley was a dish. She was an in-between, neither blonde nor brunette, brown hair and blue eyes, and she moved straight and smooth. If she wore a hat she had ditched it in the foyer. She came and gave Mrs Althaus a cheek kiss, then turned to look at me as Mrs Althaus pronounced my name. As the blue eyes took me in I instructed mine to ignore any aspect of the situation that was irrelevant to the job. When Mrs Althaus invited her to sit I moved a chair up. As she sat she spoke to Mrs Althaus. "If I understood you on the phone-did you say Nero Wolfe knows it was the FBI? Was that it?"

"I'm afraid I didn't get it straight," Mrs Althaus said. "Will you tell her, Mr Goodwin?"

I described it, the three points: why Wolfe was interested, what had made him suspicious, and how his suspicion had been supported by what a man told him yesterday. I explained that he didn't know it was the FBI, and he certainly couldn't prove it, but he intended to try to and that was why I was there.

Miss Hinckley was frowning at me. "But I don't see… Has he told the police what the man told him?"