The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

Wolfe nodded. "That's reasonable and relevant. Miss Hinckley, manifestly you are willing to help or you wouldn't be here. I have suggested a theory to account for the guilt of Mr Yarmack; now one for Mr Quayle. That's simple. Millions of men have killed a fellow man because of a woman-to spite her or bereave her or get her. If Mr Quayle killed your fiance do you want him exposed?"

She lifted her hands and let them drop. "But that's ridiculous."

"Not at all. To the family and friends of most murderers the imputation seems ridiculous, but that doesn't make it so. I am not imputing guilt to Mr Quayle; I am merely considering possibilities. Have you any reason to suppose that your betrothal to Mr Althaus displeased him?"

"You can't expect me to answer that."

"I'll answer it," Quayle blurted. "Yes. It displeased me.

"Indeed. By right? Was it a trespass?"

"I don't know about 'right.' I had asked Miss Hinckley to marry me. I had ex- I had hoped she would."

"Had she agreed to?"

The lawyer cut in. "Take it easy, Wolfe. You mentioned trespass. I think you're trespassing. I'm here at the request of Mr Althaus, my client, and I'm not entitled to speak on behalf of Miss Hinckley or Mr Quayle, but I think you're overreaching. I know your reputation. I know you're not a jobber, and I won't challenge your bona fides unless I have reason, but as an attorney-at-law I have to say you're spreading it pretty thick. Or perhaps I mean thin. Mr Althaus, and his wife, and I as his attorney, certainly want to see justice done. But if you have received information strongly indicating the guilt of the FBI, why this inquisition?"

"I thought I made that plain."

"As an explanation of a position, yes, or as a brief for prudence. Not as an excuse for an inquisition of persons. Next you will be asking me if Morris had caught me committing a felony."

"Had he?"

"I'm not going to fill a role in a burlesque. I repeat, you're overreaching."

"Then I'll pull in, but I shall not abandon prudence. I'll ask you this, a routine question in any case of death by violence: If the FBI didn't kill Morris Althaus, who did? Assume that the FBI is definitely cleared and I am the District Attorney. Who had reason to want that man dead? Who hated him or feared him or had something to gain? Can you suggest a name?"

"No. I have considered that, naturally. No."

Wolfe's eyes went right and left. "Can any of you?"

Two of them shook their heads. No one said anything.