The Mother Hunt (Rex Stout Library)

Wolfe was leaning back, regarding her. I can return that compliment, madam, he told her. It gratifies me to meet you. I have been seeking you for six weeks.

Seeking me? I'm in the phone book. I'm on the masthead of Distaff. The voice and eyes implied that she would have loved to hear from him.

Wolfe nodded. But I didn't know that. I knew only that you had borne a baby and disposed of it. I had to. You didn't know I had borne a baby. You couldn't have.

I do now. While you were carrying it, the last four months, you were a guest at the home of Mrs. Arthur P. Jordan in Sarasota, Florida. You entered the Sarasota General Hospital on January sixteenth, as Clara Waldron, and the baby was born that night. When you boarded an airplane at Tampa, for New York, on February fifth, still as Clara Waldron, the baby was with you. What did you do with it and where is it now?

It took her a moment to find her voice, but it was the same voice almost. I didn't come here to answer questions, she said. I came to ask some. You've had a man making inquiries about me here in New York and then in Florida. Why?

Wolfe pursed his lips. There's no reason to withhold that, he conceded. He turned. The picture, Archie?

I got one of the prints from a drawer and went and handed it to her. She looked at it, at me, at the print again, and at Wolfe. I've never seen this before. Where did you get it?

There were cameras attached to the baby carriage in Washington Square.

That fazed her. Her mouth opened, hung open a long moment, and closed. She looked at the print again, got its edge between thumbs and forefingers, tore it across, tore again, and put the pieces on the stand at her elbow.

We have more, Wolfe said, if you want one for a memento.

Her mouth opened and closed again, but no sound came.

Altogether, Wolfe said, the cameras took pictures of more than a hundred people, but yours was of special interest because you arrived at the square in a cab, expressly for the purpose of looking at the baby in that particular vehicle, having seen a picture of it, and the nurse, in a newspaper. You said My God, she blurted. That's why she did that. You did it.

I suggested it. You said you didn't come to answer questions, but it will simplify matters if you oblige me. Do you know Mr. Leo Bingham?

You know I do. Since you've made inquiries about me.

Do you know Mr. Julian Haft?

Yes.