The Second Confesion

“Not very well, no.” “She has a good level head, but she's as stubborn as a mule. She's a little like Dad. If he had kept off she might have had enough of Louis long ago. But now-I'm scared. I suppose your Nero Wolfe did the best he could, but he left a hole. Dad hired him to find out something about Louis that would keep Gwenn from marrying him. Is that right?” “Right.” “And the way Nero Wolfe put it, one of four things had to happen. Either he had to quit the job, or Dad had to fire him, or Gwenn had to believe what he said about Louis and drop him, or he had to keep on and get proof. But he left out something else that could happen. What if Gwenn went away with Louis and married him? That would fix it too, wouldn't it? Would Dad want Wolfe to go on, to keep after Louis if he was Gwenn's husband? Gwenn wouldn't think so.” Madeline's fingers gripped my arm. “I'm scared! I think she went to meet him!” “I'll be damned. Did she take a bag?” “She wouldn't. She'd know I'd try to stop her, and Dad too-all of us. If your Nero Wolfe is so damn smart, why didn't he think of this?” “He has blind spots, and people running off to get married is one of them. But I should have-my God, I am thick. How long ago did she leave?” “It must have been an hour-about an hour.” “Did she take a car?” Madeline shook her head. “I listened for it. No.” Then she must have-” I stopped to frown and think. “If that wasn't it, if she just went out to have more air while she decided, or possibly to meet him here somewhere and have a talk, where would she go? Has she got a favourite spot?” “She has several.” Madeline was frowning back at me. “An old apple tree in the back field, and a laurel thicket down by the brook, and a-” “Do you know where there's a flashlight?” “Yes, we keep-” “Get it.” She went. In a moment she was back, and we left by the front door. She seemed to think the old apple tree was the best bet, so we circled the house half-way, crossed the lawn, found a path through a shrubbery border, and went through a gate into a pasture. Madeline called her sister's name but no answer came, and when we got to the old apple tree there was no one there. We returned to the vicinity of the house the other way, around the back of the barn and kennels and other outbuildings, with a halt at the barn to see if Gwenn had got romantic and saddled a horse to go to meet her man, but the horses were all there. The brook was in the other direction, in the landscape towards the public road, and we headed that way. Occasionally Madeline called Gwenn's name, but not loud enough to carry to the house. We both had flashlights. I used mine only when I needed it, and by that time our eyes had got adjusted. We stuck to the drive until we reached the bridge over the brook and then Madeline turned sharp to the left. I admit she had me beat at cross-country going in the dark. The bushes and lower limbs had formed the habit of reaching out for me from the sides, and while Madeline hardly used her light at all, I shot mine right or left now and then, as well as to the front.