Where There's a Will Read online

  Sara's information was-that Number One had been taken about nine o'clock Wednesday morning. May Hawthorne was exhibiting one of the crows which had been shot the day beipre byJSToel Hawthorne and which Titus Ames had Just found in a meadow; Mrs. Dunn wasJooking at it curiously while April Hawthorne regarded it with revulsion. Sara had snapped them before they knew It, and a moment later, hearing a noise behind her on the terrace, had turned, seen Daisy with her veil standing there, and snapped her too. That was Number Two. Number Three had been taken shortly after six o'clock Tuesday afternoon, when Sara had emerged from the shop where she worked and found Glenn Prescott there with his car waiting to take her to the country. Number Four had been taken some three hours earlier the same afternoon, Tuesday. Sara had gone up Park Avenue to deliver a vase to a customer in a hurry, and had taken her camera along as usual. She had seen, crossing the sidewalk, the woman whom she had seen before, months previously, entering Hartlespoon's in the company of her Uncle Noel; and the door of the car which the woman headed for was being opened by a man whom she recognized, though she had not seen him for years, as Eugene Davis, the law partner of FR1;222 WHERE THERE'S A WILL Glenn Prescott. She took a shot as the woman was approaching the car. Number Five had been taken Wednesday morning, not long before Number One. She had gone through the woods for a look at the spot where her Uncle Noel had met his death, and, finding her father, her brother, and Osric Stauffer there, had earned remonstrances from all three of them by snapping a picture of the scene. Number Six, of course, needed no explanation. It was the one she had taken with a flash there in "White's office Friday afternoon. My glass was as good as Wolfe's, and so I had no handicap with regard to details, but after completing my third inspection of everything I could find, I passed. As far as I was concerned, the only thing those snaps proved was that Sara was handy with a Leitax. I went to my desk and sat down. Wolfe was through, too. He was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. I watched him. His lips were moving, pushing out and thickening, and then closing in again to make a thin line. I watched him, and wondered whether he really had something or was only bluffing. If he was bluffing it could have been only for my benefit, for Sara Dunn didn't know what that movement of his lips meant. Suddenly she demanded, "Well? Are you deducing something?" FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 223 His lips stopped moving. His eyelids raised to make slits, enough to see her through, and after a moment he slowly shook his head. "No," he murmured at her, "the deducing is finished. That was simple. The hard part of it--" "But you--" She stiffened, staring at him. "You don't mean--those pictures--not really--" "Not the pictures. The picture. Just one of them. From it I deduce, among other things, that if you go back to that house you're apt to get killed. And you're certainly going to be needed, so-- Yes, Fritz?" Fritz, having closed the door behind him, advanced halfway to the desk and spoke: "A caller, sir, Mr. John Charles Dunn. A gentleman and three ladies are with him." CHAPTER SIXTEEN there was an instant's silence and then Sara Dunn popped out of her chair and pretended she was a cyclone. At that, she was young and active, and might have presented difficulties if her hands had been free to continue with my face where Daisy had left off the day before, but she was using them to collect snapshots. She had the envelope containing the film and the discards in one hand, and was reachLig for the remaining six with the other, when I gathered her in. I did it promptly and neatly, with my left arm clamping both her arms and her body above the waist, and my right hand smothering her mouth and nose and pushing the back of her head into my ribs. She couldn't even kick, because my knees had her legs pinned against the desk. Wolfe asked, "Are you hurting her?" "Not to speak of." He grunted, got up and came around the desk, and retrieved the envelope from her left hand. There wasn't much grip in her fingers on account of the pressure on her arm. Then he collected the six pictures she hadn't got hold of, dropped them 224 FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 225 I into the envelope, crossed to the safe, put the en| velope in a drawer, and closed the safe door. He ambled back to his chair and deposited himself, and told me with a frown, "I don't like the look on your face when you're doing things like that.. Turn her loose. "She may scream.'* "Then hold on a minute." He directed his eyes at hers. "You have done everything you can, and it cannot be undone. I'm going to finish this business as soon as possible. None of your family--your father and mother and brother--will suffer by it, nor will you. But I don't want any talk about those pictures. Furthermore, you are not to leave this house. The attempt to steal that film shows that the murderer is aware of the blunder he made. He doesn't know where the pictures are and I don't want him to know just yet, but he knows that anything seen by your camera was seen by you too. He's a bungler and an ass, but that merely increases your danger. Unless you promise not to leave this house, I'll have to feed the police a lot of stuff they're not prepared to digest, to let them take the responsibility for your death instead of me-- Let her go, Archie." She was half Hawthorne and there was no telling about her reactions, so I unwrapped my arms and retreated two paces simultaneously. But she ignored FR1;226 WHERE THERE'S A WILL me completely. She straightened up there against the desk, inhaled with a couple of gasps to catch up on her oxygen, and sputtered at Wolfe: "You said he:' Wolfe shook his head. "You'll have to wait. Miss Dunn. It will be ticklish going. I'm paying you a compliment by not having Mr. Goodwin tape your mouth shut and lock you in upstairs. I'm going by your eyes. You're not to leave this house, and you're to tell no one about those pictures--" The door burst open and John Charles Dunn stumbled in, with May and June, Celia Fleet, and Osric Stauffer at his heels. He didn't literally stumble, but he did run into a chair, and then stopped and grabbed the back of it and stood there and said: "I got tired waiting. We got tired waiting." Sara looked at him, at his sagging face and bloodshot eyes, and then made a dive for him, crying out, "Daddy! Daddy dear!" She put her arms around his neck and kissed him. Apparently the professional fiend acting that way served to release tension all around. Dunn put his arm around his daughter's shoulders and made noises in his throat. Celia Fleet stared at them and chewed on her lower lip. Stauffer glared around with eyes as bloodshot as Dunn's. June sat down and got out her handkerchief and wiped off two FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 227 tears that had started down her cheeks. May marched up to the desk and said to Wolfe in a biting and contemptuous tone: "./ r/ "' "I didn't want to come here. My sister and brother-in-law insisted on it. Which was it, funk or treachery?" "Now, Miss Hawthorne--" Stauffer approached, remonstrating. "That won't help the situation--" "April's arrested," June blurted. "They've arrested her!" I was trying to help out by pushing chairs behind knees here and there. They certainly were a woebegone outfit. "She's not arrested," Dunn said as he sank into a chair without looking at it. Still a lawyer, in misfortune up to his chin. "She was asked to go to the district attorney's office and she went. But the way it stands now--" "I tell you, John," May snapped at him, "before we tell this man anything, we should demand a satisfactory explanation--" "Nonsense," Stauffer sputtered irritably. "Damn it all, you talk as if we could choose--" "Please, all of you!" Wolfe pushed air with his palm. "Stop jabbering. Your minds aren't working." He looked at May. "Apparently, Miss Haw-^ thorne, you are resentful because when we found Miss Karn's dead body I came home to think it over 228 WHERE THERE'S A WILL instead of sitting there all night starving and twiddling my thumbs. I thought you had more sense. To answer your question, it was neither funk nor treachery; it was wit. Anyhow, I'm not answerable to you. You, with others, engaged me to negotiate with Miss Karn, but Miss Karn is dead. Mr. Dunn engaged me to investigate the murder of Noel Hawthorne." He looked at Dunn. "Am I still so engaged?" "Yes. Of course." Dunn didn't sound very enthusiastic. "But I don't know what you can do-- Prescott's down there with April--" "Let's clear the air a little," Wolfe suggested. "April is in no danger whatever, except of being annoyed." They all stared at him. May demanded, "How do you know that?" "I know more than that," Wolfe assured her. "But that's what I give you now. Accept it; it's good-- Next, Mr. Dunn, I offer you a s
uggestion. Yesterday Mr. Goodwin found Miss Karn seated in the living room, talking with April Hawthorne who was disguised with a veil to pass as Mrs. Noel Hawthorne." Dunn nodded. "That was one thing--" "One thing you came here now to see me about. Of course. But my suggestion: Mr. Goodwin, on an impulse, parted the draperies that conceal the bar, WHERE THERE^S A WILL 229 and saw Mr. Stauffer standing there. Last evening Stauffer offered Goodwin a thousand dollars not to tell the police about it. Goodwin refused the bribe, but he didn't tell the police, and I didn't tell Inspector Cramer when he called on me this morning. But we might strike a bargain with Stauffer. Since he was Hawthorne's deputy in the foreign department of Daniel Cullen and Company, he must know the truth about that leakage on the Argentine loan. If it happened as you suspected yesterday, when Mrs. Hawthorne was found--" "You're way behind," Stauffer interrupted gruffly. Wolfe's brows lifted. "Behind?" "Yes. You're going to suggest that Dunn forces me to tell the truth about that loan business by threatening to inform the police that I was hiding . behind that curtain when Naomi Karn was there. Aren't you?" "I thought we might try that." "Well, you're late. As long as Hawthorne was alive it was impossible for me to tell Dunn about it, I simply couldn't, but I told him this morning, and we confronted Mrs. Hawthorne with it and made her sign a statement. That was what made her vindictive enough to go to the police with a bunch of lies--" "We don't know that she lied," May objected. FR1;230 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "Even if she stuck to the truth, it's enough to challenge Wolfe's statement that April's in no danger--"

  "Let's clean up as we go along," Wolfe put in. "Then you're clear on the affair of the loan, Mr. Dunn?" "I'm clear of perfidy," Dunn said gloomily, "but I let that damned woman make a fool of me. And anyway, with all this--it's all over--" "Not quite," Wolfe declared. "It won't be all over until I'm through with it. With luck even, you should be able to sleep tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. But you can help me remove a few obstructions--excuse me--" The phone was ringing. I got my receiver at my ear, but he must have been on edge, for he reached for his extension without waiting for me. I said, "Office of Nero Wolfe--" "Saul Panzer, Archie. Three-eighteen. I'm reporting from--" Wolfe's voice cut him off: "Hold the wire." Wolfe dropped his instrument on its cradle, arose from his chair, said curtly, "No record, Archie," and made for the door. Fritz, who had been hovering, left the room with him. I plugged in the kitchen extension, kept the receiver to my ear until I heard Wolfe's voice and Saul's answering him, and hung up. FR1;WHERE THERE^S A WILL 231 May Hawthorne said incisively, "He's a mountebank. Talk of our sleeping tonight! I tell you, someone must do something! Prescott down there with April! He may be a good lawyer, but he's not up to this. And Andy's a child. And this windbag of a Wolf e--bah! We're sunk, damn it!" Dunn muttered at her, without conviction, "He says April is in no danger--" "Bluff!" May snorted. "My God, if the best we can do in the face of calamity is sit here and listen--"

  "Be quiet, May," June put in with quiet authority. "Quit ragging. You know very well it's Nero Wolfe or nothing. What has anyone else been able to offer except well-meaning condolence? If we're sunk, we're sunk. You stop digging at John. He was on the verge of a collapse before this happened." Her eyes left her sister, to look at her daughter, and her voice changed. "Sara dear. I don't like to ask you what you came here for, but I'd like to know. Mr. Wolfe sent for you. Didn't he?" "Yes." Sara was on a chair next to her father. "He wanted to ask me something. About my camera being stolen. You remember I spoke about it yesterday, and last evening I told Mr. Goodwin. Of course that was all I could tell Mr. Wolfe, that it was gone and I had no idea who took it." So they discussed the camera. There had been 252 WHERE THERE'S A WILL two murders, an estate of millions had apparently gone up the flue as far as they were concerned, Dunn was tumbling headlong off of a national eminence, their April was being questioned by the police as a suspect, and they discussed the camera. That would have been all right if they had had any idea of its relation to the cataclysm, but as far as I could tell nobody had. They were still discussing it when Wolfe came back in. He got into his chair and looked around at the faces. "Now," he said brusquely, "let's tidy up a little. First, Mrs. Hawthorne's vindictiveness after you cornered her on that loan business. I suppose one of the things she told the police was about the cornflower Andy found hanging on a briar, and April's wearing a bunch of cornflowers Tuesday afternoon which had been presented to her by Mr. Stauffer." There were stares and two or three exclamations. Stauffer started, "How the devil--" Wolfe wiggled a finger. "Let me go on. I'm not trying to stagger you with effects. I got that story firsthand, from Mrs. Hawthorne herself yesterday, Did she give it to the police?" "Yes, she did," June replied. "Describing, of course, the scene she saw through a window Tuesday evening, when Andy exhibited the cornflower to you and your husband and told WHERE THERE'S A WILL 233 i where he had found it. I suppose the police quesJtioned you about that?" "Yes." "Did you admit it?" "Of course not. It wasn't true. We denied it." "All three of you?" "Yes." Wolfe grunted. "That's bad. You're going to regret that." "Why should we regret it, since we merely---" "Merely told the truth, Mrs. Dunn? Oh, no. You lied. Don't take me for a fool. You shouldn't even take Mr. Cramer for a fool. Mrs. Hawthorne didn't invent that story. The fact is, you should have told me about it yourself, since you were hiring me for this job. And you'll tell me the truth now, or you'll get out of my office and take the job with you. I'm not being highhanded just for the devil of it. It's important, it may even be vital, that I have a statement from you, your husband and your son, that that cornflower was found there and all three of you saw it. Well?" "It's a trick," May snapped. "Pfui!" Wolfe made a face at her. "This thing is turning you into a dunce. I don't play tricks on clients." He looked at~June7"Well?" Dunn demanded, "Do you have any basis for your assertion that April is not in danger?" mmms 234 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "I do. I'm not disclosing it, but I have it. You'd better either acquire some confidence in me, sir, or fire me." "All right. Andy found a cornflower there and showed it to my wife and me." "Tuesday evening, as Mrs. Hawthorne said?" "Yes." "What did you do with it?" "I threw it in the fireplace." "Do you confirm that, Mrs. Dunn?" June hesitated a second and then said firmly, "Yes." "Good." Wolfe frowned at her. "You'll have to eat your denial to the police, but that's your fault. You had hired me and you should have consulted me. Next. Your sister's masquerade as Mrs. Hawthorne. Mr. Goodwin saw her there with Miss Karn, came straight to the library, and saw Mrs. Hawthorne with me. He ascertained that the one in the library was the real Mrs. Hawthorne by trying to lift her veil. You heard her scream. We concluded that the counterfeit downstairs must be April, the accomplished actress. Did Mrs. Hawthorne give that to the police too?" "Yes," June replied. "How did she know about it?" "Turner told her. The butler. I happened to be in the entrance hall when Miss Karn arrived and WHERE THERE^S A WILL 235 said she wanted to see Mrs. Hawthorne. I told Turner to put Miss Karn in the living room and I would attend to it. On my way upstairs I had an idea. Daisy was in the library with you. The idea was for April to get a dress and veil from Daisy's room and see Miss Karn and find out what she had to say. I found her in May's room and suggested it, and they approved. Mr. Stauffer was there too, and he--" "I didn't," Stauffer put in curtly. "I mean I didn't approve. I strongly disapproved. I went down and entered the bar from the rear and stayed there behind the curtain as a protection for April. Goodwin saw me there." ^ | "And Turner?" Wolfe asked June. t' "I don't think he suspected anything when he saw April come downstairs. She was perfect. She always is. But he knew Daisy was in the library at a moment when she was also in the living room, for he saw her there when he went to tell you that one of your men had arrived. He couldn't tell his mistress about it at once, for he didn't know which one was her, but he told her later." "And now she has told the police." "Yes." "And you have all been questioned. "Yes." "And you have, I hope--except Mr. Stauffer-- told it just as it happened." 236 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "Of course not. 'We denied it." "Good heavens." Wolfe sighed, and compressed his lips. "You have denied
the whole thing?" "Yes." "April too?" "Yes." "And Turner presumably is a mealymouthed liar?" "No. He must--we merely said--he must be mistaken." "God bless you." Wolfe was disgusted. "He'd better. You merely said! It's a wonder you're not all locked up! Was Prescott in on this?" "No. No one knew of it except April and May and me--and Mr. Stauffer. Not even my husband, until this morning." June fluttered a hand at him. "And I appeal to you, Mr. Wolfe, to--to understand. Ordinarily I'm not a fool, none of us is. But we've been so shocked and bewildered and helpless --all the sense we had was knocked out of us. For my husband and me this came at the end of months of frightful strain--you must understand--" She faltered to a stop. Wolfe said gruffly, "My understanding wouldn't help you any. You can get that anywhere. Tell me what Miss Karn said to your sister disguised as Mrs. Hawthorne." ' "She wanted a million dollars." ( WHERE THERE'S A WILL 237 "You mean she offered to sign over all but a million?"