couldn’t trust mine, so I went around through the hall, crossed to my desk, wrote “Edey and Heydecker” on my memo pad, tore the sheet off, and handed it to Wolfe. He glanced at it and looked at Jett.
“We’re at an impasse. You refuse to answer further questions unless I tell you the contents of the statement, and I won’t do that. Mr. Edey and Mr. Heydecker are here. Will you stay or go?”
“Edey?” Jett stood up. “Heydecker? Here?”
“Yes, sir. Uninvited and unexpected. You may leave unseen if you wish.”
Evidently he didn’t wish anything except to see the statement. He didn’t want to go and he didn’t want to stay. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to decide, Wolfe decided for him by giving me a nod, and I went and opened the connecting door and told the newcomers to come in. Then I stepped aside and looked on, at their surprise at seeing Jett, their manners as they introduced themselves to Wolfe, the way they handled their eyes. I had never completely squelched the idea that when you are in a room with three men and you know that one of them committed a murder, especially when he committed it in that room only eighteen hours ago, it will show if you watch close enough. I knew from experience that the idea wasn’t worth a damn, that if you did see something that seemed to point you were probably wrong, but I still had it and still have it. I was so busy with it that I didn’t go to my desk and sit until Jett was back in the red leather chair and the newcomers were on two of the yellow ones, facing Wolfe, and Heydecker, the big broad-shouldered man, was speaking.
His eyes were at Jett. “We came,” he said, “for information, and I suppose you did too, Greg. Unless you got more at the DA’s office than we did.”
“I got damn little,” Jett said. “I didn’t even see Howie, my old schoolmate. They didn’t answer questions, they asked them. A lot of them I didn’t answer and they shouldn’t have been asked—about our affairs and our clients. Naturally I answered the relevant ones, the routine stuff about my relations with Bertha Aaron and my whereabouts and movements yesterday afternoon. Not only mine, but others’. Particularly if anyone had spoken at length with Bertha, and if anyone had left the office with her or soon after her. Obviously they think she was killed by someone connected with the firm, but they don’t say why—at least not to me.”
“Nor me,” Edey said. He was the compact undersized one and his thin tenor fitted him fine.
“Nor me,” Heydecker said. “What has Wolfe told you?”
“Not much. I haven’t been here long.” Jett looked at Wolfe.
Wolfe obliged. He cleared his throat. “I presume that you gentlemen have come with the same purpose as Mr. Jett. He asks for any information that will give light, with emphasis on the reason for Miss Aaron’s coming to see me. He assumes—”
Heydecker cut in. “That’s it. What was she here for?”
“If you please. He assumes from the circumstances that she was killed because she was here, to prevent a revelation she meant to make, and that is plausible. But surely the police and the District Attorney haven’t withheld
all
of the details from you. Haven’t they told you that she didn’t see me?”
“No,” Edey said. “They haven’t told me.”
“Nor me,” Heydecker said.
“Then I tell you. She came without appointment. Mr. Goodwin admitted her. She asked to see me on a confidential matter. I was engaged elsewhere, upstairs, and Mr. Goodwin came to tell me she was here. We had a matter under consideration and discussed it at some length, and when we came down her dead body was here.” He pointed at Heydecker’s feet. “There. So shecouldn’t tell me what she came for, since I never saw her alive.”
“Then I don’t get it,” Edey declared. The brilliant idea man was using his brain. “If she didn’t tell you, you couldn’t tell the police or the District Attorney. But
“We’re at an impasse. You refuse to answer further questions unless I tell you the contents of the statement, and I won’t do that. Mr. Edey and Mr. Heydecker are here. Will you stay or go?”
“Edey?” Jett stood up. “Heydecker? Here?”
“Yes, sir. Uninvited and unexpected. You may leave unseen if you wish.”
Evidently he didn’t wish anything except to see the statement. He didn’t want to go and he didn’t want to stay. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to decide, Wolfe decided for him by giving me a nod, and I went and opened the connecting door and told the newcomers to come in. Then I stepped aside and looked on, at their surprise at seeing Jett, their manners as they introduced themselves to Wolfe, the way they handled their eyes. I had never completely squelched the idea that when you are in a room with three men and you know that one of them committed a murder, especially when he committed it in that room only eighteen hours ago, it will show if you watch close enough. I knew from experience that the idea wasn’t worth a damn, that if you did see something that seemed to point you were probably wrong, but I still had it and still have it. I was so busy with it that I didn’t go to my desk and sit until Jett was back in the red leather chair and the newcomers were on two of the yellow ones, facing Wolfe, and Heydecker, the big broad-shouldered man, was speaking.
His eyes were at Jett. “We came,” he said, “for information, and I suppose you did too, Greg. Unless you got more at the DA’s office than we did.”
“I got damn little,” Jett said. “I didn’t even see Howie, my old schoolmate. They didn’t answer questions, they asked them. A lot of them I didn’t answer and they shouldn’t have been asked—about our affairs and our clients. Naturally I answered the relevant ones, the routine stuff about my relations with Bertha Aaron and my whereabouts and movements yesterday afternoon. Not only mine, but others’. Particularly if anyone had spoken at length with Bertha, and if anyone had left the office with her or soon after her. Obviously they think she was killed by someone connected with the firm, but they don’t say why—at least not to me.”
“Nor me,” Edey said. He was the compact undersized one and his thin tenor fitted him fine.
“Nor me,” Heydecker said. “What has Wolfe told you?”
“Not much. I haven’t been here long.” Jett looked at Wolfe.
Wolfe obliged. He cleared his throat. “I presume that you gentlemen have come with the same purpose as Mr. Jett. He asks for any information that will give light, with emphasis on the reason for Miss Aaron’s coming to see me. He assumes—”
Heydecker cut in. “That’s it. What was she here for?”
“If you please. He assumes from the circumstances that she was killed because she was here, to prevent a revelation she meant to make, and that is plausible. But surely the police and the District Attorney haven’t withheld
all
of the details from you. Haven’t they told you that she didn’t see me?”
“No,” Edey said. “They haven’t told me.”
“Nor me,” Heydecker said.
“Then I tell you. She came without appointment. Mr. Goodwin admitted her. She asked to see me on a confidential matter. I was engaged elsewhere, upstairs, and Mr. Goodwin came to tell me she was here. We had a matter under consideration and discussed it at some length, and when we came down her dead body was here.” He pointed at Heydecker’s feet. “There. So shecouldn’t tell me what she came for, since I never saw her alive.”
“Then I don’t get it,” Edey declared. The brilliant idea man was using his brain. “If she didn’t tell you, you couldn’t tell the police or the District Attorney. But
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