Before Midnight

"Apparently," I said, "the rules have been changed, but you might have told me. It has never been put into words, but I have always understood that when you want to keep something to yourself you may choke me off with a smoke screen but you don't tell me a direct lie. You may lie to others in my presence, and often have, but not to me when we're alone. So I believed you when you said the contestants getting the answers in the mail was a surprise to you. I'm not griping, I'm just saying I think it would be a good idea to let me know when you change the rules."

He finished slipping the last book in, nice and even with the edge of the shelf, and turned. "I haven't changed the rules."

"Then have I been wrong all along? Is it okay for you to tell me a direct lie when we're alone?"

"No. It never has been."

"And it isn't now?"

"No."

"You haven't lied to me about the answers?"

"No."

"I see. Then I'd better keep everybody off your neck this afternoon. If you haven't already got a program for tonight's meeting, and evidently you haven't, I'm glad it's up to you and not me."

I went to my desk and rolled the typewriter back in place, to have something to do. I like to think I can see straight, and during the past hour or so I had completely sold myself on the idea that I knew now what Saul Panzer's errand had been; and I don't like to buy a phony, especially from myself. Pushing the typewriter stand back, I banged it against the edge of my desk, not intentionally, and Wolfe looked at me in surprise.

Chapter 16

By four o'clock everybody was set for the evening party with one exception. Wheelock, Younger, Buff, and Heery had been reminded. O'Garro, Assa, Rollins, and Hansen didn't need to be. As for Susan Tescher, Hibbard had called and said she would be present provided he could come along, and I said we'd be glad to have him. The exception was Gertrude Frazee. I tried her five times after lunch, three times from the kitchen and twice from my room, and didn't get her.