Final Deduction

I swiveled, pulled the typewriter around, inserted paper and carbons, got the notebook from my pocket, and hit the keys. Perfect harmony. It helps a lot, with two people as much together as he and I were, if they understand each other. He understood that I was too strong-minded to add another word unless he told me to, and I understood that he was too pigheaded to tell me to. Of course I had to keep busy; I couldn't just sit and be strong-minded. I typed the texts of the two notes and other jottings I had made in my book, then went and opened the safe and got the note Mr Knapp had sent by mail. It seemed likely that Jimmy Vail would be wanting it, and it was quite possible that developments would make it desirable for us to have something to show someone. I clipped the note to the edge of my desk pad, propped the pad against the back of a chair, got one of the cameras-the Tollens, which I have better luck with-and took half a dozen shots. All this time, of course, Wolfe was at his book, with no glance at me. I had returned the note to the safe and put the camera away, and was putting the film in a drawer, when the doorbell rang. I went to the hall door for a look, turned, and told Wolfe, "Excuse me for interrupting. Ben Dykes, head of the Westchester County detectives. He was there this afternoon. He's a little fatter than when you saw him some years ago at the home of James U. Sperling near Chappaqua." [see Second Confession]

He finished a sentence before he turned his head. "Confound it," he muttered. "Must I?"

"No. I can tell him we're not concerned. Of course in a week or so they might get desperate and take us to White Plains on a warrant."

"You haven't reported."

"I reported all you said you wanted."

"That's subdolous. Let him in."

As I went to the front I was making a mental note not to look up "subdolous." That trick of his, closing an argument by using a word he knew damn well I had never heard, was probably subdolous. I opened the door, told Dykes he had been expected as I took his coat and hat, which was true, and ushered him to the office. Three steps in, he stopped for a glance around. "Very nice," he said. "Nice work if you can get it. You don't remember me, Mr Wolfe." Wolfe said he did remember him and told him to be seated, and Dykes went to the red leather chair.

"I didn't think it was necessary to get a local man to come along," he said, "since all I'm after is a little information. Goodwin has told you about Dinah Utley. When he was up there he was the last one who had seen her alive as far as we knew, him and you when she was here yesterday afternoon, but since then I've spoken with two people who had seen her after that. But you know how it is with a murder, you have to start somewhere, and that's what I'm doing, trying to get a start, and maybe you can help. Goodwin said Dinah Utley came here yesterday because Mrs Vail told her to. Is that right?"

"Yes."

"Well, of course I'm not asking what Mrs Vail wanted you to do for her, I understand that was confidential, and I'm only asking about Dinah Utley. I'm not even asking what you said to her, I'm only asking what she said to you. That may be important, since she was murdered just eight or nine hours after that. What did she say?"

A corner of Wolfe's mouth was up a little. "Admirable," he declared. "Competent and admirable."

Dykes got his notebook out. "She said that?"

"No. I say it. Your demand couldn't be better organized or better put. Admirable. You have the right to expect a comparable brevity and lucidity from me." He turned a hand over. "Mr Dykes. I can't tell you what Miss Utley said to me yesterday without divulging what Mrs Vail has told me in confidence. Of course that wasn't a privileged communication; I'm not a member of the bar, I'm a detective; and if what Mrs Vail told me is material to your investigation of a murder I withhold it at my peril. The question, is it material, can be answered now only by me; you can't answer it because you don't know what she told me. To my present knowledge the answer is no."

"You're withholding it?"

"Yes."

"You refuse to tell me what Dinah Utley said to you yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Or anything about what she came here for?"

"Yes."

Dykes stood up. "As you say, at your peril." He glanced around. "Nice place you've got here. Nice to see you again." He turned and headed for the door. I followed him out and down the hall. As I held his coat for him he said, "At your peril too, Goodwin, huh?" I thanked him for warning me as I gave him his hat, and asked him to give Captain Saunders my love.