If Death Ever Slept

NORA: I suppose not. But he’s not there today, so you may be through. In the twenty-two years I have been with Mr. Jarrell I have had many opportunities, especially the past ten years, and my net worth today, personally, is something over a million dollars. I know you charge high fees, but I could afford it. I said I’m not frightened, and I’m not, but something is going to happen to somebody, I’m sure of that, and I don’t want it to happen to me. I want you to see that it doesn’t. I’ll pay you a retainer, of course, whatever you say. I believe the phrase is “to protect my interests.”

WOLFE: I’m sorry, Miss Kent, but I must decline.

NORA: Why?

WOLFE: I’ve undertaken a job for Mr. Jarrell. He has-

NORA: Then he did hire you! Then he knew it was Archie Goodwin!

WOLFE: No. That remains only an assumption. He has engaged me to conduct a conference for him. On the telephone today. He feels that the situation calls for an experienced investigator, and at six o’clock, three hours from now, he will come here and bring seven people with him-his family, and a man named Brigham, and you. That is, if you care to come. Evidently you are in no mood to trot when he whistles.

NORA: He phoned you today?

WOLFE: Yes.

NORA: You were already working for him. You sent Archie Goodwin up there.

WOLFE: You have a right, madam, to your beliefs, but I beg you not to be tiresome with them. If you join us at six o’clock, and I advise you to, you should know that the Mr. Goodwin who scurried from this room at your behest will be here, at his desk, and Alan Green, Mr. Jarrell’s secretary, will also be present. The others, the members of Mr. Jarrell’s family, unlike you, will probably be satisfied that those two men know who they are. Will you gain anything by raising the question?

NORA: No. I see. No. But I don’t-then Mr. Jarrell doesn’t know either?

WOLFE: Don’t get tangled in your own assumption. If you wish to revise it after the conference by all means do so. And now I ask you to reciprocate. I have an assumption too. We have accepted yours as a basis for discussion; now let us accept mine. Mine is that none of the people who will be present at the conference fired the shot that killed Mr. Eber. What do you think of it?

(The gray eyes narrowed.)

NORA: You can’t expect me to discuss that. I am employed by Mr. Jarrell.