In the Best Families

Noonan smiled. He has the meanest smile I know of except maybe Boris Karloff.

“You get your comedy from the comics, don't you, Goodwin?

“Yes, sir.

“Tell me about the dinner here and afterwards. Make it as funny as you can.

I took ten minutes for it, as much as I had had for Wolfe, but getting interrupted with questions. I stuck to facts and gave them to him straight. When we came to the end he went back and concentrated on whether all of them had heard Mrs Rackham say she was going for a walk with the dog, as of course they had since she had issued a blanket invitation for company. Then I was sent back to the living-room, and it was Lina Darrow's turn in the preliminaries. I wondered if she would play dumb with him as she had with me.

It was as empty a stretch of hours as I have ever spent. I might as well have been a housebroken dog; no one seemed to think I mattered, and I was not in a position to tell them how wrong they were. At one point I made a serious effort to get into a conversation, making the rounds and offering remarks, but got nowhere. Dana Hammond merely gave me a look, without opening his trap. Oliver

Pierce didn't even look at me. Lina Darrow mumbled something and turned away.

Calvin Leeds asked me what they had done with Nobby's remains, nodded and frowned at my answer, and went to put another log on the fire. Annabel Frey asked me if I wanted more coffee, and when I said yes apparently didn't hear me.

Barry Rackham, whom I tackled at the far end of the room, was the most talkative. He wanted to know whether anyone had come from the District

Attorney's office. I said I didn't know. He wanted to know the name of the cop in the other room who was asking questions, and I told him Lieutenant Con

Noonan. That was my longest conversation, two whole questions and answers.

I did get in one piece of detection, somewhat later, when finally District

Attorney Cleveland Archer made an appearance. As he came into the room and made himself known and everybody moved to approach him, I took a look at his shoes and saw that he had undoubtedly been in the woods to inspect the spot where Mrs

Rackham's body was found. Likewise Ben Dykes, the dean of the Westchester County dicks, who was with him. That made me feel slightly better. It would have been a shame to stick there the whole night without detecting a single damn' thing.

After a few preliminary words to individuals Archer spoke to them collectively.