Over My Dead Body

I heard him telling Cramer, and I heard noises which were presumably the inspector turning somersaults. Then a voice in my ear not Wolfe's.

"Goodwin!" Cramer yapped.

"Yes, sir, speaking."

"You stay there, hear me?"

"Yes, sir."

That was all, except the click. I hung up and walked to Neya, took her elbow and steered her to a chair, and put her in it.

"They'll be here in five minutes. Or less. This time Inspector Cramer will get here first. And this time you're connected up. Here in your own front room. What are you going to tell him?"

Her eyes met mine. They didn't waver, but she was having trouble with her chin. She shook her head. "What can I tell him?"

"I don't know. What can you?"

"Nothing."

"Not enough. Under the circumstances. Did your friend Carla do it?"

"I don't know."

"Did you?"

"You know I didn't!"

"I do not. Is there a lot of stuff around here about Bosnian forests and Barrett & De Russy and secret codes-"

"No, nothing. I am very careful."

"Yeah, this looks like it. All I'm saying, if you try telling Cramer that you know nothing about Faber and you can't imagine why in the world he came here to get killed, you'll find yourself out on a limb. If you tell the truth, that won't be it, and if you decide on lies, you'll have to do a lot better than that. One little fact is that whoever killed Faber deprived you of your alibi for the murder of Ludlow. I'm not trying to scare you, I'm only trying to make you grab hold-"

The phone rang and I went and got it.

"This is Hammond 3-45-"

"Archie. Mr Cramer will be there shortly."

"Goody!"

"How is Miss Tormic?"

"She's all right. She says her mind's a blank."

"Shock?"

"No, just ignorance."

"When she is questioned about anything except her movements since ten o'clock this morning-which is the time Mr Faber left this house alive-she will decline to reply except in the presence of her attorney. That is amply justified in the circumstances."

"I'll tell her that."

"Do so. I'll arrange for Mr Parker to represent her. What does she say about Miss Lovchen?"

"More ignorance. The first thing she did when she entered the room and looked at the floor was let out a yell for Carla."

"I see. That's too bad. By the way, where did you put those germination records on the oncidium hybrids? I want to check them over."

"Christalmighty," I said bitterly. "Here's your daughter sizzling on a spot, and here am I with blood on my fingers off of Faber's shirt, and you prate-why don't you try doing a little work for a change-?"