Prisoner's Base

Wolfe shook his head. "That would take days. I will want to ask some questions-for instance, I shall ask you about the secret talk which Mr. Fomos says you had last week with his wife-but not too many. I propose another method. I suggest an exposition from each of you. You have all been questioned exhaustively by the police, and so should have all pertinent facts and considerations freshly and clearly in mind. Put it this way: I say to you, Miss Duday, there is a suspicion current that you had something to do with the murder of Priscilla Eads, and also of Margaret Fomos, and even that you may have actually committed those crimes with your own hands. What have you to say to remove or discredit that suspicion? You may have half an hour. Well?"

"That's a subtle and dangerous trick, Viola," Helmar warned her.

"How dangerous to the innocent?" Wolfe demanded.

Miss Duday took a sip of her bourbon and water, which was half gone. When she swallowed, a ripple ran down her scrawny neck. There was no sign of lipstick on her. "I think I'll take a chance on the danger," she said in her clear, pleasant voice, "though I doubt if I'll need half an hour. I don't suppose you know, Mr. Wolfe, that in my case the motive was much less weighty than with the others. It is true that I'll get a large block of stock, as they will, but they can outvote me and push me out if they feel like it. Whereas if Priscilla had lived I would soon have been the active head of the corporation, in complete control. That seems pertinent?"

Wolfe nodded. "Mr. Goodwin told me of your comment to him, and Mrs. Jaffee was told by Miss Eads that she intended to make you president. Did you know that Mrs. Fomos was to be a director?"

"Yes. That was because Priscilla wanted all the directors to be women, and we wanted five. She and I and Sarah Jaffee would be three, and a Miss Drescher, a superintendent at the factory, a fourth, and we wanted another, and Margaret had been with Priscilla a long time and was very devoted to her, and we thought it could do no harm and would be a nice gesture."

"That was the only reason?"