The Father Hunt

"I'm afraid I can't spare three days." Thorne took a sip of brandy and stirred it in his mouth with his tongue. "This cognac is marvelous. Speaking of facts, evidently you knew one I didn't, from that ad… I suppose that ad in the Times was yours?"

"Yes."

"Alias Elinor Denovo. Carlotta something alias Elinor Denovo. Why the 'alias' if Denovo was her married name? Her daughter's name is Amy Denovo."

"That's one of the complications, Mr. Thorne. A client's communications with a detective she has hired are not legally privileged, but they are often confidential."

"Goodwin said on the phone that you're blocked."

"We're stumped."

"But you still think it was premeditated murder?"

"Miss Denovo does, as Mr. Goodwin told you ten days ago. Do I? Yes, for reasons you might think deficient. But getting you here is not merely stumbling around in the dark. It isn't fatuous to assume that some recent event

induced the murder and that something connected with that event, however remotely, was seen or heard by you. In conversation with her, how did you address her? Mrs. Denovo, or Elinor?"

"Elinor."

"Then I shall. How many others there called her Elinor?"

"Why… Let's see… three. No, four."

"Their names?"

"Now listen." Thome flipped a hand. "That wouldn't be just irrelevant trivialities, it would be drivel. It would take three weeks, not just three days. Goodwin said someone at my place might be involved in it, and I told him there wasn't the slightest chance. Simply impossible. Nobody there had any personal relations with her. Even I didn't, actually. We often had meals together, lunch and dinner and even breakfast sometimes, but only to talk business." He turned to me. "I told you I soon saw she had lines she didn't want crossed." Back to Wolfe: "I can give you the names, sure, but I'm telling you, that will get you nowhere."

"I would expect it to. On an excursion such as this you get nowhere again and again. Very well, we'll try another tack. When and where did you last see Elinor?"

"That Friday around noon at the studio. I was taking a plane to the coast on business, to see a scriptwriter I wanted."

"What studio?"

"Mine, of course."

"Did she speak of her plans for that evening?"

"Yes. We did. She was going to see a preview of a movie for a look at an actor we thought we might want to use."

"A preview where? At a theater?"