The Golden Spiders (Crime Line)

Wolfe waved it away. “At any rate, it’s futile. I beg your pardon, not for impudence but for stupidity. Force of habit impelled it. In this intricate maze I must leave the conventional procedures, such as inquiry into alibis, to the police. Since you’re not stumped, Mr. Horan, will you answer my questions?”

“No. On principle. You have no warrant to ask them.”

“But you expect me to answer yours?”

“No, not mine, because I have no warrant either. But Mr. Maddox has, as executor of the estate. You’ll answer him.”

“We’ll see.” Wolfe was judicious. He addressed Maddox. “As I understand it, sir, you are not demanding that I return the money Mrs. Fromm paid me.”

“That depends. Tell me under what arrangement and for what purpose it was paid, and I’ll consider the matter. I will not have the death of a valued client exploited and sensationalized by a private detective for his personal or professional profit.”

“A worthy and wholesome attitude,” Wolfe conceded. “I could remark that I would be hard put to make the affair more sensational than it already is, but even so your attitude is admirable. Only here’s the rub: I’ll tell you nothing whatever of the conversation I had yesterday with Mrs. Fromm.”

“Then you’re withholding evidence!”

“Pfui. I have reported it to the police. In writing, signed.”

“Then why not to me?”

“Because I’m not a simpleton. I have reason to think that the conversation was one of the links in a chain that led to Mrs. Fromm’s death, and if that is so, the person most eager to know what she said to me is probably her murderer.”

“I’m not her murderer.”

“That remains to be seen.”

For a moment I thought Maddox was going to choke. His throat swelled visibly. But a veteran lawyer has had lots of practice controlling his reactions, and he managed it. “That’s worse than stupidity, it’s drivel.”

“I disagree. Have the police talked with you?”

“Certainly.”

“How many of them?”

“Two-no, three.”

“Would you mind telling me who they were?”

“A Captain Bundy, and a sergeant, and Deputy Commissioner Youmans. Also Assistant District Attorney Mandelbaum.”

“Did any of them tell you what Mrs. Fromm consulted me about yesterday?”

“No. We didn’t get onto that.”

“I suggest that you see someone at the District Attorney’s office-preferably someone you know well-and ask him to tell you. If he does so, or if any other official does, without important reservations, I’ll disgorge-your word-the money Mrs. Fromm paid me.”