The Rubber Band

He said, "I have come here at the insistence of Mr. Perry." His voice trembled a little, and when he stopped his jaw slid around. "I want you to understand that I know she took that money. She is the only one who could have taken it. It was found in her car." He stopped a little to control his jaw. "Mr. Perry told me of your threat to sue for damages. The insinuation in it is contemptible. What kind of a blackguard are you, to protect a thief by hinting calumnies against men who… men above suspicion?"

He paused and compressed his lips. Wolfe murmured, "Well, go on. I don't answer questions containing two or more unsupported assumptions."

I don't think Muir heard him; he was only hearing himself and trying not to blow up. He said, "I'm here only for one reason, for the sake of the Seaboard Products Corporation. And not on account of your dirty threat either. That's not where the dirt is in the Seaboard Products Corporation that has got to be concealed." His voice trembled again- "It's the fact that the president of the corporation has to satisfy his personal sensual appetite by saving a common thief from what she deserves! That's why she can laugh at me! That's why she can stand behind your dirty threats! Because she knows what Perry wants, and she knows how-"

"Mr. Muir!" Wolfe snapped at him. "I wouldn't talk like that if I were you. It's so futile. Surely you didn't come here to persuade me that Mr. Perry has a sensual appetite."

Muir made a movement and his hat rolled from his knees to the floor, but he paid no attention to it. His movement was for the purpose of getting his hand into his inside breast pocket, from which he withdrew a square manila envelope. He looked in it and fingered around and took out a small photograph, glanced at it, and handed it to Wolfe. "There," he said, "look at that."

Wolfe did so, and passed it to me. It was a snapshot of Clara Fox and Anthony D. Perry seated in a convertible coupe with the top down. I laid it on the edge of the desk and Muir picked it up and returned it to the envelope. His jaw was moving. He said, "I have more than thirty of them. A dectective took them for me. Perry doesn't know I have them. I want to make it clear to you that she deserves -.. that she has a hold on him…"

Wolfe put up a hand. "I'm afraid I must interrupt you again, Mr. Muir. I don't like photographs of automobiles. You say that Mr. Perry insisted on your coming here. I'll have to insist on your telling me what for."

"But you understand-"