The Rubber Band

"Rubbish. It has served her well. She has no further use for it." He leaned forward again. "Look here, Wolfe. I don't need to try to explain Muir to you, you've talked with him. If he has got so bad that he tries to frame a girl out of senile chagrin and vindictiveness, don't you think I ought to know it? He is our senior vice-president. Wouldn't our stockholders think so?"

"I didn't know stockholders think." Wolfe sighed. "But to answer your first question: yes, sir, I do think you ought to know it. But you won't learn it from me. Let us not go on pawing the air, Mr. Perry. This is definite: I did have evidence to support my threat, but under no circumstances will you get from me any proof that you could use against Mr. Muir. So we won't discuss that. If there is any other topic…"

Perry insisted. He got frank. His opinion was that Muir was such an old goat that his active services were no longer of any value to the corporation. He wanted to deal fairly with Muir, but after all his first duty was to the organization and its stockholders. And so on. He had suspected from the first that there was something odd about the disappearance of that $30,000, and he reasserted his right to know what Wolfe had found out about it. Wolfe let him ramble on quite a while, but finally he sighed and sat up and got positive. Nothing doing.

Perry seemed determined to keep his temper. He sat and bit his lower lip and looked at me and back at Wolfe again.

Wolfe asked, "Was there anything else, sir?"

Perry hesitated. Then he nodded. "There was, yes. But I don't suppose… however… I want to see Miss Fox."

"Indeed." Wolfe's shoulders went up an inch and down again. "The demand for that young woman seems to be universal. Did you know the police are still looking for her? They want to ask her about a murder."

Perry's chin jerked up. "Murder? What murder?"

"Just a murder. A man on the street with five bullets in him. I would have supposed Frisbie had told you of it."

"No. Muir said Frisbie said something… I forget what… but this sounds serious. How can she possibly be connected with it? Who was killed?"

"A man named Harlan Scovil. Murder is often serious. But I think you needn't worry about Miss Fox; she really had nothing to do with it. You see, she is still my client. At present she is rather inaccessible, so if you could just tell me what you want to see her about…"