The Rubber Band

Perry stared back at him. "Nonsense. I've told you that my authority extends to all the affairs of this office." His tone could have been used to ice a highball. "You may be ready to swear out a warrant and expose yourself to the risk of being sued for false arrest, but I will not permit a vice-president of this corporation to take that risk. I went to the trouble of engaging the best man in New York City, Nero Wolfe, to investigate this. I even took pains that Miss Fox should not know she was suspected before the investigation. I admit that I do not believe she is a thief. That is my opinion. If evidence is uncovered to prove me wrong, then I'm wrong."

"Evidence?" Muir's jaw had tightened. "Uncovered? A clever man like Nero Wolfe might either cover or uncover. No? Depending on what you paid him for."

Perry smiled a controlled smile. "You're an ass, Muir, to say a thing like that. I'm the president of this company, and you're an ass to suggest I might betray its interests, either the most important or the most trivial. Mr. Goodwin heard my conversation with his employer. He can tell you what I engaged him to do."

No doubt he could tell me what he has been instructed to tell me."

"I'd go easy, Muir." Perry was sdll smiling. "The kind of insinuations you re making might run into something serious. You shouldn't bark around without considering the chances of starting a real dogfight, and I shouldn't think you'd want a fight over a triviality like this."

"Triviality?" Muir started to tremble. I saw his hand on the chair arm begin to shake, and he gripped the wood. He turned his eyes from Perry onto Clara Fox, sitting a few feet away, and the look in them made it plain why trivialities were out. Of course I didn't know whether he was hating her because she had lifted the thirty grand or because she had stepped on his toe, but from where I stood it looked like something much fancier than either of those. If looks could kill she would have been at least a darned sick woman.