Three For The Chair Read Free

exactly right. We don't want any scandal& any rumors going around& '
    'People rarely do,' Wolfe said drily. 'But you may be hiring me to start one. You understand, of course, that if I find evidence of skullduggery it will not be in your sole discretion whether to bury it or disclose it. I will not engage to suppress grounds, if I find any, for a suspicion of homicide. If my investigation results in a reasonable assumption that you have yourself committed a crime, I am free to act as I see fit.'
    'Of course.' Fyfe tried to smile, with fair success. 'Only I know I have committed no crime, and I doubt if any one has. My brother Paul is a little impetuous. You'll need to see him, naturally, and he'll want to see you.'
    'I'll have to see all of them.' Wolfe's tone was morose. Work. He grabbed at a straw: 'But under the circumstances I must ask for a retainer as a token of good faith. Say a check for a thousand dollars?'
    It wasn't a bad try, since a head of a high-school English department with two children might not have a grand lying around loose, and the deal would have been off, but Fyfe didn't even attempt to haggle. He did gulp, and gulped again after he got out a check folder and pen and wrote, and signed his name. I got up and accepted the check when he offered it, and passed it across to Wolfe.
    'It's a little steep,' Fyfe said ' not a complaint, just a fact ' 'but it can't be helped. It's the only way to satisfy Paul. When will you see him?'
    Wolfe gave the check a look and put it under a paperweight, a chunk of petrified wood that had once been used by a man named Duggan to crack his wife's skull. He glanced up at the wall clock; in twenty minutes it would be four o'clock, time for his afternoon session in the plant rooms.
    'First,' he told Fyfe, 'I need to speak with Doctor Buhl. Can you have him here at six o'clock?'
    David looked doubtful. 'I could try. He would have to come in from Mount Kisco, and he's a busy man. Can't you leave him out of it'He certified the death, and he's thoroughly reputable.'
    'It's impossible to leave him out. I must see him before dealing with the others. If he can be here at six, arrange for the others to come at six-thirty. Your brother and sister, and Mr. Tuttle, and Mr. Arrow.'
    Fyfe stared. 'Good heavens,' he protested, 'not Arrow! Anyway, he wouldn't come.' He shook his head emphatically. 'No. I won't ask him.'
    Wolfe shrugged. 'Then I will. And it might be better ' yes. It may be protracted, and I dine at seven-thirty. If you can arrange for Doctor Buhl to be here at nine, bring the others at half past. That will give us the night if we need it. Of course, Mr. Fyfe, there are several points I could go into with you now ' for instance, the situation you found when you returned to the apartment from the theater, and your brother Bertram's reconciliation with his family ' but I have an appointment; and besides, they can be explored more fully this evening. For the present, please give Mr. Goodwin the addresses and phone numbers of everyone involved.' He moved his vast bulk forward in his chair to pick up the penknife and start rubbing it gently on the oilstone. He had undertaken that job, and by gum he intended to finish it.
    'I described the situation,' Fyfe said in a sharper tone. 'I invited the inference that Paul had stayed at the apartment in order to approach the nurse. I wholly disapprove of his method of approaching women. I have said he is impetuous.'
    Wolfe was feeling the knife's edge tenderly with a thumb.
    'What is the point,' Fyfe asked, 'about the reconciliation?'
    'Only that you used the word.' Wolfe was honing again. 'What needed to be reconciled'It may be irrelevant, but so are most points raised in an investigation. It can wait till this evening.'
    Fyfe was frowning. 'It's an old sore,' he said, the sharpness gone and his voice tired again. 'It may not be irrelevant, because it may partly account for Paul's attitude. Also I suppose we're over-sensitive about any