The Homicide Trinity 111
with Mr. Hazen after his wife and Mr. Weed left. What was said?"
"Nothing," Khoury declared.
"Nonsense. Mr. Hazen had told his wife he was going to discuss something with you. What?"
"Nothing of any importance. He opened champagne. We discussed the stock market. He asked Mrs. Talbot what plays she had seen. He got Perdis talking about ships."
"He talked about poisons," Perdis said.
"He talked about his wife's father," Mrs. Oliver said. "He said his wife's father was a great inventor, a ge- nius."
Wolfe scowled at them. "This is egregious. If he discussed some aspect of his peculiar relations with you, naturally you didn't tell the police about it. But I know of those relations and the police don't. I intend to know what was said."
"You don't understand, Mr. Wolfe." It was Anne Talbot. She was leaning forward, appealing to him. "You didn't know him. He was a monster. He was a demon. He didn't want to discuss anything, he just wanted to have us there together, and we had to go. It was his special kind of torture. He wanted each of us to know about the others and to know that the others knew about us. He liked to see us trying to act as if it were just a… just a dinner party. You didn't know him."
"He was a devil," Perdis said.
Wolfe surveyed them. "Did he reveal to any of you the nature of his hold on the others, last evening or any other time? Or hint at it?"
Anne Talbot and Khoury shook their heads. Mrs. Oliver said, "No, oh, no." Perdis said, "I think he hinted. For instance, poison. I thought he hinted."
"But no particulars?"
"No."
"I must concede that he was not an estimable man. Very well, he is dead, and here we are. As I said, I have a proposal. It is highly likely, all but certain, that he
112 Rex Stout
kept in that box whatever support he had for his de- mands on you. The box is in my safe. I don't desire or intend to inspect its contents. But Mrs. Hazen is my client and I am committed to protect both her person and her property. She is not bound to follow her hus- band's instructions to bum the contents of the box, and it would be quixotic to destroy anything so valuable. I will surrender it to you, you four, for one million dol- lars."
They gawked at him.
"That's a large sum, but it is not exorbitant. In an- other seven years, if Mr. Hazen had lived, you would have paid him more than that, and that wouldn't have ended it. This will; this will be final. If I left it to you to apportion the burden you would probably haggle, and time is short, so I shall expect one quarter of the million from each of you, either in currency or certified checks, within twenty-four hours. There is no question of ex- tortion by Mrs. Hazen or me; we haven't seen the contents of the box; I only say, as her agent, you may have them at that price if you want them."
"You haven't opened the box," Perdis said.
"No, I haven't."
"What if it's empty?"
"You get nothing and you pay nothing." Wolfe looked up at the clock. "The box will be opened here tomorrow at midnight, with all of you present, or earlier if and when you meet the terms. If it is empty, so much for that. If it isn't, there will of course be a difficulty. None of you will want the others to inspect the items that pertain to him. I don't want to look at any of them. I suggest that Mr. Goodwin, who is thoroughly discreet, may remove the items singly, examine each one only enough to determine whom it applies to, and hand it over. If you have a better procedure to suggest, do so."
Mrs. Oliver was licking her lips and swallowing, by turns. Perdis was hunched over, his lips tight, his heavy broad shoulders rising and falling with his breathing. Khoury had his chin up, his narrowed eyes aimed at Wolfe past the tip of his long thin nose. Anne Talbot's
The Homicide Trinity 113
eyes were closed, and a muscle at the side of her pretty neck was twitching.
"I realize," Wolfe said, "that it may not be easy to produce so large a sum in so short a time, but it is not impossible, and I dare not give you longer. While it is true that the box and its contents are the property of Mrs. Hazen, the police would no doubt regard it as evidential in their investigation of a murder, and I can't undertake to withhold my knowledge of it longer than twenty-four hours." He pushed his chair back and rose. "I shall await your pleasure."
But if he was through they weren't. Mrs. Oliver wanted the box opened then and there, and a display of its contents by me. Khoury said that there was a ques- tion of extortion, that they were being told to fork over a million dollars in twenty-four hours or else. Perdis demanded that they be given the time and opportunity to talk with Mrs. Hazen, but of course she was in the coop. Anne Talbot was the only one who had nothing to say; she was on her feet, gripping the back of the chair, the muscle in her neck still twitching. Thinking it might help if I went and brought their coats, I did so, and it took Anne Talbot three tries to find the armhole.
When they were out, and the door shut, and I re- turned to the office, Wolfe was out from behind his desk. "A notion," I said. "Mrs. Hazen may be out on bail by the middle of the morning and accessible to them, and you're up in the plant rooms until eleven o'clock, not to be disturbed. Even if she's locked up, those people have lawyers and connections, Perdis especially. He may play poker with the DA. I could phone Parker to see her in the morning and tell her that no matter what she hears you're not loony, you're just a genius, and you know where you're headed for even when nobody else does, including me."
"Not necessary." He went to the door and turned. "Make sure that the safe's locked. I'm tired. Good night."
He knows darned well that I always make sure the safe's locked, but of course it doesn't often have some-
114 Rex Stout
thing in it that's supposed to be worth a million bucks. Up in my room on the third floor, as I undressed I made assorted tries at deciding what was next on his pro- gram, and didn't like any of them.
As it turned out the next thing on the program wasn't decided either by me or by him, but by Inspector Cramer. In the morning Wolfe came down from the plant rooms at eleven o'clock as usual, and also as usual I had the mail opened and the dusting done and fresh water in the vase on his desk. He went first to the front of the desk to put a spray of orchids in the vase, Odon- toglossum pyramus, then circled around to his chair. As he sat the doorbell rang. I went to the office door for a look and told him it was Cramer. He slapped a palm on the desk, glared at me, and said nothing, and I went to the front and opened up. I didn't like the look on Cram- er's face as he entered and let me take his coat and hat. He almost grinned at me, and he didn't stride to the office, he just walked. He sat in the red leather chair, crossed his legs comfortably, and told Wolfe, "I haven't got much time. I want to hear it from you, what Mrs. Hazen came to you for yesterday, just the substance, and then Goodwin will come downtown and get it down in a statement, all of it. With his wonderful memory."