It took control to stay in that chair. I would have given a good deal to be able to get up and walk out, go to Purley and Cramer at their eavesdropping posts, tell them she was all theirs and they were welcome to her, and go on home. But at home there were the guests locked in the front room, and sometime, somehow, we had to get rid of them. I looked at her charming enchanting comely face, with its nice chin and straight little nose and the eyelashes, and realized that the matter would be approached from her angle or not at all.
“That’s the ticket,” I said warmly. “Say you’ve got to be loyal to Mr. Fickler. That’s the main thing to work on, how to handle the reporters. Have you ever been interviewed before?”
“No, this will be the first, and I want to start right.”
“Good for you. What they like best of all is to get the jump on the police. If you can tell them something the cops don’t know they’ll love you forever. For instance, the fact that Stebbins crowned you doesn’t prove that he’s the only one involved. He must have an accomplice here in the shop, or why did Wallen come here in the first place? We’ll call the accomplice X. Now listen. Sometime today, some time or other after Wallen’s body was found, you saw something or heard something, and X knew you did. He knew it, and he knew that if you told about it — if you told me, for example — it would put him and Stebbins on the spot. Naturally both of them would want to kill you. It could have been X that tried to, but since you say you saw Stebbins reflected in the glass we’ll let it go at that for now. Here’s the point: if you can remember what it was you saw or heard that scared X, and if you tell the reporters before the cops get wise to it, they’ll be your friends for life. Now for God’s sake don’t miss this chance. Concentrate. Remember everything you saw and heard here today, and everything you did and said too. Even if it takes us all night we’ve got to work it out.”
She was frowning. “I don’t remember anything that would scare anybody.”
“Don’t go at it like that. It was probably some little thing that didn’t seem important to you at all. We may have to start at the beginning and go over every—”
I stopped on account of her face. The frown had left it, and she was looking past me, not seeing me, with an expression that told me plainly, if I knew her half as well as I thought I did, what was going on inside. I snapped at her, “Do you want the reporters hating you? Off of you for good?”
She was startled. “Of course not! That would be awful!”
“Then watch your step. This has got to be all wool. A girl with a fine mind like you, so much imaginaton, it would be a cinch for you to be creative, but don’t. They’ll double-check everything you say, and if they find it’s not completely straight you’re ruined. They’ll never forgive you. You’ll never need a manager.”
“But I can’t remember anything like that!”
“Not right off the bat, who could? Sometimes a thing like this takes days, let alone hours.” Her hand was right there, and I patted it. “I guess we’d better go over it together, right straight through. That’s the way Nero Wolfe would do it. What time did you get to work this morning?”
“When I always do, a quarter to nine. I’m punctual.”
“Were the others already here?”
“Some were and some weren’t.”
“Who was and who wasn’t?”
“My Lord, I don’t know. I didn’t notice.” She was resentful. “If you’re going to expect me to remember things like that we might as well quit, and you wouldn’t be a good manager. When I came to work I was thinking of something else. A lot of the time I am thinking of something else, so how would I notice?”
I had to be patient. “Okay, we’ll start at another point. You remember when Wallen came in and spoke with Fickler and went to Tina’s booth and talked with her, and when Tina came out Fickler sent Philip in to him. You remember that?”
She nodded. “I guess so.”
“Guesses won’t get us anywhere. Just recall the situation, where you all were when Philip came back after talking with Wallen. Where were you?”
“I didn’t notice.”
“I’m not saying you noticed, but look back. There’s Philip, coming around the end of the partition after talking with Wallen. Did you hear him say anything? Did you say anything to him?”
“I don’t think Philip was this X,” she declared. “He is married, with children. I think it was Jimmie Kirk. He tried to make passes at me when I first came, and he drinks, you can ask Ed about that, and he thinks he’s superior. A barber being superior!” She looked pleased. “That’s a good idea about Jimmie being X, because I don’t have to say he really tried to kill me. I’ll try to remember something he said. Would it matter exactly when he said it?”
I had had enough, but a man can’t hit a woman when she’s down, so I ended it without violence.
“Not at all,” I told her, “but I’ve got an idea. I’ll go and see if I can get something out of Jimmie. Meanwhile I’ll send a reporter in to break the ice with you, from the Gazette probably. I know a lot of them.” I was on my feet. “Just use your common sense and stick to facts. See you later.”
“But Mr. Goodwin! I want—”
I was gone. Three steps got me out of the booth, and I strode down the aisle and around the end of the partition. There I halted, and it wasn’t long before I was joined by Cramer and Purley. Their faces were expressive. I didn’t have to ask if they had got it all.
“If you shoot her,” I suggested, “send her brain to Johns Hopkins, if you can find it.”
“Jesus,” Purley said. That was all he said.
Cramer grunted. “Did she do it herself?”
“I doubt it. It was a pretty solid blow to raise that lump, and you didn’t find her prints on the bottle. Bothering about prints is beneath her. I had to come up for air, but I left you an in. Better pick a strong character to play the role of reporter from the Gazette.”
“Send for Biatti,” Cramer snapped at Purley.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “he can take it. Now I go home?”
“No. She might insist on seeing her manager again.”
“I wouldn’t pass that around,” I warned them. “How would you like a broadcast of her line on Sergeant Stebbins? I’d like to be home for dinner. We’re having fresh pork tenderloin.”
“We would all like to be home for dinner.” Cramer’s look and tone were both sour. They didn’t change when he shifted to Purley. “What about it? Is the Vardas pair still all you want?”
“They’re what I want most,” Purley said doggedly, “in spite of her getting it when they weren’t here, but I guess we’ve got to spread out more. You can finish with them here and go home to dinner, and I suppose we’ve got to take ’em all downtown. I’m not sold that the Stahl girl is unfurnished inside her head, and we know she’s capable of using her hands, since only three months ago she pushed a full-grown man out of his own car into a ditch and drove off. No matter how hard he was playing her, that’s quite a stunt. I still want to be shown she couldn’t have used that bottle on herself and I don’t have to be shown that she could have used the scissors on Wallen if she felt like it. Or if she performed with the bottle to have something to tell reporters about, the Vardases are still what I want most. But I admit the other if is the biggest one. If some one here conked her, finding out who and why comes first until we get the Vardases.”
Cramer stayed sour. “You haven’t even started.”
“Maybe that’s a little too strong, Inspector.”
“I don’t think so.”
“We were on the Vardases, but we didn’t clear out of here, we kept close. Then when we found the Stahl girl and brought her to she shut the valve and had to see Goodwin. Even so, I wouldn’t say we haven’t made a start with the others. Ed Graboff plays the horses and owes a bookie nine hundred dollars, and he had to sell his car. Philip Toracco went off the rails in 1945 and spent a year in a booby hatch. Joel Fickler has been seen in public places with Horny Gallagher, and while that don’t prove—”