Where There's a Will

they're what I want." I was too irate to speak, so I departed without a word. In the bathroom down the hall I surveyed the devastation in the mirror. My lovely smooth skin was a sight. "Occupational hazard," I said bitterly. "To hell with it. I'm going to get a job as an executive." I wet a towel and dabbed at it and did it smart. And what Wolfe had meant, of course, was that I was to proceed to the living room, to the other Daisy, and turn the other cheek. If he thought I was going to represent the firm at any more unveiling ceremonies, he was deficient above the neck, but in my judgment that would prove unnecessary. I did not believe that anyone, even April Hawthorne, could act the part of thirty wildcats with that amount of fervor; that one in the library actually was thirty wildcats. I had not observed the other one with any particularity, and hadn't heard her speak; probably a few sharp glances and a little conversation would do the trick. So when I had done all I could with the dabbing I moseyed on downstairs to the living room. I was too late. Naomi Karn was still there, seated in the same chair as before, but she was alone. I walked over to her. Her eyes slanted up at me, and I met them. My mind was sufficiently on someFR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 149 thing else so that as far as I was concerned she was about as dangerous as a snake charmer in a circus. I said, "I wanted to ask Mrs. Hawthorne something. Do you know where she went?" Miss Karn shook her head. "She said she'd be back shortly." "How long ago did she leave?" "How long? Oh, ten minutes." "I just wondered, because Mr. Wolfe is expecting her upstairs, when she gets through with you." I gazed down at her. "I told Mr. Wolfe you're here, and he said it would be a shame if you closed a deal with these people yourself, since in that case we'd be out a fee." "I'm not interested in your fee." "No, I suppose not. Did Mrs. Hawthorne phone and ask you to come, or did you just come?" She let that one go by. A corner of her lip curled. "You may tell Mr. Wolfe that his bluff didn't work. I have learned that his ridiculous offer of a hundred thousand dollars was not authorized by his clients. I'll do a great deal better than that." "Good. We don't deserve a fee anyhow. I am strongly opposed to the detective tariff. "Why should you contribute to our sensual ease? I agree with whoever it was, millions for defemmes but not one cent for tribute. Excuse me a minute." A sudden bright idea had occurred to me. The 150 WHERE THERE'S A WILL draperies, heavy red folds from the ceiling to the floor, behind which Daisy had disappeared that morning, were there in the middle of the wall only three paces away. My idea was vague; there was no sense in supposing that she had chosen that exir again and was there eavesdropping; but I was curious about what was behind them anyhow. I stepped over and parted them enough to look in. Then, seeing what I saw, I passed through and let them fall behind me. Osric Stauffer stood there, his back to the wall, with his finger pressed against his lips to shush me. I met his eyes, and met an appeal for silence there too, in spite of the dim light. I glanced around. It was a small room, with a small window in the left rear corner. At one side was a bar, about ten feet long, with an array of glasses and bottles on shelves behind it, and a big picture of barefooted girls picking grapes. A rug on the floor completed the furnishings. In the right rear corner was a door, shut. Stauffer hadn't moved. He didn't look very menacing, so I saw no reason to interfere with his method of passing the time. I turned around and pawed my way out and was standing in front of Miss Karn again. "When Mrs. Hawthorne comes back," I said, "I'd appreciate it if you'd finish with her as soon FR1;I I WHERE THERE'S A WILL 151 as possible, because Mr. Wolfe wants her. Why don't you come up and see Wolfe while you're waiting? He'd love to have a chat with you." She just looked through me. I shrugged. "Okay, suit yourself. I understand you had a good talk with an old friend of mine this morning. Inspector Cramer. He was warning Wolfe about you and telling about your alibi for Tuesday afternoon." She stirred on her chair. "I doubt," she said, "if at any time in my life I would have regarded you as funny." "Pooh." I looked her in the eye. "Let me tell you something. Miss Karn. Up to now I am reserving judgment as to whether it was you who blew Hawthorne's head off. If it was, you'd better be making your own will instead of fussing around about his. But if it wasn't, the best thing you can do is trot upstairs without delay and lay your pretty head confidingly on Nero White's shoulder. I'm telling you. The popping noises around here do not come from firecrackers, which might singe your eyelashes but that's all. Someone's going to get a bad burn out of this before it's over." Leaving that for her to consider at leisure, I marched off. Reflecting that if the downstairs Daisy was the counterfeit she had had plenty of time to discard her masquerade, and that therefore peeking through keyholes would have been wasted FR1;152 WHERE THERE'S A WILL effort, I decided on a swift gallop around the field before returning to G.H.Q. The result was negative. I dispensed with such niceties as knocking on doors. The other three rooms on the ground floor, including the music room, were uninhabited. In a sitting room one flight up, two doors from the library, I flushed Dunn and his wife, and Prescott, apparently discussing their troubles. Mrs. Hawthorne's apartment on the floor above was empty. Andy Dunn and Celia Fleet saw me enter it and leave it, from a bench they were occupying in the hall. They didn't look interrupted; evidently they weren't discussing anything, just sitting close enough to touch. In the room across the hall where I had found the library edition of Daisy when Wolfe sent me after her. May Hawthorne was lying on a bed with her bare feet protruding beyond the hem of the veteran gown, and her eyes closed. She asked, "Who is it?" without moving or opening her eyes, and I said, "Nobody much," and went out again. That left two to go. I found them together, in a room at the street end of the corridor. April was stretched out on a chaise longue, with her arms flung above her head, dressed in a green thing of thin silk which smoothed itself out on her high spots like soft skin, and wearing no veil. Sara was on a chair near her, with a book open. Sara stared WHERE THERE^S A WILL 153 at me. April's head didn't move, but she got me from the corner of her eyes. She said, "You might knock, you know. Does that man want me again?" "No, I'm just looking." "Thank heaven." She sighed with relief. "My niece is reading 'The Cherry Orchard' to me. Of course I know it by heart. Would you care to listen?" I said no, much obliged, and departed. Having observed a writing desk in Daisy Hawthorne's suite, I returned there, found some paper in a drawer, got out my pen and sat down and wrote: Downstairs Daisy disappeared. Told Naomi would return shortly but hasn't. 'Naomi, waiting for her return, scorns you and says Pm not funny. Sfauffer is lurking behind a curtain ten feet from- her. God knows why. Made a survey and everyone accounted for. Sara is reading "The Cherry Orchard" (Chekhov) to April. Either one could have done it. I resign. 1 blotted it, went out and descended to the library, and handed it to Wolfe, saying: "I doubt if that's it. It's the only one I left in the living room." As he read it I got myself into a chair, this time 154 WHERE THERE'S A WILL one at the end of the desk, as far as practical from our own Daisy. I glanced at her sitting there behind her screen, and then looked somewhere else. Wolfe grunted and passed the paper back to me. "It can wait. Mrs. Hawthorne and I have been discussing the matter of the will. It is her opinion that it expresses the wishes of her husband and his deliberate intention to deprive her of her rightful share of his fortune. She is not surprised at her husband's duplicity, but strongly resents the fact that Mr. Prescott did not inform her of the will's contents at the time it was drawn, though I have told her that had he done so it would have been a flagrant breach of ethics. Please make a note of these remarks. I asked Mrs. Hawthorne if she has dealt, or attempted to deal, directly with Miss Karn in the matter, and she says she has not and would not. I believe that covers the points we've discussed, madam?" "Yes." The veil inclined slightly forward and straightened up again. Wolfe regarded it with half-closed eyes. "Well. Has Mr. Dunn told you that he has asked me to investigate your husband's death?" "No, but his wife has. My sister-in-law June." "Have you talked with the police?" The veil was inclined again. "Last night. The district attorney. Mr. Skinner." FR1;I WHERE THERE^S A WILL 155 "Are you willing to discuss it with me? I want to say, Mrs. Hawthorne, that I realize I am in your home, this is the library of your home, and I thank you for allowing me to work here. I assure you I shall clear out at the earliest possible moment. The luncheon--I shall not impose upon you for another meal if I can help it. But I do have a few questions to ask." "I am perfectly willing to answer them. I don't believs--I doubt if I can help your investigation any, although I know quite well who killed my husband." "Oh. You do?" "Yes. April." She had a special way of saying "April." Anyone hearing her and not knowing who was meant would have guessed that April was a cross between a cockroach and a rattlesnake. �I should think," said Wolfe, "that will help my investigation a good deal. Provided you can give any reasons." "I can. April is sunk in debt and expected a legacy. She intends to marry Osric Stauffer. She pretends she's playing with him, but she isn't, she intends to marry him. She knows her beauty is going and she'll need him. She thinks he'll succeed to my husband's partnership in Daniel Cullen and Company. She hated Noel's influence over Andy. She 156 WHERE THERE'S A WILL wants Andy to marry that little blond fool Celia and be an actor. She knew Noel was leaving me next to nothing in his will, and she wanted me 10 have that blow too." She stopped. Wolfe asked, "Is that all?" "Yes." "But you can't have both ends, Mrs. Hawthorne. If she knew your husband was leaving you next to nothing, she must also have known what she was to get. A peach." "Not at all. Noel fooled them too. He told her what he was doing to me, but not what he was doing to her." "Do you have any evidence of that?" "I don't need any." The strain in her voice was more intense. "I know what my husband was like." "Do you possess any evidence that April Hawthorne did shoot her brother?" "I don't possess any, no. But she did." "You know, I suppose, that she says she was upstairs sleeping at the time it happened." "I know," said the veil contemptuously. "But she wasn't." "Did you see her leave the house or sneak into the woods?'* "No." Wolfe sighed. "I was hoping perhaps you had. FR1;WHERE THERE*S A WILL 157 I understand you were out in a field picking blackeyed susans." "I was picking daisies." "All right, daisies. I haven't seen a map of the grounds, so I wouldn't know whether you could see the house or the border of the woods from where you were. Could you?" "Not the house actually, on account of trees around it. Besides the woods skirting the hill, there are clumps of trees all around there. They shielded me--that is, they shielded the house from my view, and the woods too. The reason I made that slip of the tongue--I am accustomed to regard myself as being in need of shielding." A long thin finger touched the edge of the veil. "Of course. I wouldn't call that a slip. From where you were could you hear all three of the gunshots?" "I don't know whether I could or not, but I didn't. The first shot was when we were finishing tea on the lawn; we spoke about it. Soon after that I went to the field for daisies. I heard no more shots. Often when I am alone like that my mind is on-- on myself. That may be comprehensible to you. Perhaps I could have heard the shots, but I didn't." "I see." Wolfe closed his eyes. After a moment he opened them again and directed them at the veil. "If I were you," he suggested, "I'd be a little cirFR1;158 WHERE THERE'S A WILL cumspect about stating what you know, when you possess no evidence. After this thing gets in the papers it will be pretty nasty." "Nasty?" That awful little laugh fluttered the veil. "You mean what I said about April." "Yes. If she committed murder she'll probably pay for it. In the meantime--" "But she did! I know she did! I possess no evidence, but someone else does!" "Indeed. Who?" "I don't know." "Where is it?" "I don't know." "What is it?" "I know that, but it wouldn't do any good to tell you." "I'll decide that," Wolfe snapped. "Did you tell Mr. Skinner about it?" "No. It wouldn't do any good to tell him either." The high-pitched voice went higher yet. "They would just deny it! How could I prove it? But I heard them, and I saw it!" "Maybe I can prove it, Mrs. Hawthorne. I'd like to try. What was it?" "It was a cornflower. Andy found a cornflower there near Noel's body! And April had a bunch of them stuck in her belt when we were there having tea on the lawn!" CHAPTER ELEVEN wolfe let out a little growl and made himself more comfortable in his chair. He said nothing. Daisy spoke again. Her voice had been shrill with excitement, but now it went flat. She muttered, "I didn't intend to tell you that." "Why not?" Wolfe demanded. "Because it won't do any good. I can't prove it and they'll deny it. But if I had kept it to myself . . ." "You might have found an occasion to use it. Was that the idea?" "Yes. Why shouldn't I?" Her voice went up the scale again, in defiance. "Even though they knew I couldn't prove it--and like a fool I blurt it out to you." "It can't be helped now." Wblfe's tone was smooth, even sympathetic. "I doubt if you could have used it effectively, anyway. They're a pretty tough crowd. You say April had a bunch of cornflowers in her belt while you were having tea on the lawn Tuesday afternoon?" "Yes." "You might as well tell me about it. Maybe we can figure out a way of proving it." 159 FR1;160 WHERE THERE'S A WILL "You can't. How can you? Osric Stauffer picked them in the garden and brought them and gave them to her and she stuck them in at her waist. She had on a green blouse and yellow slacks. We commented on the blue of the cornflowers with the other colors." "Did Mr. Stauffer keep one for himself?" "Why, I--" She considered. "No, he didn't." "Or give some to anyone else?" "No. He gave them all to April." "Did she leave the gathering on the lawn before you? Or was she still there when you left?" "She was still there. They all were except Noel and John." Scribbling along with my pen, I allowed myself a satisfied grin. Wolfe was working at last, picking up all the pieces he could find, methodically and patiently. He spent twenty minutes with her getting the complete picture of the tea party, and another ten with her in the field, collecting blackeyed susans, daisies to her and nothing at all to me. She had returned to the house with her arms full of them, more than an hour later, and was making arrangements in vases, when Celia Fleet burst in asking for Dunn in an agitated voice. She had followed Celia, unobtrusively, and had been within earshot when Dunn received the news of what Andy had found in the briar patch beyond the woods. FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 161 "I wasn't eavesdropping," she declared, not defensively, merely imparting information. "I was later, when I heard Andy telling them about the cornflower. I actually saw it." Wolfe inquired, "What time was that?" "It was late that evening, about eleven o'clock. Even then I--well, I won't say I suspected that Noel had been murdered, but I knew of the feeling between him and John on account of that Argentina loan business, and other feelings there were around there, and I was curious and vaguely suspicious. So after the sheriff and doctor had gone away, I went to my room but I didn't go to bed. I noticed some of them hadn't come upstairs, and I went down without making any noise and out the back way. It was a hot night and windows were open everywhere, and there was a light from the dining room. I could hear low voices as I got closer, and then I could see them, John and June and Andy. Andy was telling them about finding the cornflower, and took it from his pocket and showed it to them. He said it had been there about fifteen feet from Noel's body, caught on a branch of a rose briar, and he had taken it and put it in his pocket. He said it hadn't occ