Homicide Trinity

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Book: Homicide Trinity Read Online Free PDF
Author: Rex Stout
that happened to be here on a desk. There was no sign of a struggle. The blow knocked her out, and probably she—”
    My voice had kept me from hearing Wolfe’s steps on the stairs. He entered, stopped to tilt his head an eighth of an inch to Ann Paige, again to Otis, went to his chair behind his desk, sat, and aimed his eyes at Otis.
    “You are Mr. Lamont Otis?”
    “I am.”
    “I owe you an apology. A weak word; there should be a better one. A valued and trusted employee of yours has died by violence under my roof. She was valued and trusted?”
    “Yes.”
    “I deeply regret it. If you came to reproach me, proceed.”
    “I didn’t come to reproach you.” The lines of Otis’s face were furrows in the better light. “I came to find out what happened. The police and the District Attorney’s office have told me how she was killed, but not why she was here. I think they know but are reserving it. I think I have a right to know. Bertha Aaron had been in my confidence for years, and I believe I was in hers, and I knew nothing of any trouble she might be in that would lead her to come to you. Why was she here?”
    Wolfe, rubbing his nose with a fingertip, regarded him. “How old are you, Mr. Otis?”
    Ann Paige made a noise. The veteran lawyer, who had probably objected to ten thousand questions as irrelevant, said merely, “I’m seventy-five. Why?”
    “I do not intend to have another death in my office to apologize for, this time induced by me. Miss Aaron told Mr. Goodwin that the reason she did not go to you with her problem was that she feared the effect on you. Her words, Archie?”
    I supplied them. “‘He has a bad heart and it might kill him.’”
    Otis snorted. “Bosh! My heart has given me a little trouble and I’ve had to slow down, but it would take more than a problem to kill me. I’ve been dealing with problems all my life, some pretty tough ones.”
    “She exaggerated it,” Ann Paige said. “I mean Miss Aaron. I mean she was so devoted to Mr. Otis that she had an exaggerated idea about his heart condition.”
    “Why did you come here with him?” Wolfe demanded.
    “Not because of his heart. Because I was at his apartment, working with him on a brief, when the news came about Bertha, and when he decided to see you he asked me to come with him. I do shorthand.”
    “You heard Mr. Goodwin quote Miss Aaron. If I tell Mr. Otis what she was afraid to tell him, what her problem was, will you take responsibility for the effect on him?”
    Otis exploded. “Damn it, I take the responsibility! It’s
my
heart!”
    “I doubt,” Ann Paige said, “if the effect of telling him would be as bad as the effect of
not
telling him. I take no responsibility, but you have me as a witness that he insisted.”
    “I not only insist,” Otis said. “I assert my right to the information, since it must have concerned me.”
    “Very well,” Wolfe said. “Miss Aaron arrived here at twenty minutes past five this afternoon—now yesterday afternoon—uninvited and unexpected. She spoke for some twenty minutes with Mr. Goodwin and he went upstairs to confer with me. He was away half an hour. She was alone on this floor. You know what greeted him when he returned. He has given the police a statement which includes his conversation with her.” His head turned. “Archie, give Mr. Otis a copy of the statement.”
    I got it from my desk drawer and went and handed it to him. I had a notion to stand by, in case Bertha Aaron had been right about the effect it would have on him and he crumpled, but from up there I couldn’t see his face, so I returned to my chair; but after half a century of practicing law his face knew how to behave. All that happened was that his jaw tightened a little, and once a muscle twitched at the side of his neck. He read it clear through twice, first fast and then taking his time. When he had finished he folded it neatly, fumbling a little, and was putting it in the breast pocket of his
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