Rex Stout_Nero Wolfe 07 Read Online Free PDF

rooms, one for men and one for women, where clients exchanged street clothes for fencing costumes.
    One of the fencing pupils was a man named Nat Driscoll. She pronounced it Nawht. He was middle-aged or more and fat and rich. Yesterday afternoon he had informed Nikola Miltan that upon going to the locker room after completing his fencing lesson, which had been given by Carla Lovchen, he had seen the other female fencing instructor, namely Neya Tormic, standing by the open door of the locker, in the act of returning the coat of his street suit, on its hanger, to its hook within the locker; and that she had then closed the locker door and departed by the door to the hall. Upon inspection, to which he had proceeded as soon as possible, he had found that his gold cigarette case and wallet, the contents intact, were in the pockets where they belonged, and it was not until after he got dressed that he remembered about the diamonds, in a pillbox, which should be there too. They were gone. He had carefully explored each and every pocket. They were not there. He demanded their immediate recovery.
    Miss Tormic, summoned by Nikola Miltan, denied any knowledge of the diamonds, and further denied that she had opened Mr. Driscoll’s locker or touched his clothing. The accusation, she said, was outrageous, infamous, and false. She had not been in the locker room. Had she been in the locker room for any conceivable purpose, it would not have been to go through men’s clothes. Had she gone through a man’s clothes, it would not have been Mr. Driscoll’s clothes; it was beyond the bounds of possibility that she should have the faintest interest in the contents of Mr. Driscoll’s pockets. She had been justly and somewhat violently indignant.
    She had submitted to a search of her person, performed by Jeanne Miltan, Nikola’s wife. Everybody at that time in the studio, on both floors, employees and clients alike, had been questioned by Miltan, and a search of the premises conducted. Driscoll stated positively he had seen Neya Tormic’s face, from the side, as she stood by the locker, and furthermore that she was wearing her fencing costume. Neya and Carla had both insisted that they be searched again before leaving the studio to go home. Miltan was half frantic at the threat of disgrace to the reputation of his place and had successfully resisted Driscoll’s demand that the police be called. In the morning—this day—he had spent two hours pleading with Neya to tell where the diamonds were, what she had done with them, to whom she had given them, who was her accomplice, and had met with the disdain which his assumption deserved. In a desperate effort to solve the affair without police or publicity, he had arranged for everyone concerned, all who had been on the premises yesterday afternoon, to meet in his office at five o’clock today. In Neya Tormic’s presence he had told his wife that he would engage the services of Nero Wolfe; and Neya, knowing Nero Wolfe to be her father, had promptly stated that he would be present in her behalf. But Neya had a strong disinclination to reveal her identity to her father, for reasons understandable to him, and therefore Carla, hotfooting it for Wolfe’s office, had been instructed not to divulge it.
    That was the crop. Miss Lovchen, looking at her wrist and stating that it was five minutes to four, added that Wolfe must come immediately. Fast.
    Without moving, even his eyelids, Wolfe growled:
    “Why didn’t Mr. Driscoll challenge Miss Tormic on the spot, seeing her with his coat?”
    “He was naked. He came from the shower bath.”
    “Is he too fat to be seen even at the risk of losing diamonds?”
    “He says he is modest. He also says he was too surprised to speak, and she moved rapidly and went away at once. Then his wallet and cigarette case were there, and he forgot about the diamonds until he was dressed. He is not nearly as fat as you are.”
    “I wouldn’t expect him to be. Do the