Rex Stout_Tecumseh Fox 01 Read Online Free PDF Page B

voice cut in, her sleepy lids lifted for a focus up at Tecumseh Fox. “I’m Miranda Pemberton, Ridley Thorpe’s daughter. A couple of years ago I invited you to dinner three times and you didn’t come. This is my brother Jeffrey.”
    “I don’t like to dress.” Fox stepped to her, took the offered hand and bowed over it. Jeffrey got halfway up from his chair for the handshake and then dropped back again.
    “Go on and discuss it,” Miranda said.
    “Thanks.” Fox turned to the district attorney and his eyes, not more sly, were less conciliatory. “It’s like this, Mr. Derwin. I could have Nat Collins here in less than an hour, I’ve already phoned him, and you’d have to let Grant’s lawyer see him. Collins would be sore to begin with, called away for suburban penny ante, and he’d be in a mood to make all the trouble he could. You know how that would be, especially if you’re not ready to charge Grant with murder and I don’t think you are. It’s just possible he won’t need a lawyer at alland, in that case, it would be a pity to give Nat Collins the kind of retainer he’s accustomed to. Wouldn’t it be simpler all around to let me have a little talk with Grant?”
    “Nat Collins wouldn’t touch it.”
    “I said I had phoned him. I don’t lie on Monday.”
    Derwin regarded Fox for a moment and then turned for a look at Ben Cook. Cook pursed his lips and raised his shoulders and refused the office. Derwin arose and beckoned to him, and led him to a far corner of the room, where they held a whispered conference. Miranda said:
    “Mr. Fox. I don’t believe that man Grant killed my father.”
    “Don’t be a goof, Sis,” Jeffrey blurted. “This bird is a detective working for Grant.”
    Fox ignored him. “Why do you not believe it, Mrs. Pemberton?”
    “Because he was in here in a while ago and I saw him and he said something to me.”
    Fox smiled down at her. “That’s the kind of reason I like.”
    “I say don’t be a goof,” Jeffrey repeated.
    “Shut up, laddie,” said his sister; and then they looked at Derwin resuming his chair. He slanted his gaze up at Fox and demanded:
    “How long would it take to get Nancy Grant here?”
    “Not long.”
    “All right. Bring her. Then you can talk to Grant for ten minutes in the presence of a police officer.”
    Fox shook his head. “No, thank you. I’ll deliver Miss Grant if there is really something you want to ask her, but she has already told you fellows everything she knows upside and down, and when I leavehere she’s going with me. And ten minutes with Grant isn’t enough, and I won’t need any help with him.”
    Derwin shrugged. “Take it or leave it.”
    “I’ll leave it. My request was reasonable.” Fox put his hands behind his back and stood rigid, and two faint spots of color showed on his tanned cheeks. “Now you’ve got
me
sore. You did that once before. How did you like it?”
    He whirled, and was nearly to the door with steps quicker and lighter than before when a rasp came from Ben Cook: “Hey, Fox, come back here!” Fox whirled again. Cook looked at Derwin and said: “Suit yourself. I’d as soon be a Nazzy Dutchman with Joe Louis after me.”
    Derwin sat a moment, with a fist on the desk again, and then snapped: “All right. But first I want to see Miss Grant.”
    Fox snapped back: “I stated fair conditions. She will be with me when I see her uncle.”
    “Bring her. I’ll allow it.”
    “The talk with Grant will be private.”
    “All right, all right, bring the girl.”
    Fox left. In the anteroom there was a collection of three county detectives in plain clothes and two state troopers in uniform, and along the corridors of the courthouse there was more bustle than usual. As he descended the steps to the sidewalk he met, coming up, another in uniform, with the collar insignia of a colonel and with a sternly preoccupied face that took no notice of the encounter. Fox walked briskly to the corner and turned right,