The Silent Speaker Read Online Free PDF

That's exactly right.' O'Neill was pleased to find a kindred spirit. 'I was at the office when they came back an hour ago with the news that they had engaged you to investigate. I want to make it plain that I am not doing anything underhanded. I don't work that way. We had another argument, and I told them I was coming to see you.'
    'Admirable.' Wolfe's eyes were open, which meant that he was bored and was getting nothing out of it. Either that, or he was refusing to turn on the brain until nine o'clock. 'For the purpose of persuading me to call it off?'
    'Oh, no. I saw that was hopeless. You wouldn't do that. Would you?'
    'I'm afraid not without some excellent reason. As Mr. Breslow put it, the interest of justice is paramount. That was his position. Mine is that I need the money. Then what did you come for?'
    O'Neill grinned at me, as if to say, your boss is really a card, isn't he'He shifted the grin intact to Wolfe. 'I'm glad to see you stick to the point. With me you need to, the way I go floundering around. What brought me down here, frankly, was a sense of my responsibility as Chairman of the Dinner Committee. I've seen a copy of the letter Frank Erskine gave you, but I didn't hear the conversation you had, and ten thousand dollars as a retainer on a straight inquiry job is away above the clouds. I hire detectives in my business, things like labor relations and so on, and I know what detectives get, so naturally the question occurs to me, is it really a straight inquiry job'I asked Erskine point-blank, have you hired Wolfe to protect the NIA members by-uh-getting attention shifted to other directions, and he said no. But I know Frank Erskine, and I wasn't satisfied, and I told him so. The trouble with me is I've got a conscience and a sense of responsibility. So I came to ask you.'
    Wolfe's lips twitched, but whether with amusement or fierce indignation I couldn't tell. The way he takes an insult never depends on the insult but on how he happens to be feeling. At the peak of one of his lazy spells he wouldn't have exerted himself to bat an eyelash even if someone accused him of specializing in divorce evidence.
    His lips twitched. 'I also say no, Mr. O'Neill. But I'm afraid that won't help you much. What if Mr. Erskine and I are both lying'I don't see what you can do about it, short of going to the police and charging us with obstructing justice, but then you don't like the police either. You're really in a pickle. We have invited some people to meet here this evening at nine o'clock and talk it over. Why don't you come and keep an eye on us?'
    'Oh, I'm coming. I told Erskine and the others I'm coming.'
    'Good. Then we won't keep you now.-Archie?'
    It wasn't as simple as that. O'Neill was by no means ready to go, on account of his sense of responsibility. But we finally got him out without resorting to physical violence. After wrangling him to the stoop, I returned to the office and asked Wolfe:
    'Exactly what did he really come here for'Of course he killed Boone, I understand that, but why did he waste his time and mine-'
    'You let him in,' Wolfe said icily. 'You did not notify me. You seem to forget-'
    'Oh, well,' I broke in cheerfully, 'it all helps in studying human nature. I helped get him out, didn't I'Now we have work to do, getting ready for the party. How many will there be, around twelve not counting us?'
    I got busy on the chair problem. There were six there in the office, and the divan would hold four comfortably, except that in a murder case three days old you don't often find four people connected with it who are still in a frame of mind to sit together on the same piece of furniture. It would be better to have plenty of chairs, so I brought five more in from the front room, the one facing on the street, and scattered them around, not in rows, which would have been too stiff, but sort of staggered and informal. Big as the room was, it made it look pretty crowded. I backed against the wall and surveyed it