Three For The Chair Read Online Free PDF Page A

notebook after ushering the newcomers in and letting Buhl and Anne Goren out, an investigation of a death that had surprised the doctor was about to deteriorate into an inquiry about a real-estate agent's methods of courtship ' not the sort of job that Wolfe would ever consider worthy of his genius, fee or no fee, and I was looking forward to it.
    In appearance Paul was not up to his billing. He was a good eight inches shorter than me, broad and a little pudgy, and probably thought he looked like Napoleon ' and maybe he did a little, or would have without the shiner (left eye) and the bruises on both sides of his swollen jaw. Evidently Johnny Arrow used both fists. Paul and the Tuttles were on chairs lined up in front of Wolfe's desk, leaving the red leather chair to David.
    Louise was taller than either of her brothers, and better-looking. For a middle-aged woman she wasn't a bad sight at all, though a little bony, and her hair was too short. As for her husband, Tuttle, he was simply short of hair. His shiny dome, rising to a peak, dominated the scene and made such details as eyes and nose and chin unimportant. You had to concentrate to take them in.
    When I came back and sat after letting Buhl and Anne Goren out, Wolfe was speaking. '& and Doctor Buhl stated that in his opinion your brother died of pneumonia, with no suspicious circumstances. Since he had already certified the death, that leaves us where we were.' He focused on Paul. 'I understand that you maintain that the police should be asked to investigate. Is that correct?'
    'Yes. You're damn right it is.' He had a baritone and gave it plenty of breath.
    'And the others disagree.' Wolfe's head moved. 'You disagree, sir?'
    'As I told you.' David looked and sounded tireder than ever. 'Yes, I disagree.'
    'And you, Mrs. Tuttle?'
    'I certainly do.' She was a word-clipper, with a high thin voice. 'I don't believe in asking for trouble. Neither does my husband.' Her head jerked sideways. 'Vince?'
    'That's right, my dear,' Tuttle rumbled. 'I always agree with you, even when I don't. This time I do.'
    Wolfe went back to Paul. 'Then it seems to be up to you. If you go to the police what do you tell them?'
    'I tell them plenty.' The ceiling light made Paul's shiner look worse than it really was. 'I tell them that when Doctor Buhl left Saturday evening he told us that Bert's condition was satisfactory and we could go and enjoy the play, and a few hours later Bert was dead. I tell them that that guy Arrow was making a play for the nurse, and she was giving him the eye, and he could have had an opportunity to get at her stuff and substitute something for the morphine she was going to shoot into Bert. Doctor Buhl told us he was giving morphine. I tell them that Arrow stands to rake in several million bucks that he never would have got a smell of as long as Bert was alive. I tell them that Arrow saw that Bert was getting on with us, one of the family again, and he didn't like it and showed he didn't.'
    Paul stopped to press gently at his jaw with fingertips. 'It hurts me to talk,' he said. 'The goddam hoodlum. Look, I'm no prince. The way you're looking at me, you might be asking am I my brother's keeper, and hell no. I didn't get along any too well with Bert when we were kids, and I hadn't seen him for twenty years, so what. I might as well tell you what. A murderer can't collect on his crime, and if Arrow killed him that agreement is out the window, and it will all be in Bert's estate, and it will be ours. That's obvious, so why not say it'I won't have to tell the police that because they'll know it.'
    'That's no way to talk, Paul,' David said sharply.
    'That's right,' Tuttle agreed. 'It certainly isn't.'
    'Oh, can it,' Paul told his brother-in-law. 'Who are you?'
    'He's my husband,' Louise snapped at him. 'He could teach you a lot of things if you were teachable.'
    All in the family. Wolfe took over. 'I concede,' he told Paul, 'that you might stir the police into curiosity, but