Three For The Chair Read Online Free PDF

surmise is not enough. Have you anything else to tell them?'
    'No. I don't need anything else.'
    'For me you do.' Wolfe leaned back, pulled in a bushel of air, and let it out again. 'Let's see if we can find something. What time did you arrive at your brother's apartment Saturday evening?'
    'Saturday afternoon around five o'clock.' The bottom half of Paul's face was suddenly contorted, and I thought he was having a spasm until I realized he was merely trying to grin, which is a problem with a sore jaw. 'I get it,' he said, 'where was I at nine minutes to six on August sixth'Okay. I left Mount Kisco at a quarter to four, alone in my car, and drove to New York. My first stop was at Schramm's on Madison Avenue, to buy two quarts of their mango ice cream to take back to Mount Kisco for a Sunday party. Then I drove to Fifty-second Street and parked the car, which can be done on a Saturday afternoon, and walked to the Churchill, arriving at the apartment a little after five. I went early because I had spoken with the nurse on the phone and liked her voice, and I thought I might get acquainted with her before the others came. Not a chance. That guy Arrow had her in the living room, telling her about prospecting for uranium. Every ten minutes or so she would sneak in for a look at her patient and then come back for more about prospecting. Then Dave came, and then Louise and Vince, and we were just starting dinner around a quarter to seven when Doctor Buhl came. Want more?'
    'You might as well finish.'
    'Anything you say. Buhl was in with Bert about half an hour, and when he left ' I told you what he told us. We not only ate, we drank, and maybe I overdid it a little. I thought it wouldn't be right to leave the nurse alone with Bert, and when the others left to go to the show I stayed. I thought if the nurse liked to hear about prospecting she might like to hear about other things too, but apparently not. After a little ' oh, some remarks back and forth ' she went in Bert's room and shut the door and locked it. She told my sister later that I banged on the door and yelled at her that if she didn't come out I'd break the door down, but I don't remember it that way. Anyhow, by that time Bert was dead to the world with morphine, if it was morphine. She did come out, and we talked, and I may have touched her, but the marks on her that she showed them when they got back from the theater ' she must have done that herself. I wasn't that drunk, I was just a little high. Finally she got at the phone and said if I didn't leave she would call down to the desk and tell them to send someone up, and I beat it. Want more?'
    'Go ahead.'
    'Righto. I went down to the bar and sat at a table and had a drink. Two or three drinks. Something made me remember the ice cream I had put in the refrigerator in the apartment, and I was deciding whether to go up and get it, when suddenly Arrow was there telling me to stand up. He grabbed my shoulder and yanked me up and told me to put up my hands and get set, and then he hauled off and socked me. I don't know how many times he hit me, but look at me. Finally they blocked him off and a cop came. I edged out, on out of the bar, and took an elevator up to the apartment, and Vince let me in. That part is a little hazy, but I know they put me on a couch because I woke up by falling off it, only I wasn't really awake. I had some kind of idea about being hurt and wanting to see the nurse, and I went to Bert's room and on in. The window curtains were drawn, and I turned on a light and went to the bed. He looked dead, with his mouth open, and I pulled the covers down and felt for his heart and he felt dead. There were two hot-water bags there, one on each side of him. They looked empty, and I picked one up and it was empty, and I thought to myself, she was careless because I made her sore and that won't do, and the other one was empty too, and I took them to the bathroom before I went -'
    'Paul!' It was Louise, staring at