Three For The Chair Read Online Free PDF Page B

him. 'You told me you emptied them!'
    'Sure I did.' He grinned at her, or tried to. 'I didn't want you to report her to the doctor. What the hell, can't a man be gallant?' He returned to Wolfe. 'You said I had to tell you something else. Okay, that's something else. Like it?'
    'So you lied to Louise,' Tuttle rumbled.
    'Or you're lying now,' David said, not tired at all. 'You have said nothing about this to me.'
    'Of course not. Damn it, I was being gallant.'
    They all pitched in, cawing at one another, all in the family. With Louise's high soprano, Paul's baritone, Tuttle's rumble, and David's falsetto, it made quite a quartette.
    Wolfe shut his eyes and tightened his lips, took it up to a point, and then crashed the sound barrier. 'Jabber! Stop it, please.' He picked on Paul. 'You, sir, speak of gallantry. I didn't mention that Miss Goren was here with Doctor Buhl. She was, and she told me of your visits to her apartment and your phone calls, so we'll leave gallantry out, but there are two points at issue. First, the fact: did you find the bags empty, or did you empty them?'
    'I found them empty. I told my sister -'
    'I know what you told your sister, and the reason you give. Taking it that you found the bags empty, surely it is frivolous to offer that as an item for the police. Doctor Buhl told me that even if Miss Goren neglected to put hot water in them, which he doesn't believe, it would have had no appreciable effect on the patient, so it has no appreciable effect on me. That is the second point. But your conjecture that something was substituted for the morphine ' that might indeed have an effect if you can give it any support. Can you?'
    'I don't have to. Let the police see if they can.'
    'No. That won't do. A conjecture is well enough for private exploration, but using it to put a man under official suspicion of homicide is inadmissible. For example, it would not be a fatuous conjecture if I guessed that you, not knowing of the agreement between your brother and Mr. Arrow, and assuming that you would inherit a third of his fortune, killed him; but certainly I would not proceed -'
    'You'd better not,' Paul cut in. His mug was contorted again, trying to grin. 'I did know about the agreement.'
    'Yes'Who told you?'
    'I did,' David said. 'Bert told me, and I told Paul and Louise.'
    'You see?' Wolfe turned a hand over. 'There goes my conjecture. If I were stubborn I could of course still cling to it, guessing that you had anticipated it and conspired to meet it, knowing that your dead brother can't testify, but that would be witless if I had no single fact in support.' He shook his head at Paul. 'I'm afraid you're trying to open fire without ammunition. But I have been engaged to investigate, so I won't scrimp it.' He went to David. 'I know how you feel about this, Mr. Fyfe, so I don't expect anything significant from you, but a few questions won't hurt. What do you know about the morphine?'
    'Nothing. Nothing at all, except that Doctor Buhl told us he had left some with the nurse to be given to Bert after we left.'
    'Did you go in your brother's room after Doctor Buhl left?'
    'Yes, we all did ' Paul and Louise and Vincent and I. We told him the dinner was excellent and we were sorry he couldn't be with us at the theater.'
    'Where was Mr. Arrow?'
    'I don't know. I believe he had said something about changing his shirt.'
    'Did he go in your brother's room after Doctor Buhl left?'
    'I don't know.' David shook his head. 'I'm sure I don't know.'
    Wolfe grunted. 'Not that that would indict him. How about later, when you returned from the theater'Did he go in your brother's room then?'
    'I don't think so. If he did I didn't see him.' David was frowning. 'I told you about the situation. The nurse was very upset and said she had phoned Doctor Buhl to send a replacement. When she told us what had happened Arrow left ' that is, he left the apartment. Then my sister and the nurse had some words, and my sister told the nurse to go, and