I’ve told you that my authority extends to all the affairs of this office.” His tone could have been used to ice a highball. “You may be ready to swear out a warrant and expose yourself to the risk of being sued for false arrest, but I will not permit a vicepresident of this corporation to take that risk.
I went to the trouble of engaging the best man in New York City, Nero Wolfe, to investigate this.
I even took pains that Miss Fox should not know she was suspected before the investigation.
I admit that I do not believe she is a thief.
That is my opinion.
If evidence is uncovered to prove me wrong, then I’m wrong.”
“Evidence?” Muir’s jaw had tightened. “Uncovered?
A clever man like Nero Wolfe might either cover or uncover.
No?
Depending on what you paid him for.”
Perry smiled a controlled smile.
“You’re an ass, Muir, to say a thing like that.
I’m the president of this company, and you’re an ass to suggest I might betray its interests, either the most important or the most trivial.
Mr. Goodwin heard my conversation with his employer.
He can tell you what I engaged him to do.”
No doubt he could tell me what he has been instructed to tell me.”
“I’d go easy, Muir.” Perry was sdll smiling. “The kind of insinuations you re making might run into something serious.
You shouldn’t bark around without considering the chances of starting a real dogfight, and I shouldn’t think you’d want a fight over a triviality like this.”
“Triviality?” Muir started to tremble.
I saw his hand on the chair arm begin to shake, and he gripped the wood.
He turned his eyes from Perry onto Clara Fox, sitting a few feet away, and the look in them made it plain why trivialities were out.
Of course I didn’t know whether he was hating her because she had lifted the thirty grand or because she had stepped on his toe, but from where I stood it looked like something much fancier than either of those.
If looks could kill she would have been at least a darned sick woman.
Then he shifted from her to me, and he had to pinch his voice.
“I won’t ask you to report the conversation you heard, Mr. Goodwin.
But of course you’ve had instructions and hints from Mr. Perry, so you might as well have some from me.”
He got up, walked around the desk, and stood in front of me.
“I presume that an important part of your investigation will be to follow Miss Fox’s movements, to learn if possible what she has done with the money.
When you see her entering a theater or an expensive restaurant with Mr. Perry, don’t suppose she is squandering the money that way.
Mr. Perry will be paying.
Or if you see Mr. Perry entering her apartment of an evening, it will not he to help her dispose of the evidence.
His visit will be for another purpose.”
He turned and left the room, neither slow nor fast.
He shut the door behind him, softly.
I didn’t see him, I heard him; I was looking at the others.
Miss Barish stared at Miss Fox and turned pale.
Perry’s only visible reaction was to drop his dead cigar into the ash tray and push she tray away.
The first move came from Miss Fox. She stood up.
The idea occurred to me that on account of active emotions she was probably better looking at that moment than she ordinarily was, but even discounting for that there was plenty to go on.
In my detached impersonal way I warmed to her completely at exactly that moment when she stood up and looked at Anthony D.
Perry.
She had brown hair, neither long nor boyish bob, just a swell lot of careless hair, and her eyes were brown too and you could see at a glance that they would never tell you anything except what she wanted them to. She spoke.
“May I go now, Mr. Perry?
It’s past five o’clock, and I have an appointment.”
Perry looked at her with no surprise.
Evidently he knew her.
He said,
“Mr. Goodwin will want to talk with you.”
“I know he will.
Will the morning do?