Wolfe snapped, “Don't do that! I insinuate nothing; I merely state the fact of my client's ignorance regarding her property.
It may be augmented; it may be depleted; she doesn't know.
Do you, Miss Frost?”
“No.” She was frowning. “I don't know.
I know that for over twenty years the income has been paid in full, promptly every quarter.
Really, Mr. Wolfe, I think we're getting-”
“We shall soon be through; I must leave you shortly.
As for irrelevance, I warned you that we might wander anywhere.
Indulge me in two more questions about your father's will: do you enter into complete possession and control on May seventh?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And in case of your death before your twenty-first birthday, who inherits?”
“If I were married and had a child, the child.
If not, half to my uncle and half to his son, my cousin Lew.”
“Indeed.
Nothing to your mother even then?”
“Nothing.”
“So. Your father fancied his side of that controversy.”
Wolfe turned to Llewellyn.
“Take good care of your cousin for another five weeks.
Should harm befall her in that time, you will have a million dollars and the devil will have his horns on your pillow.
Wills are noxious things.
Frequently. It is astonishing, the amount of mischief a man's choler may do long after the brain-cells which nourished the choler have rotted away.” He wiggled a finger at our client. “Soon, of course, you yourself must make a will, to dispose of the pile in case you should die on-say-May eighth, or subsequently.
I suppose you have a lawyer?”
“No.
I've never needed one.”
“You will now.
That's what a fortune is for, to support the lawyers who defend it for you against depredation.” Wolfe glanced at the clock. “I must leave you.
I trust the afternoon has not been wasted; I suppose you feel that it has. I don't think so.
May I leave it that way for the present?
I thank you for your indulgence.
And while we continue to mark tune, waiting for that confounded box to be found, I have a little favor to ask.
Could you take Mr. Goodwin home to tea with you?”
Llewellyn's scowl, which had been turned on for the past hour, deepened. Helen Frost glanced at me and then back at Wolfe.
“Why,” she said, “I suppose…if you want…”
“I do want.
I presume it would be possible to have Mr, Gebert there?”
She nodded.
“He's there now.
Or he was when I phoned mother.
Of course…you know…mother doesn't approve…”
“I'm aware of that.
She thinks you're poking a stick in a hornets nest.
But the fact is the police are the hornets; you've avoided them, and she hasn't.
Mr. Goodwin is a discreet and wholesome man and not without acuity.
I want him to talk with Mr. Gebert, and with your mother too if she will permit it.
You will soon be of age, Miss Frost; you have chosen to attempt a difficult and possibly dangerous project; surely you can prevail on your family and close friends for some consideration.
If they are ignorant of any circumstance regarding Mr. McNair's death, all the more should they be ready to establish that point and help us to stumble on a path that will lead us away from ignorance.
So if you would invite Mr, Goodwin for a cup of tea…”
Llewellyn said sourly,
“I think Dad's there, too, he was going to stay till we got back.