In the Best Families

“It is, Wolfe said cuttingly, “of no importance what you intend. You have had five months to implement your intentions, and where are you? I admit that up to three days ago I had one big advantage over you, but not since then-not since I told you of the package I got with a cylinder of tear gas in it, and of the phone call from Mr Zeck. That brought you even with me. It was after noon on a

Friday that Mrs Rackham left here after hiring me. It was the next morning,

Saturday, that I received that package and the phone call from Zeck. How had he learned about it? Apparently he even knew the amount of the cheque she had given me. How? From whom?

I was not really itching to shoot anybody. So I got up and unobtrusively moved around back of them, to the rear of the chair that was occupied by Calvin Leeds.

Wolfe was proceeding.

“It was not inconceivable that Mrs Rackham had told someone else about it, her daughter-in-law or her secretary, or even her husband, but it was most unlikely, in view of her insistence on secrecy. She said she had confided in no one except her cousin, Calvin Leeds. Wolfe's head jerked right and he snapped, “That's correct, Mr Leeds?

Being back of Leeds, I couldn't see his face, but there was no difficulty about hearing him, since he spoke much too loud.

“Certainly, he said. “Up to then-before she came to see you-certainly.

“Good, Wolfe said approvingly. “You're already drawing up your lines of defence. You'll need them.

“What you're doing, Leeds said, still too loud, “if I understand you-you're intimating that I told Zeck about my cousin's coming here and hiring you. You're intimating that in front of witnesses.

“That's right, Wolfe agreed. “But it's not vital to me; I mention it chiefly to explain why I suspected you of duplicity, and of being involved in some way with

Arnold Zeck even before Mr Goodwin left here that day to go up there. It draws attention to you, no doubt of that; but it is not primary evidence that you murdered your cousin. The proof that it was you who killed her was given to me on the phone that night by Mr Goodwin.

There were stirrings and little noises. Leeds ignored them.

“So, he said, not so loud now, “you're actually accusing me before witnesses of murdering my cousin?