Читаем The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library) полностью

Her eyes were still on me, but her mind wasn't. She was considering something. "I see no reason…" she said, and stopped.

I waited a little, then said, "Yes, Mrs Althaus?"

"I see no reason why I shouldn't tell you. I have suspected it was the FBI, ever since Mr Yarmack told me that nothing about them was found in the apartment. So has Mr Yarmack, and so has Miss Hinckley. I don't think I am a vindictive woman, Mr Goodwin, but he was my-" Her voice was going to quiver, and she stopped. In a moment she went on. "He was my son. I am still trying to realize that he-he's gone. Did you know him? Did you ever meet him?"

"No."

"You're a detective."

"Yes."

"You're expecting me to help you find-to fix the blame for my son's death. Very well, I want to. But I don't think I can. He rarely spoke to me about his work. I don't remember that he ever mentioned the FBI. Miss Hinckley has asked me that, and Mr Yarmack. I'm sorry I can't tell you anything about it, I'm truly sorry, because if they killed him I hope they will be punished. It says in Leviticus 'Thou shalt not avenge', but Aristotle wrote that revenge is just. You see, I have been thinking about it. I believe-"

She turned to face the arch. A door had closed, and there were voices, and then a girl appeared. As she approached I got up, but Mrs Althaus kept her chair. The pictures in the Gazette file understated it. Marian Hinckley was a dish. She was an in-between, neither blonde nor brunette, brown hair and blue eyes, and she moved straight and smooth. If she wore a hat she had ditched it in the foyer. She came and gave Mrs Althaus a cheek kiss, then turned to look at me as Mrs Althaus pronounced my name. As the blue eyes took me in I instructed mine to ignore any aspect of the situation that was irrelevant to the job. When Mrs Althaus invited her to sit I moved a chair up. As she sat she spoke to Mrs Althaus. "If I understood you on the phone-did you say Nero Wolfe knows it was the FBI? Was that it?"

"I'm afraid I didn't get it straight," Mrs Althaus said. "Will you tell her, Mr Goodwin?"

I described it, the three points: why Wolfe was interested, what had made him suspicious, and how his suspicion had been supported by what a man told him yesterday. I explained that he didn't know it was the FBI, and he certainly couldn't prove it, but he intended to try to and that was why I was there.

Miss Hinckley was frowning at me. "But I don't see… Has he told the police what the man told him?"

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