“Do you love him? Desire him? Fancy him?”
“I certainly don’t!”
“Then the police will be doubly suspicious. They will suspect that you were after him for his aunt’s money. And speaking of money, some of you must know that Miss Huddleston’s brother was getting money from her and dissatisfied with what he got. Yet you refuse to tell me—”
“I wasn’t dissatisfied,” Daniel broke in. His face flushed and his voice rose. “You have no right to make insinuations—”
“I’m not making insinuations.” Wolfe was crisp. “I am showing you the sort of thing the police will get their teeth into. They are quite capable of supposing you were blackmailing your sister—”
“Blackmail!” Daniel squealed indignantly. “She gave it to me for research—”
“Research!” his nephew blurted with a sneer. “Research! The Elixir of Life! Step right up, gents...”
Daniel sprang to his feet, and for a second I thought his intention was to commit mayhem on Larry, but it seemed he merely was arising to make a speech.
“That,” he said, his jaw quivering with anger, “is a downright lie! My motivation and my methods are both strictly scientific. Elixir of Life is a romantic and inadmissible conception. The proper scientific term is ‘catholicon.’ My sister agreed with me, and being a woman of imagination and insight, for years she generously financed—”
“Catholicon!” Wolfe was staring at him incredulously. “And I said you were capable of using your brains!”