Imbrie, with no hesitation and in a voice unnecessarily loud, said, “Yes!”
“You did? When?”
“Once in this room, because I thought she wanted me to, and she knew my wife was watching us and I didn’t. So I thought I would try it.”
“That’s a lie!” Vera Imbrie said indignantly.
So the first crack out of the box he had one of them calling another a liar.
Neil spoke sternly to his wife. “I’m telling you, Vera, the only thing to do is tell it straight. When the cops left I thought it was all over, but I know about this man and he’s tough. We’re not going to do any monkeying about murder. How do I know who else saw me? I’m not going to tell him no, I never went near that girl, and then have someone else say they saw me.”
“That’s the spirit,” Sybil said sarcastically. “We’ll all confess everything. You lead the way, Neil.”
But within three minutes Neil was lying, saying that his wife hadn’t minded a bit catching him trying to make a pass at Dini Lauer. He maintained that she had just passed it off as a good joke.
It went on for over two hours, until my wrist-watch said five minutes to three, and I’m not saying it was dull because it was interesting to watch Wolfe bouncing the ball, first against one and then another, and it was equally interesting to see them handling the returns. But though it wasn’t dull it certainly didn’t seem to me that it was getting us anywhere, particularly when Wolfe was specializing in horticulture. He spent about a third of the time finding out how they felt about plants and flowers, and actually got into an argument with Joseph G. about hairy begonias. It was obvious what he had in mind, but no matter what they said it wasn’t worth a damn as evidence, and I suspected him of merely passing the time waiting for Saul, and hoping against hope as the minutes dragged by.
Aside from horticulture he concentrated mainly on the character and characteristics of Dini Lauer. He tried over and over again to get them started on a free-for-all discussion of her, but they refused to oblige, even Neil Imbrie. He couldn’t even get a plain unqualified statement that Sybil would have preferred to take care of her mother herself, their position apparently being that if they gave him an inch he’d want a mile. He certainly didn’t get the inch.