“I deny—” Roper began, but Wolfe cut him off.
“Even so, isn’t it true that Miss Nieder has been deliberately and consistently ignored in the management of the business?”
“Yes,” Polly said, nodding emphatically.
The three men said no simultaneously, and all were going on to elaborate, but again Wolfe took it away.
“This will finish sooner if you let me dominate it. I am not implying that Miss Nieder is unappreciated. You all admit her designing talent, all but Mr. Roper, and just this afternoon one of you was quick and eager to resent an aspersion on her. I mean, Mr. Daumery, your assaulting Mr. Roper only because he hinted that Miss Nieder might have killed a man. Your business needs him, and surely you were risking losing him. You leaped hot-headed to Miss Nieder’s defense. It isn’t easy to reconcile that with your reluctance to come here this evening at her request.”
“I wasn’t reluctant. I had to think it over, that’s all.”
“You often have to think things over, don’t you?”
Bernard resented it. “What’s it to you if I do?”
“It’s a great deal to me,” Wolfe declared. “I have engaged to prevent Miss Nieder’s arrest for murder, and I suspect that your habit of thinking things over is going to show me how to do it, and I intend to learn if I’m right.”
His gaze shifted. “Mr. Demarest. How long have you known Mr. Daumery?”