“No. If one of you has an invulnerable alibi and it has been checked by the police, he can afford to tell me to go to the devil and will surely do so. Moreover, an alibi would convince me of nothing. Consider the crimes. Mrs. Fomos was waylaid on a street at night, dragged or propelled into a vestibule, strangled, and her bag taken. In the bag were keys. Using one of them, the murderer gained access to the apartment of Miss Eads, lay in ambush, and upon her entry struck her and strangled her. Looking at you, Miss Duday, I would think it highly doubtful that you committed those crimes as described, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t have contrived them. What would you have to pay? Ten thousand? Twenty? No, I’ll leave your alibi or lack of one to the police.”
He frowned at her. “As you see, we’re severely circumscribed. Motive requires no scrutiny; it blares and brandishes. Means is no problem — a piece of cord two feet long. Opportunity offers no path to a conclusion, since the murders may well have been vicarious, with enough at stake to make them worth planning and paying for. How can I harass you or devise a trap? The best I can do is induce you to talk, and hope for something. How are Mr. Helmar and Mr. Brucker getting along with Miss O’Neil?”
That started a minor commotion. Brucker, who had been letting himself sprawl some, jerked up straight. Pitkin emitted a sound that seemed to be the start of a giggle, but he stopped it. Helmar’s jaw fell and then closed and clamped.
Miss Duday kept her composure. “I really don’t know,” she said. “Of course this has changed the situation — temporarily, at least.”
“You told Mr. Goodwin that as soon as Miss Eads was in control Miss O’Neil would lose her job.”
“Did I? Well, now she won’t.”
“You also told Mr. Goodwin that she was playing Mr. Helmar and Mr. Brucker against each other. What was the connection between that fact and the murder of Miss Eads?”
“None that I know of.”
“No, that won’t do.” Wolfe was crisp. “Mr. Goodwin said he was there to investigate the murder, and you volunteered that information. You are much too intelligent to blatter irrelevancies. What was the connection?”
She smiled, a thin tight smile. “Goodness, am I cornered? Do you suppose in some dark crevice of my mind there was the thought that I wouldn’t dream of thinking either of those men capable of murdering for profit, but in their blind passion for that creature — there was no telling? And I blurted it out to Mr. Goodwin that day? Am I like that?”