“Would you mind telling me who they were?”
“A Captain Bundy, and a sergeant, and Deputy Commissioner Youmans. Also Assistant District Attorney Mandelbaum.”
“Did any of them tell you what Mrs. Fromm consulted me about yesterday?”
“No. We didn’t get onto that.”
“I suggest that you see someone at the District Attorney’s office — preferably someone you know well — and ask him to tell you. If he does so, or if any other official does, without important reservations, I’ll disgorge — your word — the money Mrs. Fromm paid me.”
Maddox was looking as if someone were trying to persuade him that his nose was on upside down.
“I assure you,” Wolfe went on, “that I am not ass enough to withhold evidence in a capital crime, especially not one as sensational as this. Indeed, I am meticulous about it. Unless the police have information about you that is unknown to me I doubt if they have hitherto regarded you as a likely suspect, but you may now find them a nuisance, after I have reported that you were so zealous to learn what Mrs. Fromm said to me that you went to all this trouble. That, of course, is my duty. This time it will also be my pleasure.”
“You are—” He was about to choke again. “You are threatening to report this interview.”
“Not a threat. Merely informing you that I will do so as soon as you leave.”
“I’m leaving now.” He was up. “I’ll replevy that ten thousand dollars.”