“Okay. I’ll get her later maybe. Let me know what you find, huh?”
“By all means.”
Wolfe hung up and pushed the instrument away, leaned back and locked his fingers on his belly, and slowly shook his head as he murmured, “That man talks too much. — I’m sure, Miss Frost, that you won’t be offended at missing a visit to police headquarters. It is one of my strongest prejudices, my disinclination to permit a client of mine to appear there. Let us hope that Mr. Cramer’s search for the red box will keep him entertained.”
Llewellyn put in, “In my opinion, that’s the only thing to do anyway, wait till it’s found. All this hash of ancient history — if you were as careful to protect your client from your own annoyance as you are—”
“I remind you, sir, you are here by sufferance. Your cousin has the sense, when she hires an expert, to permit him his hocus-pocus. — What were we saying, Miss Frost? Oh, yes. You were telling me that Mr. Gebert came to New York in 1931. You were then sixteen years old. You said that he is forty-four, so he was then thirty-nine, not an advanced age. I presume he called upon your mother at once, as an old friend?”
She nodded. “Yes. We knew he was coming; he had written. Of course I didn’t remember him; I hadn’t seen him since I was four years old.”
“Of course not. Did he perhaps come on a political mission? I understand that he was a member of the camelots du roi. ”
“I don’t think so. I’m sure he didn’t — but that’s silly, certainly I can’t be sure. But I think not.”
“At any rate, as far as you know, he doesn’t work, and you don’t like that.”
“I don’t like that in anyone.”