“Not very well, no.”
“She has a good level head, but she’s stubborn as a mule. She’s a little like Dad. If he had kept off she might have had enough of Louis long ago. But now — I’m scared. I suppose your Nero Wolfe did the best he could, but he left a hole. Dad hired him to find out something about Louis that would keep Gwenn from marrying him. Is that right?”
“Right.”
“And the way Nero Wolfe put it, one of four things had to happen. Either he had to quit the job, or Dad had to fire him, or Gwenn had to believe what he said about Louis and drop him, or he had to keep on and get proof. But he left out something else that could happen. What if Gwenn went away with Louis and married him? That would fix it too, wouldn’t it? Would Dad want Wolfe to go on, to keep after Louis if he was Gwenn’s husband? Gwenn wouldn’t think so.” Madeline’s fingers gripped my arm. “I’m scared! I think she went to meet him!”
“I’ll be damned. Did she take a bag?”
“She wouldn’t. She’d know I’d try to stop her, and Dad too — all of us. If your Nero Wolfe is so damn smart, why didn’t he think of this?”
“He has blind spots, and people running off to get married is one of them. But I should have — my God, am I thick. How long ago did she leave?”
“It must have been an hour — about an hour.”
“Did she take a car?”
Madeline shook her head. “I listened for it. No.”