The first thing,” I said, “is this: have I seen it or not? If I have, there’s the phone, and any arrangements to be made before company comes will have to be snappy. If I haven’t, take your time. It’s behind the bush on the side away from the drive and might not be noticed for a week, except for dogs. So?”
“I don’t know enough about it,” Wolfe said peevishly. “What were you doing there?”
I told him. That first question was too urgent, for me personally, to fill in with details such as stopping at the barn to count the horses, but I didn’t skip any points that mattered, like Madeline’s reason for being upset over Gwenn’s trip outdoors, or like my handling of the fingerprint problem on the wallet. I gave it to him compact and fast but left out no essentials. When I finished he had only three questions:
“Have you had the thought, however vaguely, with or without evidence to inspire it, that Miss Sperling took you past that spot intentionally?”
“No.”
“Can footprints be identified in the vicinity of the body?”
“I’m not sure, but I doubt it.”
“Can your course be traced, no matter how, as you went from the thicket to the body and back again?”
“Same answer. Davy Crockett might do it. I didn’t have him in mind at the time, anyhow it was dark.”
Wolfe grunted. “We’re away from home. We can’t risk it. Get them all up here — the Sperlings. Go for the young women yourself, or the young one may not come. Just get them; leave the news for me. Get the young women first, and the others when you’re back in the house. I don’t want Mr. Sperling up here ahead of them.”