“I thought so,” Gene said approvingly. “So many people have an entirely wrong idea of police methods! Of course you know that Miss Brown came here today as my mother’s guest, and therefore it might be supposed that my mother knows her well. But actually she doesn’t. That’s what I want to make clear.”
“Go ahead.”
Gene glanced at the shorthand dick. “If it’s taken down I would like to go over it when convenient.”
“You may.”
“Then here are the facts. In January my mother was in Florida. You meet all kinds in Florida. My mother met a man who called himself Colonel Percy Brown — a British colonel in the Reserve, he said. Later on he introduced his sister Cynthia to her. My mother saw a great deal of them. My father is dead, and the estate, a rather large one, is in her control. She lent Brown some money — not much; that was just an opener. A week ago—”
Mrs. Orwin’s head jerked up. “It was only five thousand dollars, and I didn’t promise him anything,” she said wearily, and propped her head on her hand again.
“All right, Mother.” Gene patted her shoulder. “A week ago she returned to New York, and they came along. The first time I met them I thought they were impostors. He didn’t sound like an Englishman, and certainly she didn’t. They weren’t very free with family details, but from them and Mother, chiefly Mother, I got enough to inquire about and sent a cable to London. I got a reply Saturday and another one this morning, and there was more than enough to confirm my suspicion, but not nearly enough to put it up to my mother. When she likes people she can be very stubborn about them — not a bad trait, not at all; I don’t want to be misunderstood and I don’t want her to be. I was thinking it over, what step to take next. Meanwhile, I thought it best not to let them be alone with her if I could help it — as you see, I’m being utterly frank. That’s why I came here with them today — my mother is a member of that flower club; I’m no gardener myself.”
His tone implied a low opinion of male gardeners, which was none too bright if his idea was to get solid with Wolfe as well as Cramer.
He turned a palm up. “That’s what brought me here. My mother came to see the orchids, and she invited Brown and his sister to come simply because she is good-hearted. But actually she doesn’t know them, she knows nothing about them, because what they have told her is one thing and what they really are is something else. Then this happened, and in the past hour, after she recovered a little from the shock of being taken in there to identify the corpse, I have explained to her what the situation is.”
He put his hands on the table and leaned on them, forward at Cramer. “I’m going to be quite frank, Inspector. Under the circumstances, I can’t see that it would serve any useful purpose to let it be published that that woman came here with my mother. What good would it do? How would it further the cause of justice? I want to make it perfectly clear that we have no desire to evade our responsibility as citizens. But how would it help to get my mother’s name in the headlines?”