“No!”
“Granted that Mr. Heller could furnish a valid calculation on your aunt’s life, how would that help you any?”
Winslow looked at Cramer and met only a stony stare. He went back to Wolfe. “I was negotiating to borrow a very large sum against my — expectations. There was to be a certain percentage added for each month that passed before repayment was made, and I had to know what my chances were. It was a question of probabilities, and I went to an expert.”
“What data had you given Heller as a basis for his calculations?”
“My God, I couldn’t — all kinds of things.”
“For instance?” Wolfe insisted.
Winslow looked at the police stenographer and me, but we couldn’t help. He returned to Wolfe. “Hundreds of things. My aunt’s age, her habits — eating, sleeping, everything I could — her health as far as I knew about it, the ages of her parents and grandparents when they died, her weight and build — I gave him photographs — her activities and interests, her temperament, her attitude to doctors, her politics—”
“Politics?”
“Yes. Heller said her pleasure or pain at the election of Eisenhower was a longevity factor.”
Wolfe grunted. “The claptrap of the charlatan. Did he also consider as a longevity factor the possibility that you might intervene by dispatching your aunt?”