“She got, as did her son and her daughter, nearly a third of a million. What did that sum mean to her? What were her circumstances?”
“I guess it meant a great deal. She wasn’t well off.”
“What was she living on?”
“Well — Sidney had been helping her.”
Wolfe tightened his lips and turned a palm up. “My dear madam. Be as delicate as you please about judgments, but I merely want facts. Must I drag them out of you? A plain question: was Mrs. Savage living on Mr. Karnow’s bounty?”
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“What has she done with her legacy? Has she conserved it? The fact as you know it.”
“No, she hasn’t.” Caroline’s chin lifted a little. “You’re quite right, I’m being silly — and anyway, lots of people know all about it. Mrs. Savage bought a house in New York, and last winter she bought a villa in southern France, and she wears expensive clothes and gives big parties. I don’t know how much she has left. Dick had a job with a downtown broker, but he quit when he got the inheritance from Sidney, and he is still looking for something to do. He is — well, he likes to be with women. It’s hard to be fair to Ann because she has wasted herself. She is beautiful and clever, and she’s only twenty-six, but there she is, married to Norman Horne, just throwing herself away.”
“What does Mr. Horne do?”
“He tells people about the time twelve years ago when he scored four touchdowns for Yale against Princeton.”