“Then to go on. Regarding the routine in your office. The notebooks used by the confidential secretaries are numbered. As soon as one is filled and the contents transcribed, the notebooks are turned in and destroyed. Is that correct?”
Prescott carefully shifted in his chair, but he didn’t groan. “Yes,” he said. “I’m answering the question, yes. Now I’d like to ask one. I’d like to know who has been investigating the affairs of my office, and why.”
“I have.” Wolfe’s tone got a little crisper. “My agents have. Mr. Panzer and Mr. Keems, there behind you. I assure you they have done nothing actionable, and if you start pumping up indignation it will only rush blood to your head and make you more uncomfortable than you already are. You’d better keep your brain as cool as possible.”
“Get on with it,” the district attorney snapped. “We’re not here for a lecture.”
Wolfe didn’t even glance at him. He continued at Prescott: “Now, sir, if Mr. Skinner will stop interrupting me, I can make it pretty brief. I have been given, one after the other, three problems to solve: the will of Noel Hawthorne, the murder of Noel Hawthorne, and the murder of Naomi Karn. Whether my belief that I have solved them is sound, or whether it is merely my conceit bubbling over, rests on the validity of a series of hypotheses I have made — based, of course, on information received. If any one of them is wrong, I am wrong. I’m going to ask you — all of you — to listen closely to them.
“One. Eugene Davis was madly, desperately, in love with Naomi Karn, and was so filled with despair and jealousy when she abandoned him for Noel Hawthorne that he began drinking too much and, I suppose, did other foolish things. That went on for nearly three years. During that time, possibly, she let him have some crumbs — did she, Mr. Davis? It would help to understand her character.”
All eyes went to Davis. He made no answer. With his lips tight and his jaw locked, he gazed at Wolfe. A spasm contorted the muscles of his throat as he swallowed.
Wolfe shrugged. “Two. Davis understood Miss Karn’s character himself. He knew she was ambitious, greedy, and unscrupulous, and that he would never find relief from the agony he suffered through her intimacy with Noel Hawthorne as long as Hawthorne was alive and a millionaire. Also he knew the terms of Hawthorne’s will. It was in the vault of his firm, to which he had access.
“Three. Probably the death of Lucille Adams, two months ago, led to the formation of his scheme. A shrewd brain sees an opportunity where an ordinary one would miss it. Anyway, he made his scheme, and awaited an occasion to execute it. He knew of Hawthorne’s intended trip to Rockland County for Tuesday afternoon, and arranged to be with Miss Karn at that time. He says they drove to Connecticut; wherever they went, he absented himself long enough to go to Rockland County and back. Probably he had a detailed plan of action, and a weapon; but seeing, from the highway, Noel Hawthorne there at the edge of the woods carrying a shotgun, was a heaven-sent opportunity. He took advantage of it. I’m pretty sure Miss Karn didn’t know where he was or what he was doing. She didn’t need to, and he didn’t want her to.
“Four. Tuesday evening—”