“Yes. Excuse me, but like hell you’re not enjoying yourself. Shall we discuss it seriously?”
“I have no desire to discuss it at all. The one sensible thing you’ve said was that it has been handled incompetently. To send Ossie here to threaten me! I can make him stammer by looking at him! Incidentally, I can’t do that with you.”
“No, but you came close to it.” I grinned at her. “Also you have an idea that another twenty minutes will do the trick; that’s why you invited me to sit down. You may be right, but I can assure you I’m no Ossie. The fact is, I’m just killing time. My boss asked me to bring you to his house, down on 35th Street, at ten to six, but I’d prefer not to get you there until ten after. He needs a lesson about what to expect and what not to expect.” I glanced at my wrist. “We ought to be leaving fairly soon, at that. I had to park over east of Third Avenue.”
“I told you, Mr. Goodwin, that I’m not enjoying myself. I see you have finished your milk.”
“No more, thank you. So you don’t intend to come?”
“Certainly not.”
“What are you going to do, just refuse to say boo till you’re served with a summons and complaint?”
“I’m not refusing to say boo.” Her voice got sharp again. “I tell you, what I resent is the way they’ve gone about it. I know that nothing rational could be expected of Mrs. Hawthorne, but couldn’t Mrs. Dunn have come to see me, or asked me to come to see her, and talk it over? Couldn’t she have said simply that they regarded it as unjust and asked me to consider an adjustment? Couldn’t she have condescended to say that she and her sisters felt they had a natural right to some share in their brother’s estate?”
“But they didn’t. That wasn’t it. It’s Daisy that’s raising hell.”
“I don’t believe it. I think Glenn Prescott started it, and they helped him prevail upon Mrs. Hawthorne. They think the way to do it is to browbeat me. First they sent that Stauffer here, and then they hired a detective, Nero Wolfe, whose speciality is catching murderers. You might think I was a murderer myself. It won’t work. They may be perfectly correct in thinking they should have a slice of Noel’s — Mr. Hawthorne’s wealth, but if they get it now it will be because a court awards it to them.”