“He had a rotten lunch,” I explained.
Cramer nodded. “So did I. At a drugstore counter.” He surveyed Wolfe. “You look about the way I feel. I hate these damn high-life mix-ups. The lousy politicians. Every time you turn around you see a stop sign. I’ve got a message for you from the commissioner.”
Wolfe just grunted again.
Cramer put his cigar between his teeth and said, “Maybe you’ve heard of him, Police Commissioner Hombert. He wants you to understand that there’s to be no publicity on this thing until he says so. He also says that you’re so intelligent it will be easy for you to appreciate the necessity for a lot of discretion in a case like this, involving the people it does, and that naturally you’ll co-operate with me. For instance, if you were to tell me what that mob was doing in your office yesterday, we’d call that co-operation.”
“Ask them,” Wolfe suggested.
“I have. They’re pretty remarkable. Most of them seem to be nearly as eccentric as you are. Except Mrs. Dunn, she’s fairly levelheaded, and Prescott the lawyer. Prescott told me about the will. They say they went to ask you to take it up with Miss Karn and come to an understanding with her. Since when have you been a board of arbitration?”
Wolfe muttered, “Go ahead. Come to the point.”
“I will. Is that what they went to your office for? To get you to make a deal with Miss Karn?”
“Yes.”
“But you had Miss Karn right there, didn’t you? By the way, you might have told me who she was when I asked you, but I suppose that would be too much to expect. Anyway, these people have all got tongues in their heads, and they had their lawyer along. What was it they wanted you to do that they couldn’t do themselves?”