Rex Stout_Tecumseh Fox 02 by Bad for Business

Rex Stout_Tecumseh Fox 02 by Bad for Business

Author:Bad for Business [Business, Bad for]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery & Detective, Murder - Investigation, Fox; Tecumseh (Fictitious Character), Political, General, Mystery Fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780241023143
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1973-01-02T06:00:00+00:00


Chapter 11

The ancient clock on the wall above the ancient roll-top desk said twenty-five minutes past two. Since it was again the eight to four shift, the same two squad men were on duty as at the time of Fox’s visit the preceding afternoon. The plump one was propped against a window sill with his back to the outdoors. The husky one was standing near the safe, gazing dourly at the occupants of the four chairs arranged in a square in the center of the room: Philip Tingley, Sol Fry, G. Yates, and a dapper little man with a bald head and a little gray mustache. This last—Charles R. Austin, attorney-at-law—was responsible for the gathering being located in that room in spite of everything. He had put his foot down. It was in that room that his senior partner, now long deceased, had formally read the will of Arthur Tingley’s father thirty years previously, and it was therefore the only fitting place for the mournful ceremony which duty now compelled him to conduct. So that was where he was conducting it.

At this moment he was bouncing in his chair with resentment. He resented, certainly, the refusal of the policemen to withdraw decently from the scene; but what had started him bouncing a minute ago was the impertinent intrusion of an unannounced and unexpected visitor who had simply opened the door and walked in. Mr. Austin was sputtering:

“Nothing can excuse it! Good God, must you in your greed violate even the threshold of death? I tell you, Mr. Cliff, your generation which at the behest of financial masters and monsters has abandoned all scruples …”

The others let him go on. When he stopped for breath, Miss Yates looked at the intruder and said dryly, “You’re here, so you might as well tell us what you came for.”

Leonard Cliff, from beside Philip Tingley’s chair, bowed to her. “Thank you, Miss Yates. I learned of this meeting—no matter how. You know that in behalf of my company I have been negotiating with Mr. Tingley for some time to buy this business. Ordinarily I would have waited, at least until after the day of the funeral, to resume the negotiations, but under the circumstances I felt that it was dangerous to wait at all. I have learned that Mr. Tingley suspected me of bribing his employees, or one of them, to adulterate his product, and I want to say that that suspicion was utterly unfounded. My company doesn’t do that sort of thing, and certainly I don’t. But I knew of the adulteration—”

Cliff stopped and turned his head at the sound of footsteps and the opening of the door. The others looked with him, making Tecumseh Fox the focus of seven pairs of eyes as he entered, took in the situation with a sharp glance as he approached, saluted the group with a nod, and spoke directly to Philip Tingley:

“I’m sorry, I guess I’m a little late.”

The tactic was absurdly simple, but none the less effective.



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