Three Men Out by Rex Stout

Author:Rex Stout [Stout, Rex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery & Suspense, Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Political, Wolfe; Nero (Fictitious Character), Detective and Mystery Stories, Private Investigators, Westerns, new york, Private Investigators - New York (State) - New York - Fiction, New York (State), Wolfe; Nero (Fictitious Character) - Fiction
ISBN: 0553245473
Google: fLbemAEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 77624
Publisher: Crimeline
Published: 1952-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

5

Although my stay in Heller’s waiting room that morning had been brief, I have long been trained to see what I look at and to remember what I see, and I would hardly have recognized Mrs. Albert Tillotson. She had lost five pounds and gained twice that many wrinkles, and the contrast between her lipstick and her drained-out skin made her look more like a woman-hater’s pin-up than an overfed matron.

“I wish to speak with you privately,” she told Inspector Cramer.

She was one of those. Her husband was president of something, and therefore it was absurd to suppose that she was not to expect privileges. It took Cramer a good five minutes to get it into her head that she was just one of the girls, and it was such a shock that she had to take time out to decide how to react to it.

She decided on a barefaced lie. She demanded to know if the man who had brought her there was a member of the police force, and Cramer replied that he was.

“Well,” she declared, “he shouldn’t be. You may know that late this afternoon a police officer called at my residence to see me. He told me that Leo Heller had been killed, murdered, and wanted to know for what purpose I had gone to his office this morning. Naturally I didn’t want to be involved in an ugly thing like that, so I told him I hadn’t gone to see Leo Heller, but he convinced me that that wouldn’t do, so I said I had gone to see him, but on an intimate personal matter that I wouldn’t tell—Is that man putting down what I’m saying?”

“Yes. That’s his job.”

“I wouldn’t want it. Nor yours either. The officer insisted that I must tell why I had gone to see that Heller, and I refused, and he insisted, and I refused. When he said he would have to take me to the district attorney’s office, under arrest if necessary, and I saw that he meant it, I told him. I told him that my husband and I have been having some difficulty with our son, especially his schooling, and I went to Heller to ask what college would be best for him. I answered the officer’s questions, within reason, and finally he left. Perhaps you knew all this.”

Cramer nodded. “Yes.”

“Well, after the officer had gone I began to worry, and I went to see a friend and ask her advice. The trouble was that I had given Heller many details about my son, some of them very intimate and confidential, and since he had been murdered the police would probably go through all his papers, and those details were private and I wanted to keep them private. I knew that Heller had made all his notes in a personal shorthand that no one else could read—anyhow he had said so, but I couldn’t be sure, and it was very important. After I had discussed it with my

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