Trio For Blunt Instruments by Rex Stout Read Free Book Online

nodded. 'Of course. That's Latin. The police asked me too, but not like that. I told them I didn't know, and I don't. I saw very little of Ashby personally, I mean outside of business. I knew his wife when she worked there, her name was Snyder then, Joan Snyder, but I've only seen her a couple of times since she married Ashby two years ago. The way you put it, safe or satisfied or solvent because he's dead-I don't know.'
    'What about people in the office?'
    'Nobody liked him. I didn't. I don't think even Mr. Mercer did. We all knew he had saved the business, he was responsible for its success, but we didn't like him. I had complaints from the girls about him. They didn't like to go to his room. A few months ago one girl quit on account of him. When I took it up with Mr. Mercer he said Ashby had the defects of his qualities, that when he wanted something he never hesitated to go after it, and that was why the corporation's income was ten times what it had been four years ago. But when I say nobody liked him maybe I ought to say except one.' His eyes went to Elma and back to Wolfe.
    'Miss Vassos?'
    'Good Lord, no.' He was shocked. 'Because I looked at her'I just happened- I just wanted to. Miss Cox, Frances Cox, the receptionist. Ashby wouldn't have a secretary, and Miss Cox did the things for him that a secretary does, appointments and so on, except stenography. Maybe she liked him; I suppose she must have. There was a lot of office gossip about them, but you can't go by office gossip. If an office manager took all the gossip seriously he'd go crazy. Only one day last spring Ashby's wife-I told you she was Joan Snyder when she worked there-she came and asked me to fire her.'
    'To fire Miss Cox?'
    'Yes. She said she was a bad influence on her husband. I had to laugh, I couldn't help it-a bad influence on Dennis Ashby. I told her I couldn't fire her, and I couldn't. Ashby had had her salary raised twice without consulting me.'
    Wolfe grunted. 'Another name Miss Vassos has mentioned. Philip Horan. Since he's a salesman, I presume he worked under Ashby?'
    'Yes.'
    'He had expected to get the promotion that Ashby had got?'
    'Yes.'
    'And he resented it?'
    'Yes.'
    'Then Ashby's death is no bereavement for him?'
    'No.'
    'You are suddenly laconic. Have I touched a nerve?'
    'Well& I thought Phil Horan deserved to get that job, and I still think so.'
    'And he'll get it now?'
    'I suppose he will.'
    'I won't ask if he might have killed Ashby to get it; you're partial and would of course say no.' Wolfe looked up at the clock. 'Have you ever sat at table with Miss Vassos, had a meal with her?'
    'I don't see what bearing that has on-'
    'None, but it's a civil question. Have you?'
    'No. I asked her twice, but she declined.'
    'Then it was foolhardy to ask her to marry you. You can't know what a woman is like until you see her at her food. I invite you to dine with us. There will be chicken sorrel soup with egg yolks and sherry, and roast quail with a sauce of white wine, veal stock, and white grapes. You will not be robbing us; there is enough.'
    I didn't catch his response because I was commenting to myself. The rule no business at meals was strictly enforced, but I would have to work right through the soup and quail on to the cheese and coffee, as an expert, taking Busch in. When he left I would be asked if his concern for Miss Vassos was real or phony, yes or no. If I couldn't say, some good grub would have been wasted.
    It was wasted.

Nero Wolfe 39 - Trio For Blunt Instruments
    6
    THE FUR STARTED TO FLY, the first flurry, a little after two Thursday afternoon, when Parker phoned while we were eating lunch-Elma with us-to say that he had just had a talk with an attorney representing John Mercer, Philip Horan, and Frances Cox. He had called before noon to say that all five of them had been served. He had told the attorney that his client, Elma Vassos, had retained him and told him to bring the actions after she had been advised to do so by