Read Online Rex Stout_Tecumseh Fox 01 by Double for Death - Free Book Online Page B

Kester’s lips, thin anyway, made a tight straight line as he sat twisted around in the front seat for a level gaze of his pale hostile eyes at Tecumseh Fox. Ridley Thorpe, disheveled and unornamental with a streak of dirt slanting across his unshaven cheek, ground his right palm against his left, as if with that mortar and pestle he expected to pulverize all obstacles.
    Fox said impatiently: “You understand it has to be the truth. Depending on how it sounds, I’ll either acceptit for the time being or I won’t. I’ll check up on it as soon as I can, and if it’s phony I’ll turn it loose. I must be satisfied that I’m not establishing an alibi for a man who might be a murderer.”
    Thorpe sputtered: “But I tell you—”
    “Don’t do that. It will soon be sunup. Tell me where you were.”
    “If I do that, Mr. Fox, I’ll be putting myself completely in your power—”
    “No more than you are now.” Fox frowned at him. “Must I diagram it for you? I could trace you down. Any competent man could and a lot of them will, if they are given a suspicion to start on. That’s why you have to furnish an alibi that will exclude all suspicion, which is a big order to fill. It is also why I must have the truth and all of it or you can count me out.”
    Thorpe gazed at him, and suddenly abandoned the mortar and pestle to make a gesture of decision. “Very well. Quiet, Vaughn. I never supposed—very well. I was in a cottage at Triangle Beach, New Jersey. I arrived there Friday evening and remained continuously. Shortly before midnight Sunday—I was in bed—the phone rang and it was Luke. He said someone had shot through the window and killed Arnold—”
    “Did he phone from the bungalow?”
    “No. Luke is no fool. He had left in the car and phoned from a booth in Mount Kisco without being observed. He asked what to do and I told him to come to the cottage. He arrived there around two o’clock; it’s over ninety miles. In the meantime Kester had phoned, having been notified of the murder at the Green Meadow Club. I told him also to come to the cottage and he got there about an hour after Luke did. We began a discussion of the situation and we’vebeen discussing it ever since. Luke and Kester are the only people on earth who know of that cottage. Except you. Now.”
    “The only ones?”
    “Yes.”
    Fox shook his head. “It won’t do. It sets up the conclusion that you were alone there and that—”
    “I didn’t say I was alone there. I was … I had a companion.”
    “What’s her name?”
    “I don’t think you need that.” Thorpe was scowling. “This is very embarrassing to me. Very. If my reputation with the American public which I have so scrupulously earned—if I have chosen to safeguard it by maintaining a decent privacy for certain activities which are natural and normal—”
    “I’m not the American public, Mr. Thorpe, I’m only a man you want to hire to manufacture an alibi for you. If this lady felt like it, she could make both it and me look silly. What’s her name?”
    “Her name … is Dorothy Duke.”
    “How long have you known her?”
    “Five years.”
    “She used to spend weekends at the bungalow with you before you got your stand-in?”
    “Yes.”
    “How thoroughly do you trust her?”
    “I trust no one alive thoroughly except Luke. I trust Kester because it is to his advantage to remain loyal to my interests. With Miss Duke other—ah—considerations are involved, but I rely on her discretion for the same reason that I rely on Kester’s loyalty. Quiet, Vaughn.”
    “Is she at the cottage now?”
    “No, she’s there only for weekends. She returnedto her New York apartment. I instructed her to stay there in case it was necessary to communicate.”
    “Do you ever call at her apartment?”
    “Never. I never see her in New York.”
    “What’s the address of the cottage at Triangle Beach?”
    “It hasn’t any. It’s remote, two miles south of the village, with five