In the Best Families

by Rex Stout

  Nearly, but not quite. A shutter or something began to squeak. Calling it a shutter jerked me back part way, because there were no shutters on the windows, so it couldn’t be that. I was now enough awake to argue. The sound continued, at brief intervals. It not only wasn’t a shutter, it wasn’t a squeak. Then it was a baby whining; but it wasn’t, because it came from the open window, and there were no babies out there. To hell with it. I turned over, putting my back to the window, but the sound still came, and I had been wrong. It was more of a whimper than a whine. Oh, nuts.

  I rolled out of bed, switched on a light, went down the hall to Leeds’ door, knocked on it, and opened it.

  “Well? he asked, full voice.

  “Have you got a dog that whimpers at night?

  “Whimpers? No.

  “Then shall I go see what it is? I hear it through my window.

  “It’s probably-turn on the light, will you?

  I found the wall switch and flipped it. His pyjamas were green with thin white stripes. Giving me a look which implied that here was one more reason for disapproving of my being there, he padded past me into the hall and on into my room, me following. He stood a moment to listen, crossed and stuck his head out the window, pulled it in again, and this time went by me with no look at all and moving fast. I followed him downstairs and to the side door, where he pushed a light switch with one hand while he opened the door with the other, and stepped outside.

  “By God, he said. “All right, Nobby, all right.

  He squatted.

  I take back none of my remarks about Doberman pinschers, but I admit that that was no time to expand on them, nor did I feel like it. The dog lay on its side on the slab of stone with its legs twitching, trying to lift its head enough to look at Leeds; and from its side that was up, towards the belly and midway between the front and hind legs, protruded the chased silver handle of a knife.

  The hair around was matted with blood.

  The dog had stopped whimpering. Now suddenly it bared its teeth and snarled, but weakly.

  “All right, Nobby, Leeds said. He had his palm against the side, forward, over the heart.

  “He’s about gone, he said.

  I discovered that I was shivering, decided to stop, and did.

  “Pull the knife out of him? I suggested. “Maybe-

  “No. That would finish him. I think he’s finished anyhow.

  He was. The dog died as Leeds squatted there, and I stood, not permitting myself to shiver in the cold night breeze. I could see the slender muscular legs stretch tight and then go loose, and after another minute Leeds took his hand away and stood up.

  “Will you please hold the door open? he asked. “It’s off plumb and swings shut.

  I obliged, holding it wide and standing aside to let him through. With the dog’s body in his arms, he crossed to a wooden bench at one side of the little square hall and put the burden down. Then he turned to me. “I’m going to put something on and go out and look around. Come or stay, suit yourself.

  “I’ll come. Is it one of your dogs? OrHe had started for the stairs, but halted. “No. Sarah’s-my cousin’s. He was there tonight, you saw him. His face twitched. “By God, look at him! Getting here with that knife in him! I gave him to her two years ago; he’s been her dog for two years, but when it came to this it was me he came to. By God!

  He went for the stairs and up, and I followed. Over the years there have been several occasions when I needed to get some clothes on without delay, and I thought I was fast, but I was still in my room with a shoe to lace when Leeds’ steps were in the hall again and he called in to me, “Wait downstairs. I’ll be back in a minute.

  I called that I was coming, but he didn’t halt. By the time I got down to the little square hall he was gone, and the outside door was shut. I opened it and stepped out and yelled, “Hey, Leeds!

  His voice came from somewhere in the darkness. “I said wait!

  Even if he had decided not to bother with me there was no use trying to dash after him, with my handicap, so I settled for making my way around the corner of the house and across the gravelled rectangle to where my car was parked. Getting the door unlocked, I climbed in and got the flashlight from the dash compartment. That put me, if not even with Leeds for a night outdoors in the country, at least a lot closer to him. Relocking the car door, I sent the beam of the flash around and then switched it off and went back to the side door of the house.

  I could hear steps, faint, then louder, and soon Leeds appeared within the area of light from the hall’s window. He wasn’t alone. With him was a dog, a length ahead of him, on a leash. As they approached I courteously stepped aside, but the dog ignored me completely. Leeds opened the door and they entered the hall, and I joined them.

  “Get in front of her, Leeds said, “a yard off, and stand still.

  I obeyed, circling.

  “See, Hebe.

  For the first time the beast admitted I was there. She lifted her head at me, then stepped forward and smelled my trousers legs, not in haste. When she had finished Leeds crossed to where the dead dog lay on the bench, made a sign, and

  Hebe went to him.

  Leeds passed his fingertips along the dead dog’s belly, touching lightly the smooth short hair. “Take it, Hebe.

  She stretched her sinewy neck, sniffed along the course his fingertips had taken, backed up a step, and looked up at him.

  “Don’t be so damn’ sure, Leeds told her. He pointed a finger. Take it again.

  She did so, taking more time for it, and again looked up at him.

  “I didn’t know they were hounds, I remarked.

  “They’re everything they ought to be. I suppose Leeds made some signal, though

  I didn’t see it, and the dog started towards the door, with her master at the other end of the leash. “They have excellent scent, and this one’s extraordinary. She’s Nobby’s mother.

  Outside, on the slab of stone where we had found Nobby, Leeds said, “Take it,

  Hebe, and when she made a low noise in her throat as she tightened the leash, he added: “Quiet, now. I’ll do the talking.

  She took him, with me at their heels, around the corner of the house to the gravelled space, across that, along the wall of the main outbuilding, and to a corner of the enclosed run. There she stopped and lifted her head.

  Leeds waited half a minute before he spoke. “Bah. Can’t you tell dogs apart?

  Take it!

  I switched the flashlight on, got a reprimand, and switched it off. Hebe made her throat noise again, got her nose down, and started off. We crossed the meadow on the trail to the edge of the woods and kept going. The pace was steady but not fast; for me it was an easy stroll, nothing like the race Leeds had led me previously. Even with no leaves on the trees it was a lot darker there, but unless my sense of direction was completely cockeyed we were sticking to the trail I had been over twice before.

  “We’re heading straight for the house, aren’t we? I asked.

  For reply I got only a grunt.

  For the first two hundred yards or so after entering the woods it was a steady climb, not steep, and then a levelling off for another couple of hundred yards to the start of the easy long descent to the edge of the Birchvale manicured grounds. It was at about the middle of the level stretch that Hebe suddenly weni crazy. She dashed abruptly to one side, off the trail, jerking Leeds so that he had to dance to keep his feet, then whirled and came back into him, with a high thin quavering noise not at all like what she had said before.

  Leeds spoke to her sharply, but I don’t know what he said. By then my eyes had got pretty well accommodated to the circumstances. However, I am not saying that there in the dark among the trees, at a distance of twenty feet, I recognised the blob on the ground. I do assert that at the instant I pressed the button of the flashlight, before the light came, I knew already that it was the body of

  Mrs Barry Rackham.

  This time I got no reprimand. Leeds was with me
as I stepped off the trail and covered the twenty feet. She was lying on her side, as Nobby had been, but her neck was twisted so that her face was nearly upturned to the sky, and I thought for a second it was a broken neck until I saw the blood on the front of her white sweater. I stooped and got my fingers on her wrist. Leeds picked up a dead leaf, laid it on her mouth and nostrils, and asked me to kneel to help him keep the breeze away.

  When we had gazed at the motionless leaf for twenty seconds he said, “She’s dead.

  “Yeah. I stood up. “Even if she weren’t, she would be by the time we got her to the house. I’ll go-

  “She is dead, isn’t she?

  “Certainly. I’ll-

  “By God. He got erect, coming up straight in one movement. “Nobby and now her.

  You stay here-. He took a quick step, but I caught his arm. He jerked loose, violently.

  I said fast, “Take it easy. I got his arm again, and he was trembling. “You bust in there and there’s no telling what you’ll do. Stay here and I’ll go—

  He pulled free and started off.

  “Wait! I commanded, and he halted. “But first get a doctor and call the police.

  Do that first. I’m going to your place. We left that knife in the dog, and someone might want it. Can’t you put Hebe on guard here?

  He spoke, not to me but to Hebe. She came to him, a darting shadow, close to him. He leaned over to touch the shoulder of the body of Mrs Barry Rackham and said, “Watch it, Hebe. The dog moved alongside the body, and Leeds, with nothing to say to me, went. He didn’t leap or run, but he sure was gone. I called after him, “Phone the police before you kill anybody! stepped to the trail, and headed for Hillside Kennels.

  With the flashlight I had no trouble finding my way. This time, as I approached, the livestock barked plenty, and, hoping the kennel doors were all closed tight,

  I had my gun out as I passed the runs and the buildings. Nothing attacked me but noise, and that stopped when I had entered the house and closed the door.

  Apparently if an enemy once got inside it was then up to the master.

  Nobby was still there on the bench, and the knife was still in him. With only a glance at him in passing, I made for the little living-room, where I had previously seen a phone on a table, turned on a light, went to the phone, and got the operator and gave her a number. As I waited, a look at my wrist-watch showed me five minutes past midnight.

  I hoped Wolfe hadn’t forgotten to plug in the line to his room when he went up to bed. He hadn’t. After the ring signal had come five times I had his voice.

  “Nero Wolfe speaking.

  “Archie. Sorry to wake you up, but I need orders. We’re minus a client. Mrs

  Rackham. This is a quick guess, but it looks as if someone stabbed her with a knife and then stuck the knife in a dog. Anyhow, she’s dead. I’ve just-

  “What is this? It was almost a bellow. “Flummery?

  “No, sir. I’ve just come from where she’s lying in the woods. Leeds and I found her. The dog’s dead too, here on a bench. I don’t-

  “Archie!

  “Yes, sir.

  “This is insupportable. In the circumstances.

  “Yes, sir, all of that.

  “Is Mr Rackham out of it?

  “Not as far as I know. I told you we just found her.

  “Where are you?

  “At Leeds’ place, alone. I’m here guarding the knife in the dog. Leeds went to

  Birchvale to get a doctor and the cops and maybe to kill somebody. I can’t help it. I’ve got all the time in the world. How much do you want?

  “Anything that might help.

  “Okay, but in case I get interrupted here’s a question first. On two counts, because I’m here working for you and because I helped find the body, they’re going to be damn’ curious. How much do I spill? There’s no one on this line unless the operator’s listening in.

  A grunt and a pause. “On what I know now, everything about Mrs Rackham’s talk with me and the purpose of your trip there. About Mrs Rackham and Mr Leeds and what you have seen and heard there, everything. But you will of course confine yourself strictly to that.

  “Nothing about sausage?

  “Absolutely nothing. The question is idiotic.

  “Yeah, I just asked. Okay. Well, I got here and met dogs and people. Leeds’ place is on a corner of Mrs Rackham’s property, and we walked through the woods for dinner at Birchvale. There were eight of us at dinner…

  I’m fairly good with a billiard cue, and only Saul Panzer can beat me at tailing a man or woman in New York, but what I am best at is reporting a complicated event to Nero Wolfe. With, I figured, a probable maximum of ten minutes for it,

  I covered all the essentials in eight, leaving him two for questions. He had some, of course. But I think he had the picture well enough to sleep on when I saw the light of a car through the window, told him good-bye, and hung up. I stepped from the living-room into the little hall, opened the outside door, and was standing on the stone slab as a car with STATE POLICE painted on it came down the narrow drive and stopped. Two uniformed public servants piled out and made for me. I only hoped neither of them was my pet Westchester hate,

  Lieutenant Con Noonan, and had my hope granted. They were both rank-and-file.

  One of them spoke. “Your name Goodwin?

  I conceded it. Dogs had started to bark.

  “After finding a dead body you went off and came here to rest your feet?

  “I didn’t find the body. A dog did. As for my feet, do you mind stepping inside?

  I held the door open, and they crossed the threshold. With a thumb I called their attention to Nobby, on the bench.

  “That’s another dog. It had just crawled here to die, there on the doorstep. It struck me that Mrs Rackham might have been killed with that knife before it was used on the dog, and that you guys would be interested in the knife as is, before somebody took it to slice bread with, for instance. So when Leeds went to the house to phone I came here. I have no corns.

  One of them had stepped to the bench to look down at Nobby. He asked, “Have you touched the knife?

  “No.

  “Was Leeds here with you?

  “Yes.

  “Did he touch the knife?

  “I don’t think so. If he did I didn’t see him.

  The cop turned to his colleague. “We won’t move it, not now. You’d better stick here. Right?

  “Right.

  “You’ll be getting word. Come along, Goodwin.

  He marched to the door and opened it and let me pass through first. Outdoors he crossed to his car, got in behind the wheel, and told me, “Hop in.

  I stood. “Where to?

  “Where I’m going.

  “I’m sorry, I said regretfully, “but I like to know where. If it’s White Plains or a barracks, I would need a different kind of invitation. Either that or physical help.

  “Oh, you’re a lawyer.

  “No, but I know a lawyer.

  “Congratulations. He leaned towards me and spoke through his nose. “Mr Goodwin,

  I’m driving to Mrs Rackham’s house, Birchvale. Would you care to join me?

  “I’d love to, thanks so much, I said warmly, and climbed in.

  Chapter Five

  The rest of that night, more than six hours, from half-past midnight until well after sunrise, I might as well have been in bed asleep for all I got out of it.

  I learned only one thing, that the sun rises on April ninth at 5.39, and even that wasn’t reliable because I didn’t know whether it was a true horizon.

  Lieutenant Con Noonan was at Birchvale, among others, but his style was cramped.

  Even after the arrival of District Attorney Cleveland Archer himself, the atmosphere was not one of single-minded devotion to the service of justice. Not that they weren’t all for justice, but they had to keep it in perspective, and that’s not easy when a prominent wealthy taxpayer like Mrs Barry Rackham has been murdere
d and your brief list of suspects includes (a) her husband, now a widower, who may himself now be a prominent wealthy taxpayer, (b) an able young politician who has been elected to the state assembly, (c) the dead woman’s daughter-in-law, who may possibly be more of a prominent wealthy taxpayer than the widower, and (d) a vice-president of a billion-dollar New York bank. They’re all part of the perspective, though you wish to God they weren’t so you could concentrate on the other three suspects: (e) the dead woman’s cousin, a breeder of dogs which don’t make friends, (f) her secretary, a mere employee, and (g) a private dick from New York whose tongue has needed bobbing for some time. With a set-up like that you can’t just take them all down to White Plains and tell the boys to start chipping and save the pieces.

  Except for fifteen minutes alone with Con Noonan, I spent the first two hours in the big living-room where we had looked at television, having for company the members of the family, the guests, five members of the domestic staff, and two or more officers of the law. It wasn’t a bit jolly. Two of the female servants wept intermittently. Barry Rackham walked up and down, sitting occasionally and then starting up again, speaking to no one. Oliver Pierce and Lina Darrow sat on a couch conversing in undertones, spasmodically, with him doing most of the talking. Dana Hammond, the banker, was jumpy. Mostly he sat slumped, with his chin down and his eyes closed, but now and then he would arise slowly as if something hurt and go to say something to one of the others, usually Annabel or

  Leeds. Leeds had been getting a blaze started in the fireplace when I was ushered in, and it continued to be his chief concern. He got the fire so hot that Annabel moved away, to the other side of the room. She was the quietest of them, but from the way she kept her jaw clamped I guessed that it wasn’t because she was the least moved.

  One by one they were escorted from the room for a private talk and brought back again. It was when my turn came, not long after I had arrived, that I found

  Lieutenant Noonan was around. He was in a smaller room down the hall, seated at a table, looking harassed. No doubt life was hard for him-born with the instincts of a Hitler or Stalin in a country where people are determined to do their own voting. The dick who took me in motioned me to a chair across the table.