Gambit by Rex Stout

information the law is entitled to - I don’t have to tell you.” He turned and marched out.
    I got up and went to the hall, decided he wouldn’t properly appreciate help with his coat, and stood and watched until he was out and the door was closed.
    Turning back to the office, I started, “So he gave you…,” and stopped. Wolfe was leaning back with his eyes shut and his lips pushed out. He drew his lips in, then out again, in and out, in and out. I stood and regarded him. That is supposed to be a sign that he’s hard at work, but I hadn’t the dimmest idea what he was working on. If it was the fact Cramer had just furnished, which one'
    Running over them in my mind, I stood and waited. The lip exercise is not to be interrupted. I had decided it was going to take a while and was starting for my desk when he opened his eyes, straightened up, and issued a command: ‘Bring Miss Blount.”
    I obeyed. As I said, I don’t use the elevator; I took the stairs, two flights.
    Finding the door of the south room closed, I knocked. 1 heard no footsteps, but in a moment the door opened. There had been no footsteps because she had no shoes on. “Mr. Wolfe wants you,” I said. “With or without shoes, as you prefer.”
    “Has anything happened?”
    Not knowing if he wanted her to know we had had a caller, I said, “He just did lip exercises, but of course you don’t know how important that is. Don’t bother with your lips and hair, he wouldn’t know the difference.”
    Of course that was ignored. She went to the dresser to use comb and lipstick,
    then to the chair near a window to put on her shoes, and then came. You get a new angle on a figure when it precedes you down stairs; she had nice shoulders,
    and her neck curved into them with a good line, As we entered the office Wolfe was frowning at a corner of his desk, rubbing his nose with a finger tip, and we got no attention from him. Sally went to the red leather chair and, after sitting in silence for a full minute, said, “Good morning.”
    He moved the frown to her, blinked, and demanded, “Why did you take a volume of Voltaire?”
    Her eyes widened. “Archie said I could take any book except the one you’re reading.”
    “But why Voltaire?”
    “No special reason. Just that I’ve never read him…”
    “Unh,” Wolfe said. “We’ll discuss it at lunch. There has been a development. Did Archie tell - ‘ He stopped short. He had thoughtlessly allowed himself to speak familiarly to a woman. He corrected it. “Did Mr. Goodwin tell you that a policeman has been here'Inspector Cramer?”
    “No.”
    “He has. Uninvited and unexpected. He just left. Mr. Goodwin can tell you later why he came and what was said. What I must tell you, he gave me some information that changes the situation substantially. The police have established, for Mr.
    Cramer beyond question, three facts. One, that the arsenic was in the chocolate.
    Two, that no one had an opportunity to put it in the chocolate besides the cook,
    the steward, the four messengers, and your father. Three, that only your father could have had a motive. None of the other six - I quote Mr. Cramer - “had ever met Paul Jerin or had any connection with him or his.” Though all -“
    “I told you that. Didn’t I?”
    “Yes, but based only on your knowledge, which was deficient. Mr. Cramer’s conclusions are based on a thorough and prolonged inquiry by an army of trained men. Though all three of those facts are important, the significant one is the third, that none of those six could have had a motive to kill Jerin. But Jerin was killed - with premeditation, since the arsenic was in hand. Do you play chess?”
    “Not really. I know the moves. Do you mean you -“
    “If you please. Do you know what a gambit is?”
    “Why… vaguely…”
    “It’s an opening in which a player gives up a pawn or a piece to gain an advantage. The murder of Paul Jerin was a gambit. Jerin was the pawn or piece.
    The advantage the