Gambit by Rex Stout Page A

murderer gained was that your father was placed in mortal peril - a charge of murder and probable conviction. He had no animus for Jerin.
    Jerin wasn’t the target, he was merely a pawn. The target was your father. You see how that alters the situation, how it affects the job you hired me for.”
    “I don’t… I’m not sure…”
    “You deserve candor, Miss Blount. Till half an hour ago the difficulties seemed all but insurmountable. To take the job and your money I had to assume your father’s innocence, but to demonstrate it I had to find evidence that one of those six men had had sufficient motive to kill Jerin and had acted on it. And the three most telling points against your father - that he had taken the chocolate to Jerin, that he had taken the pot and cup and rinsed them, and that he knew Jerin and could possibly have had a motive - those were merely accidental and had to be ignored. In candor, it seemed hopeless, and, conceiving nothing better for a start, I merely made a gesture; I had Mr. Goodwin arrange for a public notice that I had been hired.”
    “You didn’t tell me you were going to.”
    “I seldom tell a client what I’m going to do. I tell you now because I need your help. That gesture brought Mr. Cramer and he brought the fact that it would be fatuous to proceed on the assumption that one of the others had premeditated the murder of Paul Jerin. But, holding to my assumption that your father hadn’t, one of the others must have. Why'Jerin was nothing to him, but he went there, with the poison, prepared to kill him, and he did; and what happened'A chain of circumstances pointed so clearly to your father as the culprit that he is in custody without bail, in grave jeopardy. By the operation of cause, calculated cause, and effect. The three most telling points against your father were not accidental; they were essential factors in the calculation. Is that clear?”
    “I think … yes.” She looked at me, and back at Wolfe. “You mean someone killed Paul because he knew they would think my father did it.”
    “I do. And if it was Mr. Kalmus he also knew he would be in a position, as your father’s counsel, to protect his gain from his gambit.”
    “Yes.” Her hands were clenched. “Of course.”
    “So I propose to proceed on that theory, that Jerin was merely a pawn in a gambit and the true target was your father. If I continue to assume your father’s innocence, no other theory is tenable. That gives me a totally new situation, for I now have indications, if the theory is to hold - some facts and some surmises. We’ll test them. To avoid verbal complexities I’ll call the murderer Kalmus, though I may be slandering him.”
    He stuck a finger up. “The first fact. Kalmus knew that Jerin would drink or eat something during the game into which arsenic could be put. Preferably, he knew that Jerin would drink chocolate. Did he?”
    Sally was frowning. “I don’t know. He may have. He may have heard me mention it,
    or father may have told him. Paul always drank chocolate when he played chess with father.”
    “That will serve.” Another finger. “The second fact. Kalmus knew what the arrangements were. He knew that Jerin would be alone in the library, and that he would be a messenger and so would have an opportunity to use the arsenic. Did he?”
    “I don’t know, but he must have. Father must have told all of them, the messengers.”
    Another finger. “The third fact. Kalmus knew that investigation would disclose an acceptable motive for your father. He knew of your association with Jerin and of your father’s attitude toward it. Did he?”
    “He knew I knew Paul, of course. But my father’s attitude - if you mean he might have wanted to kill him, that’s just silly. He thought he was - well, what you called him yourself, a freak.”
    “He disapproved of your associating with him?”
    “He disapproved of my associating with various people. But he certainly didn’t have any