The Devil's Cook by Ellery Queen

watched it while it steeped. This done, he poured two cupfuls and carried the cups to the bedroom. Thus far, he had been reasonably successful in not thinking about things he didn’t want to think about.
    â€œHere you are,” he said.
    She carried the cup immediately to her mouth, afterward closing her eyes and letting her head fall back against the headboard. Her face looked grayer and older than it was.
    â€œI wonder if Terry’s back,” she said.
    â€œI don’t know. I haven’t seen Jay since yesterday.”
    â€œAren’t you terribly concerned?”
    â€œDon’t start that again. Please don’t.”
    â€œOh, excuse me.” Ardis raised her head and opened her eyes, disclosing the malice behind her lids. “I’d forgotten how sensitive you are on the subject of Terry. She made a fool of you with so little effort, didn’t she?”
    â€œI suppose she did. You are welcome to think so, if you like. Can’t you forget it, Ardis? Can’t you let me forget it?”
    â€œThat would be nice for you, wouldn’t it? It’s not as easy as all that for me.”
    â€œCan’t I make you understand that there never really was anything between Terry and me? Nothing ever happened . She was only playing a game with me. Terry’s got a cruel streak in her. She enjoys things like that. I’m not the type Terry would take seriously.”
    â€œWhy not? Aside from being a fool in your personal affairs, you’re a brilliant physicist. You have a wonderful career ahead of you. All you have to do is use common sense.”
    â€œTerry doesn’t give a damn about physicists, brilliant or otherwise, and she didn’t give a damn about me.”
    â€œAre you saying that what’s good enough for me isn’t good enough for your precious Terry?”
    Fool or not, Otis could see the folly of going any further in that direction. It was futile, in fact, to go anywhere in any direction. His offense had not been infidelity, but a fatuous gullibility that in her view reflected on his legal bedmate. He would have been in less trouble, actually, if he had done as well in adultery as in physics. He had not, however. He had been involved in a fiasco, not a conquest; and he admitted that he deserved Ardis’s scorn, although he yearned for surcease.
    â€œNothing of the sort,” Otis said. “I’m just saying that Terry has a beastly set of values. Look at the way she treats Jay. She really has no regard for him, although he’s a very competent economist. It’s a mystery to me why she ever married him. She’s much more taken with animals like Brian O’Hara.”
    Ardis sipped her coffee, staring at him slyly over the run of the cup.
    â€œâ€˜O.’ for O’Hara?” she said.
    â€œMust you be so devious, Ardis?” He sat down on the side of the bed, clutching his cup and saucer in his left hand. “I simply don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    â€œI’m talking about the Personal ad that appeared in Thursday evening’s Journal.”
    â€œWhat Personal ad?”
    â€œIt was addressed to ‘T.M.’, and it was signed ‘O.’ It arranged a meeting for a certain time and place.”
    â€œWhat time and place?”
    â€œThree o’clock Friday afternoon. Apparently at the university library.”
    Otis stared into his cup. Then he shrugged and looked up.
    â€œIt’s absurd. In Terry’s case, what’s more, completely unnecessary. In spite of the initials, I don’t believe it was meant for her at all.”
    â€œThat settles the matter very neatly, doesn’t it? Case closed, eh?”
    â€œDidn’t you expect me to deny that it was ‘O.’ for Otis? Very well, I deny it. All right, I’ve been a fool, but not so big a fool as to engage in any damn foolishness like this. Why should I? I could have spoken directly to Terry