“I doubt if it’s worth the trouble. What you’re after is divorce evidence.”

“I told you what I’m after, a snake. About Goodwin, I said I have a secretary, but I haven’t. I fired him a week ago. One of those deals I got hooked on, the most recent one, I suspected him of leaking information on it to a certain party, and I fired him. So that-”

“I thought you suspected your daughter-in-law.”

“I did. I do. You can’t say a man can’t suspect two different people at once, not you. So that job is vacant. What was in my mind, why can’t Goodwin take it? He would be right there, living under the same roof with her. He can size her up, there’ll be plenty of opportunities-she’ll see to that if he doesn’t. My secretary had his meals with us, so of course Goodwin will. It occurred to me that that would be the best and quickest way, at least to start. If you’re not tied up with something he could come today. Right now.”

I didn’t like him, but I was feeling sorry for him. A man of my broad sympathies must make allowances. If she was as slick a snake as he thought she was, and he should have been a good judge of slickness, he was out of luck. Of course the idea that Wolfe would consider getting along without me at hand, to be called on for anything from typing a letter to repelling an invasion in force, was ludicrous. It was hard enough to get away for week ends. Add to that Wolfe’s rule against spouse-snooping, and where was he?

So I was feeling sorry for him when I heard Wolfe say, “You realize, Mr. Jarrell, that there could be no commitment as to how long he would stay there. I might need him.”