Read The Origin of Evil for Free Online Page A

together — aren’t we, Delia? — I suppose there’s no objection if I trail along?’
    â€˜Of course not, darling,’ said Delia. ‘But do try not to antagonize Roger. He always takes it out on me afterwards.’
    â€˜What do you think he’s going to say when he finds out you’ve brought a detective around?’
    â€˜Oh, dear,’ said Delia. Then she brightened. ‘Why, darling, you’re bringing Mr. Queen around, don’t you see? Do you mind very much? I know it’s yellow, but I have to live with him. And you did get to Mr. Queen first.’
    â€˜All right,’ said Laurel with a shrug. ‘We’ll give you a head start, Delia. You take Franklin and Outpost, and I’ll go around the long way, over Cahuenga and Mulholland. Where have you been? Shopping?’
    Delia Priam laughed. She got into her car, a new cream Cadillac convertible, and drove off down the hill.
    â€˜Hardly a substitute,’ said Laurel after a moment. Ellery started. Laurel was holding open the door of her car, a tiny green Austin. ‘Either car or driver. Can you see Delia in an Austin? Like the Queen of Sheba in a rowboat. Get in.’
    â€˜Unusual type,’ remarked Ellery absently, as the little car shot off.
    â€˜The adjective, yes. But as to the noun,’ said Laurel, ‘there is only one Delia Priam.’
    â€˜She seems remarkably frank and honest.’
    â€˜Does she?’
    â€˜I thought so. Don’t you?’
    â€˜It doesn’t matter what I think.’
    â€˜By which you tell me what you think.’
    â€˜No, you don’t! But if you must know … You never get to the bottom of Delia. She doesn’t lie, but she doesn’t tell the truth, either — I mean the whole truth. She always keeps something in reserve that you dig out much, much later, if you’re lucky to dig it out at all. Now I’m not going to say anything more about Delia, because whatever I say you’ll hold, not against her, but against me. Delia bowls over big shots especially … I suppose it’s no use asking you what she wanted to talk to you alone about?’
    â€˜Take — it — easy,’ said Ellery, holding his hat. ‘Another bounce like that and my knees will stab me to death.’
    â€˜Nice try, Laurel,’ said Laurel; and she darted into the freeway-bound traffic on North Highland with a savage flip of her exhaust.
    After a while Ellery remarked to Laurel’s profile: ‘You said something about Roger Priam’s “never” leaving his wheel-chair. You didn’t mean that literally, by any chance?’
    â€˜Yes. Not ever. Didn’t Delia tell you about the chair?’
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜It’s fabulous. After Roger became paralyzed he had an ordinary wheel-chair for a time, which meant he had to be lifted into and out of it. Daddy told me about it. It seems Roger the Lion-Hearted couldn’t take that. It made him too dependent on others. So he designed a special chair for himself.’
    â€˜What does it do, boost him in and out of bed on mechanical arms?’
    â€˜It does away with a bed altogether.’
    Ellery stared.
    â€˜That’s right. He sleeps in it, eats in it, does his work in it — everything. A combination office, study, living-room, dining-room, bedroom and bathroom on wheels. It’s quite a production. From one of the arms of the chair hangs a small shelf which he can swing around to the front and raise; he eats on that, mixes drinks, and so on. Under the shelf are compartments for cutlery, napkins, cocktail things, and liquor. There’s a similar shelf on the other arm of the chair which holds his typewriter, screwed on, of course, so it won’t fall off when it’s swung aside. And under that shelf are places for paper, carbon, pencils, and Lord knows what else. The chair is equipped with two phones of the plug-in type — the regular