by Rex Stout
I;”
*Yeah, the world’s full of it. Wherever anybody is e’s trouble. You get shaky ideas. Yesterday you scared because you thought they were getting f to hang a murder on you, and not one of them has i hinted at it. Maybe you’re wrong again.”
3, I’m not.” She sounded grim. “There was that aess of accusing me of stealing those designs. They I’t have to pick me for that, but you notice they did. all of a sudden that’s cleared up, I’m out of that, what happens? Wayne gets arrested for murder. , thing—” thought you didn’t know what they took him
| “I don’t. But you’ll see. He was with me, wasn’t ‘ She slid off the desk and was erect. “I think—I’m ty sure—I’m going to see Dorothy Keyes.” “She’s busy with a caller.” “I know it, but he may be gone.” H “A man named Donaldson, and I’m wondering at him. I have a hunch Miss Keyes is starting a
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little investigation on her own. Do you happen to know if this Donaldson is a detective?”
“I know he isn’t. He’s a lawyer and a friend of Mr. Eeyes. I’ve seen him here several times. Do you—”
What interrupted her was a man coming in the door and heading for us.
It was a man I had known for years. “We’re busy,” I told him brusquely. “Come back tomorrow.”.
I should have had sense enough to give up kidding Sergeant Parley Stebbins of the Homicide Squad long ago, since it always glanced off and rolled away. When he got sore, as he often did, it wasn’t at the kidding but at what he considered my interference with the performance of his duty.
“So you’re here,” he stated.
‘Tep. Miss Rooney, this is Sergeant—”
“Oh, I’ve met him before.” Her face was just as sour at him as it had been at me.
“Yeah, we’ve met,” Purley acquiesced. His honest brown eyes were at her. “I’ve been looking for you, Miss Rooney.”
“Oh, my Lord, more questions?”
“The same ones. Just checking up. You remember that statement you signed, where you said that Tuesday morning you were at the riding academy with Saf ford from a quarter to six until after half-past seven, and both of you were there all the time? You remember that?”
“Certainly I do.”
“Do you want to change it now?”
Audrey frowned. “Change what?”
“Your statement.”
“Of course not. Why should I?”
“Then how do you account for the fact that you were seen riding a horse into the park during that
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iod, and Safford, on another horse, was with you, Safford has admitted it?”
“Count ten,” I snapped at her, “before you answer. even a hun—”
“Shut up,” Purley snarled. “How do you account for Miss Rooney? You must have figured this might ne and got something ready for it. What’s the an-ar?���
PX *
Audrey had left her perch on the desk to get on her and face the pursuer. “Maybe,” she suggested, one couldn’t see straight. Who says he saw us?” “Okay.” Purley hauled a paper from his pocket and folded it. He looked at me. “We’re careful about i little details when that fat boss of yours has got i nose in.” He held the paper so Audrey could see it. is a warrant for your arrest as a material wit Your friend Safford wanted to read his clear ?h. Do you?”
e ignored his generous offer. “What does it i?” she demanded. “It means you’re going to ride downtown with me.” “It also means—” I began.
“Shut up.” Purley moved a step. His hand started her elbow, but didn’t reach it, for she drew back I then turned and was on her way. He followed and i at her heels as she went out the door. Apparently thought she had found a way to get to see her ayne.
I sat a little while with my lips screwed up, gazing > the ashtray on the desk. I shook my head at nothing particular, just the state of things, reached for the hone, got an outside line, and dialed again. Wolfe’s voice answered.
“Where’s Orrie?” I demanded. “Taking a nap on my 1?”
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“Where are you?” Wolfe inquired placidly.
“Still in Keyes’ office. More of the same. Two more gone.”
“Two more what? Where?”
“Clients. In the hoosegow. We’re getting awful low—”
“Who and why?”
“Wayne Safford and Audrey Rooney.” I told him what had happened, without bothering to explain that Audrey had walked in before our previous conversation had ended. At the end I added, “So four out of five have been snaffled, and Talbott too. We’re in a fine fix. That leaves us with just one, Dorothy Keyes, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she was also on her way, judging from the look on her face when she heard who was— Hold it a minute.”
What stopped me was the sight of another visitor entering the room. It was Dorothy Keyes. I told the phone, “I’ll call back,” hung up, and left my chair.
Dorothy came to me. She was still human, more so if anything. The perky lift of her was completely gone, the color scheme of her visible skin was washed-out gray, and her eyes were pinched with trouble.
“Mr. Donaldson gone?” I asked her.
“Yes.”
“It’s a bad day all around. Now Miss Rooney and Wayne Safford have been pinched. The police seem to think they left out something about that Tuesday morning. I was just telling Mr. Wolfe when you came—” ; “I want to see him,” she said.
“Who? Mr. Wolfe?”
“Yes. Immediately.”
“What about?”
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I’ll be damned if her brows didn’t go up. The hulity I thought I had seen was only on the surface. “I’ll tell him that,” she stated, me being mud. “I Bust see him at once.”
“You can’t, not at once,” I told her. “You could rush in a taxi, but you might as well wait till I go to ty-fifth Street and get my car, because it’s after o’clock and he’s up with the orchids, and he ildn’t see you until six even though you are the only it he’s got still out of jail.” “But this is urgent!”
“Not for him it isn’t, not until six o’clock. Unless want to tell me about it. I’m permitted upstairs. you?” “No.”
“Then shall I go get my car?” “Yes.” I went.
XII
three minutes past six Wolfe, down from the plant s, joined us in the office. By the time Dorothy and jphad got there she had made it perfectly plain that as as I was concerned she was all talked out, our conation during the ride downtown having consisted ‘ her saying at one point, “Look out for that truck,” me replying, “I’m driving,” so during the hour’s it I hadn’t even asked her if she wanted a drink, ad when Wolfe had entered and greeted her, and got i bulk adjusted in his chair behind his desk, the first ling she said was, “I want to speak to you privately.” Wolfe shook his head. “Mr. Goodwin is my confiden
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tial assistant, and if he didn’t hear it from you he soon would from me. What is it?”
“But this is very—personal.”
“Most things said in this room by visitors are. What is it?”
“There is no one I can go to but you.” Dorothy was in one of the yellow chairs, facing him, leaning forward to him. “I don’t know where I stand, and I’ve got to find out. A man is going to tell the police that I forged my father’s name to a check. Tomorrow morning.”
Her face was human again, with her eyes pinched.
“Did you?” Wolfe asked.
“Forge the check? Yes.”
I lifted my brows.
“Tell me about it,” Wolfe said.
It came out, and was really quite simple. Her father hadn’t given her enough money for the style to which she wanted to accustom herself. A year ago she had forged a check for three thousand dollars, and he had of course discovered it and had received her promise that she would never repeat. Recently she had forged another one, this time for five thousand
dollars, and her father had been very difficult about it, but there had been no thought in his head of anything so drastic as having his daughter arrested.
Two days after his discovery of this second offense he had been killed. He had left everything to his daughter, but had made a lawyer named Donaldson executor of the estate, not knowing, according to Dorothy, that Donaldson hated her. And now Donaldson had found the forged check among Keyes’ papers, with a memorandum attached to it in Keyes’ handwriting, and had called on Dorothy that afternoon to tell her that it was his duty, both as a citizen and as a lawyer, considering the manner of Keyes’ death, to give the
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to the police. It was an extremely painful duty, had asserted, but he would just have to grin and
it.
I will not say that I smirked as I got these sordid scratched into my notebook, but I admit that I no difficulty in keeping back the tears. Wolfe, having got answers to all the questions that [ occurred to him, leaned back and heaved a sigh. “I i understand,” he murmured, “that you felt impelled rid of this nettle by passing it on to someone, even if I grasped it for you, what then? What do I with it?”
“I don’t know.” It is supposed to make people feel to tell their troubles, but apparently it made athy feel worse. She sounded as forlorn as she aked.
“Moreover,” Wolfe went on, “what are you afraid The property, including the bank balance, now be ags to you. It would be a waste of time and money for District Attorney’s office to try to get you indicted brought to trial, and it wouldn’t even be consid Unless Mr. Donaldson is an idiot he knows that, him so. Tell him I say he’s a nincompoop.” Wolfe jled a finger at her. “Unless he thinks you killed father and wants to help get you electrocuted. as he hate you that much?” “He hates me,” Dorothy said harshly, “all he can.” “Why?”
“Because once I let him think I might marry him, he announced it, and then I changed my mind. He strong feelings. It was strong when he loved me, it is just as strong now when he hates me. Any ay he can use that check to hurt me, hell do it.” “Then you can’t stop him, and neither can I. The check and your father’s memorandum ape le 128 Rex Stout
gaily in his possession, and nothing can keep him from showing them to the police. Does he ride horseback?”
“Oh, my God,” Dorothy said hopelessly. She stood up. “I thought you were clever! I thought you would know what to do!” She made for the door, but at the sill she turned. “You’re just a cheap shyster too! I’ll handle the dirty little rat myself!”
I got up and went to the hall to let her out, to make sure that the door was properly closed behind her. When I was back in the office I sat down and tossed the notebook into a drawer and remarked, “Now she’s got us all tagged. I’m a coward, you’re a shyster, and the executor of her father’s estate is a rat. That poor kid needs some fresh contacts.”
Wolfe merely grunted, but it was a good-humored grunt, for the dinner hour was near, and he never permits himself to get irritated just before a meal.
“So,” I said, “unless she does some fancy handling in a hurry she will be gathered in before noon tomorrow, and she was the last we had. All five of them, and also the suspect we were supposed to pin it on. I hope Saul and Orrie are doing better than we are. I have a date for dinner and a show with a friend, but I can break it if there’s anything I can be doing—”
“Nothing, thank you.”
I glared at him. “Oh, Saul and Orrie are doing it?”
“There’s nothing for this evening, for you. I’ll be here, attending to matters.”
Yes, he would. He would be here, reading books, drinking beer, and having Fritz tell anyone who called that he was engaged. It wasn’t the first time he had decided that a case wasn’t worth the effort and to hell with it. On such occasions my mission was to keep after him until I had him jarred loose, but this time my position was that if Orrie Cather could spend the after Curtains for Three 129
an in my chair he could damn well do my work. So I ; it lay and went up to my room to redecorate for the ifening out.
It was a very nice evening on all counts. Dinner at Rowan’s, while not up to the standard Fritz had , my palate trained to, was always good. So was the aw, and so was the dance band at the Flamingo Club, we went afterward to get better acquainted, I had only known her seven years. What with i and that I didn’t get home until after three o’clock, 1, following routine, looked in at the office to jiggle s handle of the safe and glance around. If there was a i for me Wolfe always left it on my desk under erweight, and there one was, on a sheet from his i, in his small thin handwriting that was as easy to as type, ran through it.
ag: Your work on the Keyes case has been | quite satisfactory. Now that it is solved, you may proceed as arranged and go to Mr. Hewitt’s 6 place on Long Island in the morning to get “those plants. Theodore will have the cartons ready for you. Don’t forget to watch the ventila- tion.
NW
I;.’,-! read it through again and turned it over to look at s back, to see if there was another installment, but it i blank.
‘i I sat at my desk and dialed a number. None of my st friends or enemies was there, but I got a ser nt I knew named Rowley, and asked him, “On the yes case, do you need anything you haven’t got?”
130 Rex Stout
“Huh?” He always sounded hoarse. “We need everything. Send it C.O.D.”
“A guy told me you had it on ice.”
“Aw, go to bed.”
He was gone. I sat a moment and then dialed again, the number of the Gazette office. Lon Cohen had gone home, but one of the journalists told me that as far as they knew the Keyes case was still back on a shelf, collecting dust.
I crumpled Wolfe’s message and tossed it in the wastebasket, muttered, “The damn fat faker,” and went up to bed.
XIII
In the Thursday morning papers there wasn’t a single word in the coverage of the Keyes case to indicate that anyone had advanced even an inch in the hot pursuit of the murderer.
And I spent the whole day, from ten to six, driving to Lewis Hewitt’s place on Long Island, helping to select and clean and pack ten dozen yearling plants, and driving back again. I did no visible fuming, but you can imagine my state of mind, and on my way home, when a cop stopped me as I was approaching Queens boro Bridge, and actually went so low as to ask me where the fire was, I had to get my tongue between my teeth to keep myself from going witty on him.
While I was lugging the last carton of plants up the stoop I had a surprise. A car I had often seen before, with PD on it, rolled up to the curb and stopped behind the sedan, and Inspector Cramer emerged from it.
“What has Wolfe got now?” he demanded, coming up the steps to me.
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“A dozen zygopetalum,” I told him coldly, “a dozen enanthera, a dozen odontoglossum—”
“Let me by,” he said rudely.
I did so.
What I should have done, to drive it in that I was ow a delivery boy and not a detective, was to go on ilping Theodore get the orchids upstairs, and I set teeth and started to do that, but it wasn’t long efore Wolfe’s bellow came from the office. “Archie!”
I went on in. Cramer was in the red leather chair jth an unlighted cigar tilted toward the ceiling by the ip of his teeth. Wolfe, his tightened lips showing that s was enjoying a quiet subdued rage, was frowning at
“I’m doing important work,” I said curtly. “It can wait. Get Mr. Skinner on the phone. If he left his office, get him at home.” I would have gone to much greater lengths if ler hadn’t been there. As it was, all I did was 51 crossed to my desk and sat down and started i dial. “Cut it!” Cramer barked savagely.
I went on dialing. “I said stop it!”
“That will do, Archie,” Wolfe told me. I turned from i phone and saw he was still frowning at the inspec but his lips had relaxed. He used them for speech, [don’t see, Mr. Cramer, what better you can ask than : c
hoice I offer. As I told you on the phone, give me word that you’ll cooperate with me on my terms,
II shall at once tell you about it in full detail, includ of course the justification for it. Or refuse to give your word, that’s the alternative, and I shall ask r. Skinner if the District Attorney’s office would like cooperate with me. I guarantee only that no harm
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will be done, but my expectation is that the case will be closed. Isn’t that fair enough?”
Cramer growled like a tiger in a cage having a chair poked at him.
“I don’t understand,” Wolfe declared, “why the devil I bother with you. Mr. Skinner would jump at it.”
drainer’s growl became words. “When would it be —tonight?”
“I said you’d get details after I get your promise, but you may have that much. It would be early tomorrow morning, contingent upon delivery of a package I’m expecting—by the way, Archie, you didn’t put the car in the garage?”
“No, sir.”
“Good. You’ll have to go later, probably around midnight, to meet an airplane. It depends on the airplane, Mr. Cramer. If it arrives tomorrow instead of tonight, we’d have to postpone it until Saturday morning.”
“Where? Here in your office?”
Wolfe shook his head. “That’s one of the details you’ll get. Confound it, do I mean what I say?”
“Search me. I never know. You say you’ll take my word. Why not take my word that I’ll either do it or forget I ever heard it?”
“No. Archie, get Mr. Skinner.”
Cramer uttered a word that was for men only. “You and your goddam charades,” he said bitterly. “Why do you bother with me? You know damn well I’m not going to let you slip it to the D.A.‘s office, because you may really have it. You have before. Okay. On your terms.”
Wolfe nodded. The gleam in his eye came and went so fast that it nearly escaped even me.
