by Rex Stout
She kept her hand out, looking at it, so I took it in mine and gave it some friendly but gentle pressure. “You do seem a little upset,” I conceded. “I doubt if your hand usually feels clammy. When I saw you upstairs —”
She jerked the hand away and blurted, “I want to see Nero Wolfe. I want to see him right away, before I change my mind.” She was gazing up at me, with the moist brown eyes. “My God, I’m in a fix now all right! I’m one scared baboon! I’ve made up my mind, I’m going to get Nero Wolfe to get me out of this somehow —why shouldn’t he? He did a job for Dazy Perrit, didn’t he? Then I’m through. I’ll get a job at Mac/s or marry a truck driver! I want to see Nero Wolfe!”
I told her it couldn’t be done until the party was over.
She looked around. “Are people coming in here?”
I told her no.
“May I have another drink, please?”
I told her she should give the first one time to settle, and instead of arguing she arose and got the glass from the corner of Wolfe’s desk, went to the cupboard, and helped herself. I sat down and frowned at her. Her line sounded fairly screwy for a member of the Manhattan Flower Club, or even for a daughter of one. She
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ae back to her chair, sat, and met my eyes. Looking straight like that could have been a nice way to i the time if there had been any chance for a meet; of minds, but it was easy to see that what her mind t fighting with was connected with me only acciden-
“I could tell you,” she said, hoarse again. “Many people have,” I said modestly. “I’m going to.” “Good. Shoot.”
“I’m afraid I’ll change my mind and I don’t want ���
“Okay. Ready, go.” “I’m a crook.”
“It doesn’t show,” I objected. “What do you do, it at canasta?”
“I didn’t say I’m a cheat.” She cleared her throat the hoarseness. “I said I’m a crook. Remind me icday to tell you the story of my life, how my hus got killed in the war and I broke through the :. Don’t I sound interesting?” “You sure do. What’s your line, orchid-stealing?” “No. I wouldn’t be small and I wouldn’t be dirty— ,‘s what I thought, but once you start it’s not so . You meet people and you get involved. You can’t alone. Two years ago four of us took over a hun grand from a certain rich woman with a rich hus . I can tell you about that one, even names,
she couldn’t move anyhow.” nodded. “Blackmailers’ customers seldom can.
Tm not a blackmailer!” Her eyes were blazing. “Excuse me. Mr. Wolfe often says I jump to conclu
18.”
“You did that time.” She was still indignant. “A
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blackmailer’s not a crook, he’s a snake! Not that it really matters. What’s wrong with being a crook is the other crooks—they make it dirty whether you like it or not. I’ve been up to my knees in it. It makes a coward of you too—that’s the worst. I had a friend once—as close as a crook ever comes to having a friend—and a man killed her, strangled her, and if I had told what I knew about it they could have caught him, but I was afraid to go to the cops, so he’s still loose. And she was my friend! That’s getting down toward the bottom. Isn’t it?”
“Fairly low,” I agreed, eyeing her. “Of course I don’t know you any too well. I don’t know how you react to two stiff drinks. Maybe your hobby is stringing private detectives. If so, why don’t you wait for Mr. Wolfe? It would be more fun with two of us.”
She simply ignored it. “I realized long ago,” she went on as if it were a one-way conversation, “that I had made a mistake. I wasn’t what I had thought I was going to be—a romantic reckless outlaw. You can’t do it that way, or anyhow I couldn’t. I was just a crook and I knew it, and about a year ago I decided to break loose. A good way to do it would have been to talk to someone the way I’m talking to you now, but I didn’t have sense enough to see that. And so many people were involved. It was so involved! You know?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
“So I kept putting it off. We got a good one in December and I went to Florida for a vacation, but down there I met a man with a lead and we followed it up here just a week ago. That’s what I’m working on now. That’s what brought me here today. This man—”
She stopped abruptly.
“Well?” I invited her.
She looked dead serious, not more serious, but a
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erent kind. “I’m not putting anything on him,” she Blared. “I don’t owe him anything and I don’t like a, but this is strictly about me and no one else—only [ to explain why I’m here. I wish to God I’d never ne!”
| There was no question about that coming from her t, unless she had done a lot of rehearsing in front , mirror.
“It got you this talk with me,” I reminded her. She was looking straight through me and beyond, f only I hadn’t come! If only I hadn’t seen him!” She toward me for emphasis. “I’m either too smart jnot smart enough, that’s my trouble. I should have Iked away from him, turned away quick, when I real11 knew who he was, before he turned and saw it in reyes. But I was so shocked I couldn’t help it! For a pnd I couldn’t move. God, I was dumb! I stood there ng at him, thinking I wouldn’t have recognized l if he hadn’t had a hat on, and then he looked at me saw what was happening. I knew then all right an awful fool I was, and I turned away and Dved off, but it was too late. I know how to manage face with nearly anybody, anywhere, but that was > much for me. It showed so plain that Mrs. Orwin ked me what was the matter with me and I had to to pull myself together—then seeing Nero Wolfe fcve me the idea of telling him, only of course I in’t right there with the crowd—and then I saw i going out and as soon as I could break away I came
. to find you.” She tried smiling at me, but it didn’t work so good. Jow I feel some better,” she said hopefully. I nodded. “That’s good bourbon. Is it a secret who recognized?” “No. I’m going to tell Nero Wolfe.”
150 Rex Stoat
“You decided to tell me.” I flipped a hand. “Suit yourself. Whoever you tell, what good will that do?”
“Why—then he can’t do anything to me.”
“Why not?”
“Because he wouldn’t dare. Nero Wolfe will tell him that I’ve told about him, so that if anything happened to me he would know it was him, and he’d know who he is—I mean Nero Wolfe would know—and so would you.”
“We would if we had his name and address.” I was studying her. “He must be quite a specimen, to scare you that bad. And speaking of names, what’s yours?”
She made a little noise that could have been meant for a kugh. “Do you like Marjorie?”
“So-so.”
“I used Evelyn Carter in Paris once. Do you like that?”
“Not bad. What are you using now?”
She hesitated, frowning.
“Good Lord,” I protested, “you’re not in a vacuum, and I’m a detective. They took the names down at the door.”
“Cynthia Brown,” she said.
“I like that fine. That’s Mrs. Orwin you came with?”
“Yes.”
“She’s the current customer? The lead you picked up in Florida?”
“Yes. But that’s—” She gestured. “That’s finished. That’s settled now, since I’m telling you and Nero Wolfe. I’m through.”
“I know. A job at Macy’s or marry a truck driver. There’s one thing you haven’t told me, though—who was it you recognized?”
She turned her head for a glance at the door and then turned it still farther to look behind her. When
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face came back to me it was out of kilter again, , the teeth pinching the lower lip. “Can anyone hear us?” she asked.
*Nope. That other door goes to the front room— the cloakroom. Anyhow this room’s sound
afed, including the doors.” , She glanced at the hall door again, returned to me, |: lowered her voice. ‘This
has to be done the way I
r”
|“Sure, why not?” (“I wasn’t being honest with you.” “I wouldn’t expect it from a crook. Start over.” “I mean—” She used the teeth on the lip again. “I I’m not just scared about myself. I’m scared all t, but I don’t just want Nero Wolfe for what I said, nt him to get him for murder, but he has to keep tout of it. I don’t want to have anything to do with
cops—not now I don’t especially. I’m through. If |won’t do it that way—do you think he will?” * 1 was feeling a faint tingle at the base of my spine. I r get that on special occasions, but this was unques bly something special, if Marjorie Evelyn Carter , Brown wasn’t taking me for a ride to pay for i drinks.
11 gave her a hard look and didn’t let the tingle get (my voice. “He might, for you, if you pay him. What
of evidence have you got? Any?” i “I saw him.” fe”Y6u mean today?”
: “I mean I saw him then.” She had her hands i tight “I told you—I had a friend. I stopped in apartment that afternoon. I was just leaving— i was inside, in the bathroom—and as I got near i entrance door I heard a key turning in the lock, the outside. I stopped, and the door came open
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and a man came in. When he saw me he just stood and stared. I had never met Doris’s bank account and I knew she didn’t want me to, and since he had a key I supposed of course it was him, making an unexpected call, so I mumbled something about Doris being in the bathroom and went past him, through the door and on out.”
She paused. Her clasped hands loosened and then tightened again.
“I’m burning my bridges,” she said, “but I can deny all this if I have to. I went and kept a cocktail date, and then phoned Doris’s number to ask if our dinner date was still on, considering the visit of the bank account. There was no answer, so I went back to her apartment and rang the bell, and there was no answer to that either. It was a self-service elevator place, no doorman or hallman, so there was no one to ask anything. Her maid found her body the next morning. The papers said she had been killed the day before. That man killed her. There wasn’t a word about him—no one had seen him enter or leave. And I didn’t open my mouth! I was a lousy coward!”
“And today all of a sudden there he is, looking at orchids?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a pretty good script,” I acknowledged. “Are you sure—”
“It’s no script! I wish to God it was!”
“Okay. Are you sure he knows you recognized him?”
“Yes. He looked straight at me, and his eyes—”
She was stopped by the house phone buzzing. Stepping to my desk, I picked it up and asked it, “Well?”
Nero Wolfe’s voice, peevish, came. “Archie!”
“Yes, sir.”
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“What the devil are you doing? Come back up
il”
“Pretty soon. I’m talking with a prospective cli
“This is no time for clients! Come at once!” The connection went. He had slammed it down. I ig up and went back to the prospective client. “Mr. ?olfe wants me upstairs. He didn’t stop to think in ie that the Manhattan Flower Club has women in it well as men. Do you want to wait here?” “Yes.”
“If Mrs. Orwin asks about you?” “I didn’t feel well and went home.” ‘Okay. I shouldn’t be long—the invitations said
thirty to five. If you want a drink, help yourself, it name does this murderer use when he goes to & at orchids?”
She looked blank. I got impatient. “Damn it, what’s his name? This bird you recoged.” “I don’t know.” “You don’t?” “No.”
“Describe him.”
She thought it over a little, gazing at me, and then liook her head. “I don’t think—” she said doubtfully, lie shook her head again, more positive. “Not now. I tit to see what Nero Wolfe says first.” She must are seen something in my eyes, or thought she did, suddenly she came up out of her chair and moved to s and put a hand on my arm. “That’s all I mean,” she aid earnestly. “It’s not you—I know you’re all right.”
fingers tightened on my forearm. “I might as well fell you—you’d never want any part of me anyhow— Rhis is the first time in years, I don’t know how long,
154 Rex Stoat
that I’ve talked to a man just straight—you know, just human? You know, not figuring on something one way or another. I—” She stopped for a word, and a little color showed in her cheeks. She found the word. “I’ve enjoyed it very much.”
“Good. Me too. Call me Archie. I’ve got to go, but describe him. Just sketch him.”
But she hadn’t enjoyed it that much. “Not until Nero Wolfe says he’ll do it,” she said firmly.
I had to leave it at that, knowing as I did that in three more minutes Wolfe might have a fit. Out in the hall I had the notion of passing the word to Saul and Fritz to give departing guests a good look, but rejected it because (a) they weren’t there, both of them presumably being busy in the cloakroom, (b) he might have departed already, and (c) I had by no means swallowed a single word of Cynthia’s story, let alone the whole works. So I headed for the stairs and breasted the descending tide of guests leaving.
Up in the plant rooms there were plenty left. When I came into Wolfe’s range he darted me a glance of cold fury, and I turned on the grin. Anyway, it was a quarter to five, and if they took the hint on the invitation it wouldn’t last much longer.
II
They didn’t take the hint on the dot, but it didn’t bother me because my mind was occupied. I was now really interested in them—or at least one of them, if he had actually been there and hadn’t gone home.
First there was a chore to get done. I found the three Cynthia had been with, a female and two males, over by the odontoglossum bench in the cool room.
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ugh to them, I asked politely, “Mrs.
at me and said, “Yes?” Not quite tall plenty plump enough, with a round full laarrow little eyes that might have been bet-r had been wide open, she struck me as a lead owing. Just the pearls around her neck and stole over her arm would have made a good I doubted if that was the kind of loot specialized in. I Archie Goodwin,” I said. “I work here.”
have gone on if I had known how, but I [?a lead myself, since I didn’t know whether to Brown or Mrs. Brown. Luckily one of the E’horned in.
sister?” he inquired anxiously, was a brother-and-sister act. As far as looks I wasn’t a bad brother at all. Older than me b, but not much, he was tall and straight, with a mouth and jaw and keen gray eyes. “My sis i repeated.
I: guess so. You are—” Colonel Brown. Percy Brown.” ifeah.” I switched back to Mrs. Orwin. “Miss l asked me to tell you that she went home. I gave la little drink and it seemed to help, but she decided ave. She asked me to apologize for her.”
i perfectly healthy,” the colonel asserted. He ied a little hurt. “There’s nothing wrong with
‘l^Is she all right?” Mrs. Orwin asked. Tor her,” the other male put in, “you should have 3e it three drinks. Three big ones. Or just hand her bottle.” His tone was mean and his face was mean, and any 156 Rex Stoat
how that was no way to talk in front of the help in a strange house, meaning me. He was some younger than Colonel Brown, but he already looked enough like Mrs. Orwin, especially the eyes, to make it more than a guess that they were mother and son. That point was settled when she commanded him, “Be quiet, Gene!” She turned to the colonel. “Perhaps you should go and see about her?”
He shook his head, with a fond but manly smile at her. “It’s not necessary, Mimi. Really.”
“She’s all right,” I assured them and pushed off, thinking there were a lot of names in this world that could stand a reshuffle. Calling that overweight narrow-eyed pearl-and-mink proprietor Mimi was a paradox.
I moved around among the guests, being gracious. Fully aware that I was not equipped with a Geiger cou
nter that would flash a signal if and when I established a contact with a strangler, the fact remained that I had been known to have hunches, and it would be something for my scrapbook if I picked one as the killer of Doris Hatten and it turned out later to be sunfast.
Cynthia Brown hadn’t given me the Hatten, only the Doris, but with the context that was enough. At the time it had happened, some five months ago, early in October, the papers had given it a big play of course. She had been strangled with her own scarf, of white silk with the Declaration of Independence printed on it, in her cozy fifth-floor apartment in the West Seventies, and the scarf had been left around her neck, knotted at the back. The cops had never got within a mile of charging anyone, and Sergeant Purley Stebbins of Homicide had told me that they had never even found
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jfwho was paying the rent, but there was no law st Purley being discreet, kept on the go through the plant rooms, leaving /itches open for a hunch. Some of them were ‘ preposterous, but with everyone else I made an tunity to exchange some words, fullface and close at took time, and it was no help to my current i chronic campaign for a raise in wages, since it was ||sromen, not the men, that Wolfe wanted off his ,1 stuck at it anyhow. It was true that if Cynthia |en the level, and if she hadn’t changed her mind by ne I got Wolfe in to her, we would soon have Bcations, but I had had that tingle at the bottom spine and I was stubborn. I say, it took time, and meanwhile five o’clock and went, and the crowd thinned out. Going on ty the remaining groups seemed to get the I all at once that time was up and made for the to the stairs. I was in the moderate room it happened, and the first thing I knew I was s there, except for a guy at the north bench, study l row of dowianas. He didn’t interest me, as I had iy canvassed him and crossed him off as the ; type for a strangler, but as I glanced his way he enly bent forward to pick up a pot with a flower plant, and as he did so I felt my back stiffening. |r stiffening was a reflex, but I knew what had it: the way his fingers closed around the pot, Uy the thumbs. No matter how careful you are er people’s property, you don’t pick up a five-inch las if you were going to squeeze the life out of it. [made my way around to him. When I got there he ^holding the pot so that the flowers were only a few
