Curtains for Three

by Rex Stout

  able. Discussion of plans will have to wait upon ���

  |*Right. The envelope, please?” >He handed it to me.

  VIII

  I far as Wolfe was concerned, the office being sealed (no difference in the morning up to eleven o’clock,

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  since his schedule had him in the plant rooms from nine to eleven. With me it did. From breakfast on was the best time for my office chores, including the morning mail.

  That Tuesday morning, however, it didn’t matter much, since I was kept busy from eight o’clock on by the phone and the doorbell. After nine Saul was there to help, but not with the phone because the orders were that I was to answer all calls. They were mostly from newspapers, but there were a couple from Homicide —once Rowcliff and once Purley Stebbins—and a few scattered ones, including one with comic relief from the president of the Manhattan Flower Club. I took them on the extension in the kitchen. Every time I lifted the thing and told the transmitter, “Nero Wolfe’s office, Archie Goodwin speaking,” my pulse went up a notch and then had to level off again. I had one argument, with a bozo in the District Attorney’s office who had the strange idea that he could order me to report for an interview at eleven-thirty sharp, which ended by my agreeing to call later to fix an hour.

  A little before eleven I was in the kitchen with Saul, who at Wolfe’s direction had been briefed to date, trying to come to terms on a bet. I was offering him even money that the call would come by noon and he was holding out for five to three, having originally asked for two to one. I was suggesting sarcastically that we change sides when the phone rang and I got it and said distinctly, “Nero Wolfe’s office, Archie Good win speaking.”

  “Mr. Goodwin?”

  “Right.”

  “You sent me a note.”

  My hand wanted to grip the phone the way Vedder had gripped the flowerpot, but I wouldn’t let it.

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  “Did I? What about?”

  “You suggested that we make an appointment. Are cm in a position to discuss it?” “Sure. I’m alone and no extensions are on. But I n’t recognize your voice. Who is this?” That was just putting a nickel’s worth of breath on ong shot. Saul, at a signal from me, had raced up to I extension in Wolfe’s room, and this bird might pos be completely loony. But no. ‘ have two voices. This is the other one. Have you ie a decision yet?”

  “No. I was waiting to hear from you.” ^That’s wise, I think. I’m willing to discuss the mat Are you free for this evening?” |fl can wiggle free.” |“With a car to drive?” |*Yeah, I have a car.”

  ive to a lunchroom at the northeast corner of r-first Street and Eleventh Avenue. Get there at o’clock. Park your ear on Fifty-first Street, but the corner. Got that?” Kes.”

  will be alone, of course. Go in the lunchroom ier something to eat. I won’t be there, but you et a message. You’ll be there at eight o’clock?” Kes. I still don’t recognize your voice. I don’t think i the person I sent the note to.” am. It’s good, isn’t it?” connection went.

  ag up, told Fritz he could answer calls now, and it to the stairs and up a flight. Saul was I on the landing.

  voice was that?” I demanded, me. You heard all I did.” His eyes had a in them, and I suppose mine did too.

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  “Whoever it was,” I said, “I’ve got a date. Let’s go up and tell the genius. I’ve got to admit he saved a lot of postage.”

  We mounted the other two flights and found Wolfe in the cool room, inspecting a bench of dendrobiums for damage from the invasion of the day before. When I told him about the call he merely nodded, not even taking the trouble to smirk, as if picking a murderer first crack out of ten dozen men was the sort of thing he did between yawns.

  “That call,” he said, ‘Validates our assumptions and verifies our calculation, but that’s all. If it had done more than that it wouldn’t have been made. Has anyone come to take those seals off?”

  I told him no. “I asked Stebbins about it and he said he’d ask Cramer.”

  “Don’t ask again,” he snapped. “We’ll go down to my room.”

  If the strangler had been in Wolfe’s house the rest of that day he would have felt honored—or anyway he should. Even during Wolfe’s afternoon hours in the plant rooms, from four to six, his mind was on my appointment, as was proved by the crop of new slants and ideas that poured out of him when he came down to the kitchen. Except for a trip to Leonard Street to answer an hour’s worth of questions by an assistant district attorney, my day was devoted to it too. My most useful errand, though at the time it struck me as a waste of time and money, was one made to Doc Voll mer for a prescription and then to a drugstore under instructions from Wolfe.

  When I got back from the D.A.‘s office Saul and I got in the sedan and went for a reconnaissance. We didn’t stop at Fifty-first Street and Eleventh Avenue, but drove past it four times. The main idea was to find

  Curtains for Three

  | place for Saul. He and Wolfe both insisted that he to be there with his eyes and ears open, and I I that he had to be covered enough not to scare ‘ my date, who could spot his big nose a mile off. We Uy settled for a filling station across the street from lunchroom. Saul was to have a taxi drive in there |eight o’clock, and stay in the passenger’s seat while i driver tried to get his carburetor adjusted. There so many contingencies to be agreed on that if it been anyone but Saul I wouldn’t have expected i to remember more than half. For instance, in case 6ft the lunchroom and got in my car and drove off was not to follow unless I cranked my window

  Trying to provide for contingencies was okay in a IT, but at seven o’clock, as the three of us sat in the tig room, finishing the roast duck, I had the feeling , we might as well have spent the day playing pool. Uy it was strictly up to me, since I had to let the er guy make the rules until and unless it got to I felt I could take over and win. And with the er guy making the rules no one gets very far, not ; Nero Wolfe, arranging for contingencies ahead of b; you meet them as they come, and if you meet one ag it’s too bad. ^Saul left before I did, to find a taxi driver that he the looks of. When I went to the hall for my hat raincoat, Wolfe came along, and I was really” tied, since he wasn’t through yet with his after coffee.

  |“I still don’t like the idea,” he insisted, “of your ag that thing in your pocket. I think you should > it inside your sock.”

  :*I don’t.”^ I was putting the raincoat on. “If I get Iced, a sock is as easy to feel as a pocket.”

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  “You’re sure that gun is loaded?”

  “For God’s sake. I never saw you so anxious. Next you’ll be telling me to put on my rubbers.”

  He even opened the door for me.

  It wasn’t actually raining, merely trying to make up its mind whether to or not, but after a couple of blocks I reached to switch on the windshield wiper. As I turned uptown on Tenth Avenue the dash clock said 7:47; as I turned left on Fifty-first Street it had only got to 7:51. At that time of day in that district there was plenty of space, and I rolled to the curb and stopped about twenty yards short of the corner, stopped the engine and turned off the lights, and cranked my window down for a good view of the filling station across the street. There was Ho taxi there. I glanced at my wrist watch and relaxed. At 7:59 a taxi pulled in and stopped by the pumps, and the driver got out and lifted the hood and started peering. I put my window up, locked three doors, pulled the key out, got myself out, locked the door, walked to the lunchroom, and entered.

  There was one hash slinger behind the counter and five customers scattered along on the stools. I picked a stool that left me elbow room, sat, and ordered ice cream and coffee. That made me slightly conspicuous in those surroundings, but I refused to insult Fritz’s roast duck, which I could still taste. The counterman served me and I took my time. At 8:12 the ice cream was gone and my cup empty, and I ordered a refill. I had about got to the end of that too when a male entere
d, looked along the line, came straight to me, and asked me what my name was. I told him, and he handed me a folded piece of paper and turned to go.

  He was barely old enough for high school, and I made no effort to hold him, thinking that the bird I had;

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  with was not likely to be an absolute sap. Un the paper, I saw neatly printed in pencil:

  |Go to your car and get a note under the wind| shield wiper. Sit in the car to read it.

  I

  |l paid what I owed, walked to my car .and got the

  : as I was told, unlocked the car and got in, turned

  tie light, and read in the same print:

  he no signal of any kind. Follow instructions ely. Turn right on llth Ave. and go slowly 156th St. Turn right on 56th and go to 9th Ave. i right on 9th Ave. Right again on 45th. Left llth Ave. Left on 38th. Right on 7th Ave. arht on 27th St. Park on 27th between 9th and Aves. Go to No. 814 and tap five times on door. Give the man who opens the door this [>te and the other one. He will tell you where to

  |didn’t like it much, but I had to admit it was a arrangement for seeing to it that I went to the nee unattached or there wouldn’t be any con It had now decided to rain. Starting the en; could see dimly through the misty window that |���axi driver was still monkeying with his carbutoit of course I had to resist the impulse to crank low down to wave so long. Keeping the in as in my left hand, I rolled to the corner, for the light to change, and turned right on Avenue. Since I had not been forbidden to eyes open I did so, and as I stopped at Fifty jfpr the red light I saw a black or dark blue 1 away from the curb behind me and creep in

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  my direction. I took it for granted that that was my chaperon, but even so I followed directions and kept to a crawl Until I reached Fifty-sixth and turned right.

  In spite of all the twistings and turnings and the lights we had to stop at, I didn’t get the license number of the black sedan for certain until the halt at Thirty eighth Street and Seventh Avenue. Not that that raised my pulse any, license plates not being welded on, but what the hell, I was a detective, wasn’t I? It was at that same corner, seeing a flatfoot on the sidewalk, that I had half a notion to jump out, summon him, and tackle the driver of the sedan. If it was the strangler, I had the two printed notes in my possession, and I could at least have made it stick enough for an escorted trip to the Fourteenth Precinct Station for ^ chat. I voted it down, and was soon glad of it.

  The guy in the sedan was not the strangler, as I soon learned. On Twenty-seventh Street there was space smack in front of Number 814 and I saw no reason why I shouldn’t use it. The sedan went to the curb right behind me. After locking my car I stood on the sidewalk a moment, but my chaperon just sat tight, so I kept to the instructions, mounted the steps to the stoop of the run-down old brownstohe, entered the vestibule, and knocked five times on the door. Through the glass panel the dimly h’t hall looked empty. As I peered in, thinking I would either have to knock a lot louder or ignore instructions and ring the bell, I heard footsteps behind and turned. It was my chaperon.

  “Well, we got here,” I said cheerfully.

  “You damn near lost me at one light,” he said accusingly. “Give me them notes.”

  I handed them to him—all the evidence I had. As he unfolded them for a look I took him in. He was around my age and height, skinny but with muscles,

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  outstanding ears and a purple mole on his right If it was him I had a date with I sure had been ‘They look like it,” he said, and stuffed the in a pocket. From another pocket he produced a

  unlocked the door, and pushed it open. “Follow

  >

  |l did so, to the stairs and up. As we ascended two s, with him in front, it would have been a cinch for i reach and take a gun off his hip if there had been I there, but there wasn’t. He may have preferred a Jder holster like me. The stair steps were bare i wood, the walls had needed plaster since at least Harbor, and the smell was a mixture I wouldn’t , to analyze. On the second landing he went down I to a door at the rear, opened it, and signaled Dugh with a jerk of his head, re was another man there, but still it wasn’t my lyway I hoped not. It would be an overstate i say the room was furnished, but I admit there fa table, a bed, and three chairs, one of them uphol The man, who was lying on the bed, pushed ‘ up as we entered, and as he swung around to i feet barely reached the floor. He had shoulders | a torso like a heavyweight wrestler, and legs like aderweight jockey. His puffed eyes blinked in the . from the unshaded bulb as if he had been asleep. at him?” he demanded and yawned, ny said it was. The wrestler-jockey, W-J for , got up and went to the table, picked up a ball of cord, approached me and spoke. “Take off your coat and sit there.” He pointed to one of the lit chairs.

  lold it,” Skinny commanded him. “I haven’t ex yet.” He faced me. “The idea is simple. This ; that’s coming to see you don’t want any trouble.

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  He just wants to talk. So we tie you in that chair and leave you, and he comes and you have a talk, and after he leaves we come back and cut you loose and out you go. Is that plain enough?”

  I grinned at him. “It sure is, brother. It’s too damn plain. What if I won’t sit down? What if I wiggle when you start to tie me?”

  “Then he don’t come and you don’t have a talk.”

  “What if I walk out now?”

  “Go ahead. We get paid anyhow. If you want to see this guy, there’s only one way: we tie you in the chair.”

  “We get more if we tie him,” W-J objected. “Let me persuade him.”

  “Lay off,” Skinny commanded him.

  “I don’t want any trouble either,” I stated. “How about this? I sit in the chair and you fix the cord to look right but so I’m free to move in case of fire. There’s a hundred bucks in the wallet in my breast pocket. Before you leave you help yourselves.”

  “A lousy C?” W-J sneered. “For Chrissake shut up and sit down.”

  “He has his choice,” Skinny said reprovingly.

  I did indeed. It was a swell illustration of how much good it does to try to consider contingencies in advance. In all our discussions that day none of us had put the question, what to do if a pair of smooks offered me my pick of being tied in a chair or going home to bed. As far as I could see, standing there looking them over, that was all there was to it, and it was too early to go home to bed.

  Thinking it would help to know whether they really | were smooks or merely a couple of rummies on thej payroll of some fly-specked agency, I decided to tryj something. Not letting my eyes know what my was about to do, I suddenly reached inside my coat

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  holster, and then they had something more inter ag than my face to look at: Saul’s clean shiny auto

  |The wrestler-jockey put his hands up high and

  Skinny looked irritated. |“For why?” he demanded.

  ;“I thought we might all go for a walk down to my .Then to the Fourteenth Precinct, which is the closn

  IfWhat do we do then?” lere he had me.

  ifou either want to see this guy or you don’t,” ay explained patiently. “Seeing how you got that @out, I guess he must know you. I don’t blame him tig your hands arranged for.” He turned his up. “Make up your mind.” put the gun back in the holster, took off my hat |raincoat and hung them on a hook on the Vail, one of the straight chairs so the light wouldn’t n my eyes, and sat.

  )kay,” I told them, “but by God don’t overdo it. I my way around and I can find you if I care

  don’t think I can’t.”

  liey unrolled the cord, cutting pieces off, and went rk. W-J tied my left wrist to the rear left leg of while Skinny did the right. They were both *h, but to my surprise Skinny was rougher. I it was too tight, and he gave a stingy thirty of an inch. They wanted to do my ankles the ray, to the bottoms of the front legs of the chair, $ claimed I would get cramps sitting like that,
and already fastened to the chair, and it would be i good to tie my ankles together. They discussed I had my way. Skinny made a final inspection of lots and then went over me. He took the gun

  210 Rex Stout

  from my shoulder holster and tossed it on the bed, made sure I didn’t have another one, and left the room.

  W-J picked up the gun and scowled at it. “These goddam things,” he muttered. “They make more trouble.” He went to the table and put the gun down on it, tenderly, as if it were something that might break. Then he crossed to the bed and stretched out on it.

  “How long do we have to wait?” I asked.

  “Not long. I wasn’t to bed last night.” He closed his eyes.

  He got no nap. His barrel chest couldn’t have gone up and down more than a dozen times before the door opened and Skinny came in. With him was a man in a gray pin-stripe suit and a dark gray Homburg, with a gray topcoat over his arm. He had gloves on. W-J got off the bed and onto his toothpick legs. Skinny stood by the open door. The man put his hat and coat on the bed, came and took a look at my fastenings, and told Skinny, “All right, I’ll come for you.” The two rummies departed, shutting the door. The man stood facing me, looking down at me, and I looked back.

  He smiled. “Would you have known me?”

  “Not from Adam,” I said, both to humor him and because it was true.

  IX

  I wouldn’t want to exaggerate how brave I am. It wasn’t that I was too damn fearless to be impressed by the fact that I was thoroughly tied up and the strangler was standing there smiling at me: I was simply astounded. It was an amazing disguise. The two main changes were the eyebrows and eyelashes; these eyes had bushy brows and long thick lashes, whereas yes Curtains for Three 211

  Jterday’s guest hadn’t had much of either one. The real fchange was from the inside. I had seen no smile on the mace of yesterday’s guest, but if I had it wouldn’t have P>