the wall. As I sprang to my feet another man was
through the door and coming. I sidestepped and
ducked, jerking my right back, and hooked him in the
kidney. He doubled up and hugged himself, and I kept
going to the corner, whirled, had the Marley in my
hand, and showed it.
"Come right ahead," I said, "if you want your skull
cracked."
The first man, the heavy one, was propped against
the wall, panting. The smaller one was trying to
straighten up. There was a woman in the doorway, the
one who had been in the chair, and another one behind
her.
"Also," I said, "this thing is loaded, so don't try
reaching for a cigarette. Inside, everybody, and take it
easy. I would prefer to get you in the shoulder or leg,
but I'm not a very good shot."
The heavy man said, "Who are you?"
"Billy the Kid. Come on, into the room, and no gym-
nastics. Go to the far side and face the wall."
They moved. As they approached the door the
women backed off, and they entered and I followed.
The woman with silvery hair started to chatter at me,
but I wiggled the gun and told her to go to the wall.
When they were there I went over the men from be-
hind, felt no weapons, told them to stay put, and side-
stepped to the bed. There were coats and hats on it, and
the women's bags. I had the men tagged; the husky one
was Ambrose Perdis, the shipping magnate, whose pic-
ture I had seen here and there, and I had heard the
other one called Khoury; but I needed introductions to
the women. As I opened one of the bags and dumped its
contents on the bed Perdis turned around and I spoke.
"Hold it. I'm giving you a break. Shall I come and slap
you with the gun? Turn around."
He turned. A leather case from the bag was stuffed
with credentials—driver's license, credit cards, others.
The Homicide Trinity 103
Some of them said Anne Talbot and others Mrs. Henry
Lewis Talbot. That was the young woman, whose at-
tractions, both from the front and the rear, were so
obvious that they had caught my eye even though my
eyes were busy. There was a leather keyfold and I
snapped it open to inspect the keys, and compared one
of them with the key to the house which I had in my
pocket. It didn't match. I returned the items to the bag
one by one and picked up the other bag and dumped it.
The woman with silvery hair was Mrs. Victor Oliver.
There was no key in her bag like the one I had, and
nothing of interest. I examined the pockets of the coats,
all four of them, and found no key.
As I stepped around the end of the bed I allowed
myself a grin at a detail I had observed; they all had
gloves on—not rubber ones secured for the occasion,
just gloves. "Now that I know your names," I said, "it's
only fair that you should know mine. Archie Goodwin. I
work for a man you may have heard of, Nero Wolfe, the
private detective. He has been hired by Mrs. Barry
Hazen, and I have her key to the house and her written
authority to enter. I need to know which one of you has
a key and I'm going to find out. You may turn around,
but stay where you are. You will take off your clothes
and pile them on the floor, including your shoes and
socks or stockings, but I think not your underwear. I'll
see."
They were facing me at four paces. Anne Talbot said,
"I won't. It's outrageous." She was extremely easy to
look at.
"Pooh," I said. "Pretend you're at the beach or a pool.
Do you want me to peel you? Don't think I wouldn't."
"We have no key," Mrs. Oliver said. She was easy to
look away from, with her flabby jowl and little yellow
eyes set deep. "The maid let us in. She has gone out, but
when she comes back you can ask her."
"She'll deny it," Jules Khoury said. He was the bari-
tone, a wiry swarthy specimen with no hips.
"Look," I said, "you're four to one. If you make me do
it the hard way it will be rough. I'll give you two
104 Rex Stout
minutes to get your clothes off." I raised my wrist to see
my watch without dropping my eyes. "Start with the
gloves. I want them too."
"Is this necessary?" Perdis demanded. "Is it so im-
portant how we got in?"
"Yes. There were no keys in Hazen's pockets.
Twenty seconds gone."
I am enough of a gentleman to turn my back or at
least avert my eyes when a lady is undressing, but one
of those ladies might possibly have had a gun on her leg,
so I forgot my manners. It took the men twice as long as
the women. I decided to let Anne Talbot keep her bra
and panties; she would have had no reason to bury the
key as deep as that. Mrs. Oliver's girdle was so tight she
couldn't have slipped a key inside even if she had tried.
Khoury had jockeys, no undershirt. Perdis had a baby
blue silk altogether, to the knees. I had them turn
around, and then used a foot to rake Perdis' pile across
the rug, out of range of a kick.
It took longer than it should on account of the gun in
my hand, and of course I not only looked for the key but
for any other item that might be helpful. No soap.
Khoury had a keyfold and Perdis a key ring, but no
soap. It wasn't much of a letdown because I had ex-
pected it when they all shed and turned their backs. If
one of them had had Hazen's key he would either have
tried to ditch it or produced it and tried to explain it.
Now that I was certain none of them had a cannon or a
bomb I could relax a little. I told them to dress, went to
the stand at the head of the bed, lifted the receiver from
the phone, and was dialing a number when Perdis' voice
came.
"Wait a minute! One minute!" He had a touch of
accent. "I have something to say. You are calling the
police?"
"No." I cradled the receiver. "Say it fast and short."
He was handicapped for man-to-man talk, with his
shirt on but his pants in his hands. "You are not a
policeman," he said.
"No. I told you who I am."
The Homicide Trinity 105
"He's Archie Goodwin," Anne Talbot said. "I've seen
him at the Flamingo."
"You are a private detective," Perdis said.
"Right."
"Then you do things for money. We will pay you fifty
thousand dollars if you will leave this house and forget
that you have been here. Half of it in cash tomorrow
morning and the other half later. We will give you a
satisfactory guarantee, perhaps something in writing."
"How much later?"
"That's hard to say. It is delicate. We would need to
be sure of your forgetting until certain difficulties have
ended."
"That's pretty vague. Get your clothes on and we'll
see." I picked up the phone and dialed, and he started
toward me. I showed the gun, bu
t he kept coming,
saying something, and I dropped the phone and moved
to meet him, and damned if he didn't swerve around me
and dart for the phone. I had intended to tap him with
the gun, not caring for bruised knuckles, but his swerve
got him on the wrong side, so I took him from behind,
with my left arm hooked under his chin and my hip at
his rump, and levered him up and over. He landed on his
hands and knees nine feet away. I said, "Cut out the
horseplay and put your pants on," and went to the
phone and dialed. After nine buzzes Wolfe's voice came.
"Yes?"
"Me. Could we use fifty grand?"
A grunt. "In the box?"
"No. I haven't got it yet. I'm in Hazen's bedroom.
There are four people with me, two men and two
women, lined up against the wall. The four that came to
dinner last night. They were in this room looking for
something and hadn't found it. Perdis just off—"
"One of them has Hazen's key."
"No. I had them strip and went through their clothes.
They say the maid let them in. She's not here; of course
they greased her. Perdis just offered me fifty grand to
go away and forget I was here. I'll split it with you. He
would probably double it."
106 Rex Stout
"Pfui. Are you intact?"
"Sure. I'm calling just to tell you to expect us, say in
half an hour, maybe less."
Silence. He would have to work, not tomorrow, but
now—and two women. Then: "I suppose I must," and
he hung up.
Perdis had joined the others at the wall. As I cradled
the phone he spoke. "We will double it. One hundred
thousand dollars."
"Skip it." I moved to the foot of the bed. "What would
I tell my wife if I had one? You heard me tell Nero
Wolfe to expect us in half an hour, but you have a choice.
You can leave and go your ways and try to forget you
were here, and I'll phone Inspector Cramer and report
this incident, omitting nothing. Or you can come and
talk it over with Nero Wolfe, and he may or may not
care to bother Cramer about it. You may have two
minutes to consider it." I looked at my wrist.
"Listen, Mr. Goodwin," Anne Talbot said. She had
her clothes on, and with or without them she was highly
ornamental. "We were looking for something that be-
longs to us. We're not thieves. We're respectable—"
I cut her off. "Sorry, but don't waste it on me. I just
run errands. It's either Nero Wolfe or the police. If you
pick Nero Wolfe there will be a slight delay because I
have a little chore to do in this room. You will take your
things and go downstairs and on out, and get two taxis.
You will get into one of the taxis and wait there in front
of the house, and have the other one there for me. I'll be
down soon, probably in a couple of minutes. There's one
complication: if you split and one or two of you prefer to
go somewhere else, I'll phone the police immediately. I
would rather not, but I'd have to."
Two of them, Perdis and Mrs. Oliver, started to
speak, but I shut them off and moved away from the
bed. Anne Talbot went to the bed and got her coat, and
Khoury went and held it for her, and then got his own.
Anne Talbot said to Perdis and Mrs. Oliver, "Is there
any alternative?" Perdis went and got Mrs. Oliver's
The Homicide Trinity 107
coat and took it to her, and she went to the bed for her
bag.
Perdis was the last one out. When he had started
down the stairs I shut the door, put a chair against it,
went to the chest of drawers, a big heavy piece at the
left wall, and took out the bottom drawer. There was a
folded blanket in it. I squatted at the opening. The
board that the drawer slid on, solid, not a plywood
panel, was flush and snugly fitted, no play to it. I tried
to get its edge with my thumbnails; nothing doing. I got
out my pocketknife, stuck the point of the blade in the
crack at the center, just barely in, pried gently, and up
it came. The front edge of the board was beveled. Very
neat. I put my hand in, felt metal, got a finger under,
and here came the box. It was steel, anything but
flimsy, twelve inches by six and about two inches deep,
and weighed a good four pounds, with a lock not to be
opened with a nail file. I shook it and heard no move-
ment, which didn't prove anything. With the board
down, I replaced the drawer, moved the chair away
from the door and opened it, and went to the head of the
stairs. No sound of voices from below. If I had gone
down and joined them in the hall carrying a steel box
which I must have found in Hazen's room they would
have made quite a party of it. I descended a flight, stood
to listen half a minute, and went on down. They had
turned on the light in the lower hall. My hat and coat
were there on the floor. I put the Marley in the holster,
put on the hat and coat, slipped the box under the coat,
with my hand in my pocket holding it, turned out the
light, and opened the door.
They had followed instructions to a T. Two taxis
were there, and they were in the one in the rear, all four
of them. After glancing in I told the driver to follow my
taxi, went and got in and gave the driver the address,
and we rolled.
Chapter 6
When you mount the seven steps to the stoop
and enter the hall of the old brownstone on
West 35th Street, the first door on your left is
to what we call the front room, with the office door
farther along on that side. The walls and doors of the
front room and office are soundproofed. After convoy-
ing the company to the front room and telling them they
wouldn't have to wait long, I returned to the hall, put
my hat and coat on the rack, proceeded to the office, and
put the box on Wolfe's desk pad.
"Good timing," I said. "In another hour or two they
would probably have found it."
He reached to pass his fingertips along its edge. "You
haven't opened it."
"No. It's a good lock. They're in the front room, all
four. I gave them their pick, you or the cops, and they
preferred you. There's nothing to add to what I told you
on the phone. Before I open it I want to register a guess.
Not that it's what Hazen had on them, that's a cinch. My
guess is specifically what he had on Mrs. Oliver. She
murdered her husband. Wait till you see her."
He made a face. "This will be distasteful. Bring
keys."
I went to the cabinet at the far wall, opened a drawer,
and made selections. Although I couldn't qualify on the
witness stand as a lock expert, I know a Hotchkiss from
a Euler, and I can open your suitcase with a paper clip if
you'll be patient. Moving the box to my desk, I sat and
started in. I had selected four types, little boxes of
assortments. In three minutes I elim
inated the first
type, and in another three the second one. The third
The Homicide Trinity 109
seemed more promising, and I was getting hot when
Wolfe growled, "Get a hammer and screwdriver."
As he spoke it clicked and I had it. I raised the lid. The
box was empty. I upended it for Wolfe to see. "Yeah," I
said. "It sure is distasteful."
He took in air, about a bushel, and let it out again.
"It's just as well. It would probably have presented us
with a problem. More than one. I presume he decided it
was a mistake to tell his wife of it and removed the
contents. Elsewhere in the house?"
"I doubt it."
"So do I." He leaned back, closed his eyes, and pushed
his lips out. In a moment he pulled them in, and then out
and in, out and in. He was working. A minute passed,
two minutes, three. ... He opened his eyes and
straightened up. "Lock the box and leave it on your
desk. Put the keys away. Have a gun in your hand when
you admit them, and go to your desk and stay there.
Proceed."
I proceeded. After locking the box and returning the
keys to the cabinet, I moved four of the yellow chairs
up, in a row facing Wolfe's desk, got the gun out, opened
the door to the front room, and invited them to enter.
The gentlemen followed the ladies. I went to my desk
and pronounced names, and when they were seated I
sat, with the gun in my hand resting on my thigh.
Wolfe's eyes went right and then left. "This shouldn't
take long," he said. "First the situation. I shall not
resort to euphemism. You were being blackmailed by
Homicide Trinity Page 14
