paper. Wolfe made a face. I thought, Good Lord, she's
found another one. But she reached into the bag again
and came out with an envelope that I recognized.
"This check you sent me," she said. "You say in your
letter it's for my share of the reward, a hundred dollars.
So you kept your share?"
"Yes," Wolfe lied.
"Did you get yours, Buster?"
"Yes," I lied.
"Then that's all right. But what about this bill? Five
thousand dollars fee for services and $621.65 for ex-
penses. What did I tell you that day, Buster? Didn't I
say I could pay forty-two thousand dollars?"
"You did."
"Then here it is." She tossed the package onto
Wolfe's desk. "A man at the bank helped me pick those
bonds and he says there's none better. These are trans-
ferred to you. This is the first time I ever let any of them
go, and I hope it's the last, but it was worth it. That was
a day, the best day I've had since my father died. I
didn't like it when I saw in the paper that he had
The Homicide Trinity 205
confessed, but that wasn't your fault. I've got no use for
anybody that confesses anything to the cops. That Paul
Hannah was no good. He even told them how he stole
the car and tried to kill me with it because he thought I
had the package and knew who put it in my parlor, and
he saw Tammy across the street and knew she saw him,
and when he went back to the house she was at the
phone dialing a number and he got the knife from the
kitchen, and when he got near her and she stood up he
stabbed her, and then he carried her in the parlor and
left her there with her skirt up to her waist. He was no
good. I'll have to be more careful about people that
want a room."
Wolfe was frowning. "I can't accept those bonds,
mad—Miss Annis. Not all of them. I prefer to evaluate
my services myself. I did so and sent you a bill."
She nodded. "I tore it up. The day I told Buster that,
that settled it. I hired you and I said what I could pay.
Now you say you won't accept it. That's no way to do."
Wolfe looked at me. I grinned. He pushed his chair
back and arose. "I have a matter to attend to," he said.
"I'll leave you with Mr. Goodwin. You understand each
other." He marched out.
It took me half an hour to talk her around, and she
told me twice not to call her Hattie.
The World of
Rex Stout
Now, for the first time ever, enjoy a peek into the life
of Nero Wolfe's creator, Rex Stout, courtesy of the
Stout Estate. Pulled from Rex Stout's own archives,
here are rarely seen, never-before-published memora-
bilia. Each title in "The Rex Stout Library" will offer an
exclusive look into the life of the man who gave Nero
Wolfe life.
HOMICIDE TRINITY
Rex Stout—A Lizzie Borden supporter? Indeed, he
was a defender of her good name. Shortly after the 1962
publication of HOMICIDE TRINITY, Stout was
awarded this certificate (from an organization of doubt-
ful legitimacy).
Would Wolfe have been able to clear her name?
Homicide Trinity Page 27
