Homicide Trinity

by Homicide Trinity (lit)

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?