That had been two years before. Now, this hot August morning with no air conditioning in the house because he distrusted machinery, she phoned around noon and asked him to come up to her place at Riverdale right away. He motioned to me to dispose of her and hung up. But a little later, when he had gone to the kitchen to consult with Fritz about some problem that had arisen in connection with lunch, I looked up her number and called her back. It had been as dull as a blunt instrument around the office for nearly a month, ever since we had finished with the Nauheim case, and I would have welcomed even tailing a laundry boy suspected of stealing a bottle of pop, so I phoned and told her that if she was contemplating a trip to 35th Street I wanted to remind her that Wolfe was incommunicado upstairs with his orchid plants from nine to eleven in the morning, and from four to six in the afternoon, but that any other time he would be delighted to see her.
I must say he didn't act delighted, when I ushered her in from the hall around three o'clock that afternoon. He didn't even apologize for not getting up from his chair to greet her, though I admit no reasonable person would have expected any such effort after one glance at his dimensions.
'You,' he muttered pettishly, 'are the woman who came here once and tried to bribe me to play the clown.'
She plopped into the red leather chair I placed for her, got a handkerchief out of her large green handbag, and passed it across her forehead, the back of her neck, and her throat. She was one of those people who don't look much like their pictures in the paper, because her eyes made her face and made you forget the rest of it when you looked at her. They were black and bright and gave you the feeling they were looking at you when they couldn't have been, and they made her seem a lot younger than the forty-seven or forty-eight she probably was.
'My God,' she said, 'as hot as this I should think you would sweat more. I'm in a hurry because I've got to see the Mayor about a Defense Pageant he wants me to handle, so I haven't time to argue, but your saying I tried to bribe you is perfectly silly. Perfectly silly! It would have been a marvelous party with you for the detective, but I had to get a policeman, an inspector, and all he did was grunt. Like this.' She grunted.
'If you have come, madam, to-'
'I haven't. I don't want you for a party this time. I wish I did. Someone is trying to ruin me.'
'Ruin you? Physically, financially-'
'Just ruin me. You know what I do. I do parties-'
'I know what you do,' Wolfe said curtly.
'Very well. My clients are rich people and important people, at least they think they're important. Without going into that, they're important to me. So what do you suppose the effect would be-wait, I'll show it to you-'
She opened her handbag and dug into it like a terrier. A small bit of paper fluttered to the floor, and I stepped across to retrieve it for her, but she darted a glance at it and said, 'Don't bother, wastebasket,' and I disposed of it as indicated and returned to my chair.
Bess Huddleston handed an envelope to Wolfe. 'Look at that. What do you think of that?'
Wolfe looked at the envelope, front and back, took from it a sheet of paper which he unfolded and looked at, and passed them over to me.
'This is confidential,' Bess Huddleston said.
'So is Mr. Goodwin,' Wolfe said dryly.
I examined the exhibits. The envelope, stamped and postmarked and slit open, was addressed on a typewriter:
The sheet of paper said, also typewritten:
There was no signature. I handed the sheet and envelope back to Wolfe.
Bess Huddleston used her handkerchief on her forehead and throat again. 'There was another one,' she said, looking at Wolfe but her eyes making me feel she was looking at me, 'but I haven't got it. That one, as you see, is postmarked Tuesday, August 12th, six days ago. The other one was mailed a day earlier, Monday, the 11th, aweek ago today. Typewritten, just like that. I've seen it. It was sent to a very rich and prominent man, and it said- I'll repeat it. It said: 'Where and with whom does your wife spend most of her afternoons? If you knew you would be surprised. My authority for this is Bess Huddleston. Ask her.' The man showed it to me. His wife is one of my best-'
'Please.' Wolfe wiggled a finger at her. 'Are you consulting me or hiring me?'
'I'm hiring you. To find out who sent those things.'
'It's a mean kind of a job. Often next to impossible. Nothing but greed could induce me to tackle it.'
'Certainly.' Bess Huddleston nodded impatiently. 'I know how to charge too. I expect to get soaked. But where will I be if this isn't stopped and stopped quick?'
'Very well. Archie, your notebook.'
I got it out and got busy. She reeled it off to me while Wolfe rang for beer and then leaned back and closed his eyes. But he opened one of them halfway when he heard her telling me about the stationery and the
