Wolfe nodded impatiently. 'Tell Mr. Weinbach to try for it.' He got up. 'My lunch is waiting.'
After I had finished the phone call and ushered Daniel out, with his package, I joined Wolfe in the dining room. Since no discussion of business was permitted at meals, I waited until we were back in the office again before observing:
'I ought to tell you that Janet saw him lifting that turf, and Maryella and the nephew-'
'There is no reason to tell me. I am not concerned.' He pointed to the knife and trowel, still on his desk. 'Where did you get those things?'
'Bought them.'
'Please put them somewhere. They are not to appear on the expense account.'
'Then I'll keep them in my room.'
'Do so. By all means. Please take a letter to Mr. Hoehn.'
His tone said, and that's the end of Miss Huddleston and her affairs for this office, for you, and for me.
No doubt it would have been, except for his vanity. Or perhaps it wasn't vanity; it may be that the reason he permitted his privacy to be invaded again by brother Daniel was that he wanted to impress on him the desirability of getting the bill of the Fisher Laboratories paid as soon as possible. At any rate, when Daniel turned up some hours later, a little before seven that evening, Fritz was told to bring him to the office. At first sight of him I knew he had something, by the look in his eye and the set of his jaw. He tramped over to Wolfe's desk and announced:
'My sister was murdered.'
He got an envelope from his pocket, took out a paper and unfolded it, and fumbled the job because his hands were trembling. He swayed a little, steadied himself with a hand on the edge of the desk, looked around for a chair, and sat down.
'I guess I'm a little weak from excitement,' he said apologetically. 'Then I had only an apple for breakfast, and I haven't eaten anything since.'
It was probably the one thing in the world he could have said to keep Wolfe from telling him to go to the police and telling me to bounce him out. The one kind of man that never gets the gate at that house is one with an empty stomach. Glaring at him, not sympathetically but indignantly, Wolfe pushed a button and, when Fritz appeared, inquired:
'How far along is the soup?'
'Quite ready, sir, except for the mushrooms.'
'Bring a bowl of it, crackers, cottage cheese, and hot tea.'
Daniel tried to protest, but Wolfe didn't even listen. He heaved a deep sigh and leaned back and shut his eyes, a man who had eaten nothing but an apple for twenty-four hours being too painful an object to look at. When Fritz came with the tray I had a table ready in front of Daniel, and he wolfed a couple of crackers and blew on a spoonful of soup and swallowed it.
I had acquired the sheet of paper he had taken from the envelope, a report sheet from Fisher Laboratories, and was looking it over. After some more spoonfuls Daniel said:
'I knew it. I was sure of it. There couldn't-'
'Eat!' Wolfe commanded sternly.
'I'm eating. I'm all right. You were correct about the argyrol. That was a good guess. Argyrol and nothing else.' A fork conveyed a hunk of cottage cheese to Daniel's mouth, but he went on, 'Not a trace of iodine. And millions of tetanus bacilli, hundreds of millions. Weinbach said he never saw anything like it. And they were all concentrated on the one piece of turf, on the grass stems and the soil surface. The other two pieces had no sign either of the silver vietllin or the tetanus. Weinbach said…'
The doorbell rang, but I kept my seat and left it for Fritz because I had no reason to expect any undesirable intrusions. As it turned out, however, it was exactly the kind of invasion Wolfe resents more than anything else. An insurance salesman or a wife wanting her husband tailed is merely a mosquito to be brushed off, with me to do the brushing, but this wasn't as simple as that. The sound of Fritz's voice came from the hall, in indignant protest, and then the door flew open and Inspector Cramer strode in. I mean strode. His first glance caught me, and was it withering. Then he saw who Daniel was, emitted a triumphal grunt, spread his feet apart, and rasped out:
'Come along, you!' And to me: 'You too, bud! Come on!'
I grinned at him. 'If you ever find time to glance over an interesting document called the Constitution of the United-'
'Shut up, Archie,' Wolfe snapped. 'Mr. Cramer. What in the name of heaven is the matter with you?'
'Not a thing,' Cramer said sarcastically. 'Matter with me? Not a damn thing.' I never saw him sorer or sourer. 'Listen!' he said. He stepped to the desk and tapped a heavy finger on it, sounding like a hammer. 'Last night, sitting right at this desk, what did you say? What did you tell me?'
Wolfe was grimacing with distaste. 'Your tone and manner, Mr. Cramer-'
'You said, in case you've forgotten, that you weren't interested in the death of Bess Huddleston! Knew nothing about it! Weren't interested!' Cramer went on tapping the desk. 'Well, this afternoon somebody in my office got an idea-we do that once in a while! I sent a man up there, and young Huddleston showed him where the monkey poured some of that iodine, and when he went to take some of that turf for analysis, he found it had already been taken! It had been carefully filled up with other turf, but the grass didn't match. He asked questions, and he learned that Daniel Huddleston had done it, taken the turf away, and Goodwin had been there and gone with him!'
'Not with him,' I corrected emphatically. 'After him.'
