When they were out, and the door shut, and I re- turned to the office, Wolfe was out from behind his desk. 'A notion,' I said. 'Mrs. Hazen may be out on bail by the middle of the morning and accessible to them, and you're up in the plant rooms until eleven o'clock, not to be disturbed. Even if she's locked up, those people have lawyers and connections, Perdis especially. He may play poker with the DA. I could phone Parker to see her in the morning and tell her that no matter what she hears you're not loony, you're just a genius, and you know where you're headed for even when nobody else does, including me.'
'Not necessary.' He went to the door and turned. 'Make sure that the safe's locked. I'm tired. Good night.'
He knows darned well that I always make sure the safe's locked, but of course it doesn't often have some-
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thing in it that's supposed to be worth a million bucks. Up in my room on the third floor, as I undressed I made assorted tries at deciding what was next on his pro- gram, and didn't like any of them.
As it turned out the next thing on the program wasn't decided either by me or by him, but by Inspector Cramer. In the morning Wolfe came down from the plant rooms at eleven o'clock as usual, and also as usual I had the mail opened and the dusting done and fresh water in the vase on his desk. He went first to the front of the desk to put a spray of orchids in the vase, Odon- toglossum pyramus, then circled around to his chair. As he sat the doorbell rang. I went to the office door for a look and told him it was Cramer. He slapped a palm on the desk, glared at me, and said nothing, and I went to the front and opened up. I didn't like the look on Cram- er's face as he entered and let me take his coat and hat. He almost grinned at me, and he didn't stride to the office, he just walked. He sat in the red leather chair, crossed his legs comfortably, and told Wolfe, 'I haven't got much time. I want to hear it from you, what Mrs. Hazen came to you for yesterday, just the substance, and then Goodwin will come downtown and get it down in a statement, all of it. With his wonderful memory.'
Wolfe was glowering at him. 'Mr. Cramer. It shouldn't be-'
'Save it. She's booked for murder. We have the gun. Hazen got his car from the garage Monday night. It has been found parked on Twenty-first Street. There was a gun in the dashboard compartment, and it fired the bullet that killed him. We have traced it. It was bought by Hazen six years ago and he had a permit for it. He kept it in a drawer in his bedroom, and the maid saw it there yesterday morning when she went up to see why he hadn't come down for breakfast. Don't ask me why Mrs. Hazen took it from there afterwards and went to where she had parked the car on Twenty-first Street and put it in the car. I don't know, but maybe you do. So let's hear you.'
Chapter 7
I squeezed my eyes shut because if I had kept them open they would have popped, and I didn't want to give Cramer that satisfaction. But I am supposed to help Wolfe when he needs it, and right then he sure could use a few seconds to arrange his mind, so I opened my eyes and asked Cramer, just curious, 'What kind of a gun?'
He ignored it. He was having too good a time looking at Wolfe to bother with me. Wolfe was paying me another compliment. I was responsible for our assump- tion that Mrs. Hazen was innocent, but he didn't glance at me. He lowered his chin, scratched the tip of his nose, regarded Cramer for ten seconds, and then turned to me.
'Archie. It may be desirable to have a record of what Mr. Cramer just said. Type it. Verbatim. Double- spaced, one carbon.'
As I got at the typewriter Cramer said, 'I don't object. Naturally you've got to stall while you try to figure a way to climb down without breaking your neck.'
No comment from Wolfe. I put in paper and hit the keys. Since I had had years of practice reporting long and involved conversations that had had time to fade, that one was no trick at all. As I rolled the paper out Wolfe said, 'Initial the original,' and I did so, and handed it to him. He read it through, in no hurry, took his pen and initialed it, handed it back to me, and turned to Cramer.
'I'm not stalling,' he said. 'If what you just told me is true, your demand for information is warranted. If it
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isn't true you're gulling me into disclosing a confidential communication from a client, and I want a record-'
'Then she's your client?'
'She is now. She wasn't when you were here yester- day, but she hired me later through Mr. Parker. I want a record of your words, and I have it. I also want more facts, to make sure that those you have given me are not qualified by others. That's a reasonable precaution, I think. What time did Mr. Hazen take his car from the garage Monday evening?'
'A little after eleven o'clock.'
'That was after the dinner guests left?'
'Yes. They left at a quarter to eleven.'
'Was anyone with him at the garage?'
'No.'
'Was anyone else with him anywhere, out of the car or in it, after a quarter to eleven?'
