instance, Tamiris.'
'It's more apt to be a girl at one of the tables in the night-club scene. The one who jumps up and says, 'Come on, Bill, let's get out of here.' That's her big line.' She fluttered a gloved hand. 'Oh, well. What do you care? Why don't you ask me what I want?'
'I'm putting it off because I may not have it.'
'That's nice. I like that. That's a good line, only you threw it away. There should be a pause after 'off.' 'I'm putting it off… because I may not have it.' Try it again.'
'Nuts. I said it the way I felt it. You actresses are all alike. I was getting a sociable feeling about you and look what you've done to it. What do you want?'
She laughed a little ripple. 'I'm not an actress, I'm only going to be. I don't want anything much, just to ask about my landlady, Miss Annis-Hattie Annis. Has she been here?'
I raised a brow. 'Here? When?'
'This morning.'
'I'll ask.' I turned my head and sang out, 'Fritz!' and when he appeared, in the doorway to the hall, I in- quired, 'Did anyone besides this lady come while I was out?'
'No, sir.' He always sirs me when there is company, and I can't make him stop.
'Any phone calls?'
'No, sir.'
'Okay. Thank you, sir.' He went, and I told Tammy or Tamiris, 'Apparently not. You say your landlady?'
She nodded. 'That's funny.'
'Why, did you tell her to come?'
'No, she told me. She said she was going to take something-she was going to see Nero Wolfe about something. She wouldn't say what, and after she left I ^ began to worry about her. She never got here?'
'You heard what Fritz said. Why should you worry?'
'You would too if you knew her. She almost never
leaves the house, and she never goes more than a block away. She's not a loony, really, but she's not quite all there, and I should have come with her. We all feel responsible for her. Her house is an awful dump, but anybody in show business, or even trying to be, can have a room for five dollars a week, and it doesn't have to be every week. So we feel responsible. I certainly hope-' She stood up, letting it hang. 'If she comes will
you phone me?' 'Sure.' She gave me the number and I jotted it down,
and then went to hold her coat. My feelings were mixed. It would have been a pleasure to relieve her mind, but of what? What if her real worry was about the Hope diamond, which she had had under her mattress, and she knew or suspected that Hattie Annis had snitched it? I would have liked to put her in the front room, supplied with magazines, to wait until her landlady arrived, but you can't afford to be sentimental when the fate of a million-dollar diamond is at stake, so I let her go. Another consideration was that it would be enough of a job to sell Wolfe on seeing Hattie Annis without also accounting for the presence of another female in the front room. He can stand having one woman under his roof temporarily if he has to, but not two at once.
At eleven o'clock on the nose the sound of the eleva- tor came, and its usual clang as it jolted to a stop at the bottom, and he entered, told me good morning, went to his desk, got his seventh of a ton deposited in the oversized custom-built chair, fingered through the mail, glanced at his desk calendar, and spoke. 'No check from Brigham?'
'Yes, sir, it came.' I swiveled to face him. 'Without comment. I took it to the bank. Also my weakness has cropped up again, but with a new slant.' He grunted. 'Which weakness?' 'Women. One came, a stranger, and I told her to come back at eleven-fifteen. The trouble is, she's a type that never appealed to me before. I hope to goodness my taste hasn't shifted. I want your opinion.' 'Pfui. Flummery.'
'No, sir. It's a real problem. Wait till you see her.'
'I'm not going to see her.'
'Then I'm stuck. She has a strange fascination. No- body believes in witches casting spells any more. I certainly don't, but I don't know. As for what she wants to see you about, that's simple. She has got something that she thinks is good for a reward, and she's coming to you instead of the police because she hates cops. I don't know what it is or where she got it. That part's easy, you can deal with that in two minutes, but what about me? Have I got a screw loose?'
'Yes.' He picked up the top item from the little pile of mail, an airmail letter from an orchid hunter in Ven- ezuela, and started to read it. I swung my chair around and started sharpening pencils that didn't need it. The noise of the sharpener gets on his nerves. I was on the fourth pencil when his voice came.
'Stop that,' he growled. 'A witch?'
'She must be.'
'I'll give her two minutes.'
You can appreciate what I had accomplished only if you know how allergic he is to strangers, especially women, and how much he hates to work, especially when a respectable check has just been deposited. Be- sides that satisfaction I had something to look forward to, seeing his expression when I escorted Hattie Annis in. I thought I might as well go and retrieve the pack- age from under the couch and put it in my desk drawer, but vetoed it. It could stay put till she came. Wolfe finished the letter from the orchid hunter and started on a circular from a manufacturer of an automatic hu- midifier.
Eleven-seventeen and the bell didn't ring. At 11:20 Wolfe looked up to say that he had some letters
