Buster. Don't offer to buy me some hair dye. When I left I was going to take a Ninth Avenue bus to come back here, and walking along Forty-seventh Street the car came on the sidewalk behind me and hit me here.' She touched her right hip. 'Bumping up over the curb must have spoiled his aim. It didn't hit me hard enough to knock me down, so I must have stumbled when I jumped. Anyhow I fell, and I must have rolled over more than once because I was walking near the curb and I came against a building. Is that Nero Wolfe?'
The door to the office had opened and Wolfe was there, scowling at us. I told her yes, and told him. 'Miss Hattie Annis. She's telling me why she was late for her appointment. She went to her house on Forty-seventh Street, and coming back a car climbed the curb and hit her. I know there's no chair here big enough for you, but she ought to stay flat a little longer.'
'I am capable of standing for two minutes,' he said stiffly.
'You don't look it,' Hattie said. 'You would do fine for Falstaff.'
The Homicide Trinity 151
'Finish it,' I told her. 'And the car went on?'
'It must have. When I got up it was gone. A man and a woman helped me up, and another man stopped, but nothing was broke and I could walk. So I walked. I didn't want to try climbing on a bus. I kept in close to the buildings, and I stopped to rest about every block, and the last two blocks I didn't think I would make it, but I did. How did you know I was there if I fainted?'
'You rang the bell. I caught you before you hit bot- tom.'
'And you carried me in and I missed it. Carried by a man and didn't know it. What's life up to?'
Wolfe came in a step. 'Madam. I told Mr. Goodwin I would give you two minutes.'
She had lifted her head and I had put a cushion under it. 'I appreciate it,' she said. 'A wonderful day. Buster carries me in and Falstaff gives me two minutes-and here's another one with coffee!'
Fritz coming with the coffee eased the situation. To Wolfe anyone having food or drink in his house is a guest, and guests have to be humored, within reason. He couldn't tell me to bounce her while I was bringing a stand for the tray and Fritz was filling her cup. So he stood and scowled. When she had taken a sip he spoke.
'Mr. Goodwin said you have something that you think is good for a reward. What is it?'
She had sat up and taken off the woolen gloves. She took another sip. 'That's good coffee,' she said. 'First I'll tell you how I got it. I own that house on Forty- seventh Street. I was born in it.' Another sip. 'Do you happen to know that all stage people are crazy?'
Wolfe grunted. 'They have no monopoly.'
'Maybe not, but theirs is a special kind. I'm not saying I like them, but they give me a feeling. My father owned a theater. My house is only an eight-minute walk from Times Square, and I only need one room and a kitchen, so they can live there whether they can pay or not. Five of them are living there now-three men and two girls-and they use the kitchen. They're supposed to make their beds and keep their rooms decent, and
152 Rex Stout
some of them do. I never go in their rooms. My room is the second floor front-'
'If you please.' Wolfe was curt. 'To the point.'
'I'll get there, Falstaff. Let the lady talk.' She took a sip. 'Good coffee. The ground floor front is the parlor. Nobody goes in there much since my mother died years ago, but once a week I go in and look around, and when I went in yesterday afternoon a mouse ran out from under the piano and went in back of the bookshelves. Do you believe a mouse could run up a woman's leg?'
'No.' Wolfe was emphatic.
'Neither do I. I got my umbrella from the hall and poked behind the shelves, but he didn't come out. There's no back to the shelves, so if I took the books out I'd have him. The bottom shelf has a History of the Thirteen Colonies in ten volumes and a set ofMacaulay with the backs coming off. I took them all out, but the mouse wasn't there. He must have moved while I was getting the umbrella. But in back of the books was a little package I had never seen before, and I opened it, and that's what I've got. If I took it to the cops, good-by. We can split the reward three ways, you and me and Buster here.'
'What's in it?'
Her head turned. 'Open it, Buster.'
I took it from my pocket, sat on a chair, untied the string, and unwrapped the paper. It was a stack of new twenty-dollar bills. I flipped through it at a comer and then at another comer. All twenties.
'Imagine handing that to the cops,' Hattie said. 'Of course he knew I had it and he tried to kill me.'
Wolfe grunted. 'How much, Archie?'
'About two inches thick. Two hundred and fifty to the inch. Ten thousand dollars, more or less.'
'Madam. You say he tried to kill you. Who?'
'I don't know which one.' She put her cup down and picked up the pot to pour. 'It could be one of the girls, but I'd rather not. If he hadn't tried to kill me I would just as soon-'
The Homicide Trinity 153
The doorbell rang. After putting the lettuce and pa- per and string on the chair, I went to the hall and took a look. It was a medium-sized round-shouldered stranger in a dark gray overcoat and a snap brim nearly down to his ears. Before opening the door I shut the one to the front room.
