too.
'I warned you,' he said, 'not to try any fancy tricks with the Secret Service. And at that moment, when I was asking you if Hattie Annis had been there, she was in with Wolfe. You have just admitted it. You withheld information required by an agent of the Federal gov- ernment in the performance of his duty, and you will answer for it.'
'I'll answer now,' I told him. 'Why should I tell you anything about anybody? If you had any proper ground for asking me about Hattie Annis you didn't mention it. Inspector Cramer doesn't have to mention it. She and I found a dead body in her house, and it's his job to catch murderers, and it's possible that there is a connection between the murder and the package that Miss Annis found and brought to Mr. Wolfe. So I answer his ques- tions. I can't think offhand of any question whatever that I owe you an answer to. Do you want to try?'
That was deliberate. Sooner or later someone was going to ask me if I knew that money was counterfeit, and I might as well get it over with and have it on the record. But he merely looked at Cramer, and Cramer resumed.
At twenty minutes to four, when a dick named Callahan entered the kitchen and said the Inspector wanted me, I supposed it had been decided that it was time to try me on the ten-thousand-dollar question, but when I saw Cramer's face I knew that wasn't it. Instead of being set to blurt a tough one at me, he was chewing on a cigar, and he does that only when he doesn't like the prospect. Lieutenant Rowcliff and another dick were with him, in Dell's room. Leach wasn't there. It
170 Rex Stout
didn't come easy for him. He took the cigar from his mouth, put it back, and rasped, 'We need your help, Goodwin.'
'I'd love to help,' I said.
'Yeah.' Not at all the right tone for asking a favor. 'Did you tell that Annis woman to bolt herself in?'
'No. I have reported it as it happened.'
'Yeah.' He removed the cigar. 'She won't open the door. She won't open her trap. We don't want to smash the door unless we have to. She's your client and if you tell her to slide that damn bolt she will.'
'She is not my client. Nor Mr. Wolfe's.'
'So you say. Wouldn't she open the door if you asked her to?'
'Probably.'
'Okay. Ask her.'
I allowed a grin to show. 'Not the way you mean. Not with you at my elbow. I'm willing to try if I'm alone in the hall and the door of this room is shut, and I'll explain the situation to her. She has a personal attitude to cops. A cop shot her father.'
'Yeah, fifteen years ago. Hasn't she got any sense?'
'No.'
'She might know we'll bust the door if we have to. Will you tell her that?'
'Sure. With conditions as specified. You and yours stay here with the door shut. Rowcliff is slow in the skull but his feet are fast.'
'Save the gags,' Cramer growled, and stuck the cigar in his mouth. I went, closed the door behind me, walked down the hall, rapped on Hattie's door, and called, 'It's me. Buster Goodwin. I'm alone. Let me in. I want to ask you something.'
Footsteps and then her voice. 'Where are they?'
'Still in the house but at a safe distance. I am not a flunky.'
The bolt grated and the door opened. I entered, shut the door, and slid the bolt. The blinds were down and the lights were on. She had a magazine in her hand.
The Homicide Trinity 171
'You might have brought me something to eat,' she said. 'I haven't had any lunch. You're no good.'
I faced her. 'That's the second time you've told me I'm no good,' I said^'Let's get that settled. If you really mean it why did you let me in?'
'I thought you had something to eat. When I say you're no good that's just for then, when I say it. I'm hungry.'
'Okay. Actually I'm extremely good. If I wasn't, why would I bother to come and tell you to stay away from the door because they're going to bust it in?'
'No, they won't.'
'Why won't they?'
'Because they know if they do I'll shoot.'
I glanced around. A massive old walnut bed, a big old rolltop desk, dresser, chest of drawers, chairs, pictures of men and women all over the walls, actors from a mile off. 'What will you shoot with?' I asked.
'Nothing,' she said. 'I haven't got a gun, but they don't know it.'
I eyed her. 'May I have permission to call you Hattie?'
