Finally Dykes turned his head to tell Archer, “This makes it nice.
Archer nodded, not taking his regard from me. “It's hard to believe, Goodwin.
Til say it is. For him to-
“No, no. It's hard to believe that Wolfe and you would try anything as fantastic as this. Obviously he was absolutely compelled to. You phoned him from Leeds' place last night, as soon as you could get to a phone after Mrs Rackham was murdered. That was-
“Excuse me, I said firmly. “Not as soon as I could get to a phone after Mrs
Rackham was murdered. As soon as I could get to a phone after I found out she had been murdered.
“Very well. We're not in court. He was leaning at me. That was shortly after midnight. What did you say to him?
“I told him what had happened. I reported, as fully as I could in the time I had, everything from my arrival here up to then. If the operator listened in you can check with her. I asked if I should limit my talk with the cops to events here and leave the rest for him to tell, and he said no, I should withhold nothing, including all details of Mrs Rackham's talk with him. That was all. As you know, I followed instructions.
“Geez, Dykes said. “Son, it looks like your turn to sweat has come.
Archer ignored him. “And after telling you to withhold nothing from the police,
Wolfe suddenly decides, in the middle of the night, that he has had enough of detective work, sends an ad to a newspaper announcing his retirement, calls on a friend to arrange for the care of his orchids-and what did he do then? I was so engrossed I may have missed something.
“I don't know what he did. He walked out. He disappeared.
I was aware, of course, of how it sounded. It was completely cuckoo. It was all rayon and a yard wide. I damn' near made it even worse by telling them about the sausage and the tear gas, of course without letting on that we knew who had sent it, but realised in time how that would go over in the circumstances. That wouldhave made a hit. But I had to say or do something, and decided to produce evidence, so I reached to my pocket for it.
“He left notes on the table in his bedroom, I said, “for Fritz and Theodore and me. Here's mine.
I handed it to Archer. He read it and passed it to Dykes. Dykes read it twice and returned it to Archer, who stuck it in his pocket.
“Geez, Dykes said again, looking at me in a way I didn't like. “This is really something. I've always thought Nero Wolfe had a lot on the ball, and you too in a way, but this is about the worst I ever saw. Really. He turned to Archer.
“It's plain what happened.
“It certainly is. Archer made a fist. “Goodwin, I don't ask you to tell me.
I'll tell you. When you found Mrs Rackham there dead, you and Leeds agreed on a tale about the visit to Nero Wolfe. Leeds came here to break the news. You went to his place to phone Wolfe and report, both the murder and the tale you and
Leeds had agreed on-or maybe Wolfe knew that already since you had pretended to investigate the dog poisoning. In any case, Wolfe knew something that he didn't dare to try to cover and that, equally, he didn't dare to reveal. What made it unbearably hot was the murder. So he arranged to disappear, and we haven't got him, and it may take a day or a week to find him. But we've got you.
The fist hit the table, not hard. “You know where Wolfe is. You know what he knows that he had to run away from. It is vital information required by me in my investigation of a murder. Surely you must see that your position is untenable, you can't possibly get away with it. Twenty Nero Wolfes couldn't bring you out of this with a whole skin. Even if he's cooking up one of his flashy surprises, even if he walks into my office to-morrow with the murderer and the evidence to convict him, I will not stand for this. There is no written record of what you said last night. I'll get the stenographer back in here and we'll tear up his notebook and what he has typed, and you can start from scratch.
“Better grab it, son, Dykes said, perfectly friendly. “Loyalty to your employer is a fine thing, but not when he's got a screw loose.
I yawned. “My God, I'm sleepy. I wouldn't mind this so much if I was helping out with a fix, good or bad, but it's a shame to get stuck with the truth. Ask me to-morrow, ask me all summer, I refuse to tell a lie. And I do not know where Mr
Wolfe is.
Archer stood up. “Get a material witness warrant and lock him up, he said, almost squeaking, and marched out.
Chapter Eight
The jail at White Plains uses a gallon of strong disinfectant, diluting it, of course, every day including Sunday. I can back that statement up with two pieces of evidence: the word of the turnkey on the second-floor cell block, whose name is Wilkes, given to me personally, and my sense of smell, which is above average.
I had no opportunity to make a tour of inspection during the twenty hours I was there, that Easter Sunday and the day following, but except for the smell I found nothing to write to the newspapers about, once you grant that society must protect itself against characters like me. My cell-or rather, our cell, since I had a mate-was
