Chapter Fourteen
Since I do not intend to use up paper reporting the five-hour conference I had with Wolfe that night in Lily Rowan's living-room, I could just as well go on to
Wednesday morning, except for one thing. I have got to tell about their arrival at the door of Lily's penthouse apartment on East Sixty-third Street. Wolfe didn't speak and wouldn't look at me. Lily shook hands with me, a form of greeting we hadn't used for I don't know how long, then unlocked the door, and we entered. When her wrap and Wolfe's hat had been disposed of and we passed to the living-room, she tossed her firecracker.
“Archie, she said, T knew darned well that something would happen some day to make up for all the time I've wasted on you. I just felt it would.
I nodded. “Certainly. You'll show a profit on the night even if you feed us sandwiches, especially since Pete is a light eater. He's on a diet.
“Oh, she said, “I didn't mean money and you can go the limit on sandwiches. I meant the distinction you've brought me. I'm the only woman in America who has necked with Nero Wolfe. Nightmare, my eye. He has a flair.
Wolfe, who had seated himself, cocked his head to frown at her-a first-rate performance.
I smiled at her. T told Pete what you said on the phone, and he was flattered.
Okay, woman of distinction.
She shook her head. “Turn loose, my brave fellow. I've got hold of it. She moved to Wolfe, looking down at him. “Don't be upset, Pete. I wouldn't have known you from Adam, no one would; that wasn't it. It's my hero here. Archie's an awful prude. He has been up against some tough ones, lots of them, and not once has he ever called on me to help. Never! A proud prude. Suddenly he calls me away from revelry-I might have been revelling for all he knew-to get into a car and be intimate with a stranger. There's only one person on earth he would do that for: you. So if I was pretty ardent in the car, I knew what I was doing.
And don't worry about me-whatever you're up to, my lips are sealed. Anyway, to me you will always be Pete. The only woman in America who has necked with Nero
Wolfe-my God, I'll treasure it forever. Now I'll go make some sandwiches. What kind of a diet are you on?
Wolfe said through his teeth, “I care for nothing.
“That can't be. A peach? Grapes? A leaf of lettuce?
“No!
“A glass of water?
“Yes!
She left the room, leering at me as she went by. In a moment the sound of her movements in the kitchen came faintly.
I told Wolfe offensively, “It was you who said we needed a woman.
“It was you who selected her.
“You okayed her.
“It's done, he said bitterly. “So are we. She'll blab, of course.
There's one hope, I suggested. “Marry her. She wouldn't betray her own husband.
And apparently in that one short ride uptown with her-
I stopped abruptly. The face as a whole was no longer his, but the eyes alone were enough to tell me when I had gone far enough.
Til tell you what I'll do, I offered. “I know her quite well. Two things that could conceivably happen: first, you might go to Zeck to-morrow and tell him who you are, and second, Lily might spill it either thoughtfully or thoughtlessly.
I'll bet you ten bucks the first happens as soon as the second.
He growled. “She's a woman.
“All right, bet me.
The bet didn't get made. Not that Wolfe came to my point of view about Lily
Rowan, but what could the poor son-of-a-gun do? He couldn't even take to the bushes again and start all over. From that point on, though, up to the end, the strain was ten times worse for him than for me. It cramped his style some all that night, after Lily had gone off to bed and we talked in the living-room until long after dawn. At six o'clock he went. Probably it would then have been safe for me to go too, since if they were enough interested in him to have posted a sentry outside the building he would almost certainly leave when Roeder did, but probabilities weren't good enough now, not after the picture Wolfe had given me and the programme he had drawn up, so I gook a good two-hour nap before leaving for Thirty-fifth Street and a bath and breakfast.
At ten o'clock I was at 1019, starting at the phone to get hold of Saul and
Orrie and Fred.
