had practised with, he had made it damn' tight. I barely had it free and was unwinding the cord from the wrists when the sound of the shot came, followed immediately by another.
As I got the cord off and jammed it in my pocket, Zeck's torso slumped sideways and then forward. Flat on the floor, I slewed around, saw Zeck's contorted face right above my eyes, pulled the handkerchief out of his mouth and stuffed it in my pocket with the cord, slid forward under the desk, and reached for one of the signal buttons.
I didn't know, and don't know yet, whether the noise of the shots had got through the soundproof door or whether it was my push on the button that brought them. I didn't hear the door open, but the next shots I heard were a fusillade that came from no Carson, so I came back out from under the desk and on up to my feet. Schwartz and his buddy were standing just inside the door, one with two guns and one with one. Rackham was stretched out on the floor, flat on his face.
Wolfe was standing at the end of the desk, facing the door, scowling as I had never seen him scowl before.
“The dirty bastard, I said bitterly, and I admit my voice might have trembled even if I hadn't told it to.
“Reach up, Schwartz said, advancing.
Neither Wolfe nor I moved a muscle. But Wolfe spoke. “What for? He was even bitterer than me, and contemptuous. “They let him in armed, not us.
“Watch 'em, Harry, Schwartz said, and came forward and on around behind the desk where I was. Ignoring me, he bent over Zeck's collapsed body, spent half a minute with it, and then straightened and turned.
“He's gone, he said.
Harry, from near the door, squealed incredulously. “He's gone?
“He's gone, Schwartz said.
Harry wheeled, pushed the door open, and was gone too.
Schwartz stared after him three seconds, not more than that, then jumped as if I had pinched him, made for the door, and on through.
I went and took a look at Rackham, found he was even deader than Zeck, and turned to Wolfe. “Okay, that's enough. Come on.
“No. He was grim. “It will be safer when they've all skedaddled. Phone the police.
“From here?
“Yes.
I went to Zeck's desk and pulled one of the phones to me.
“Wait. I had never heard him so grim. “First get Marko's number. I want to speak to Fritz.
“Now? For God's sake, now?'
“Yes. Now. A man has a right to have his satisfactions match his pains. I wish to use Mr Zeck's phone to tell Fritz to go home and get dinner ready.
I dialled the operator.
Chapter Twenty
Three days later, Friday afternoon, I said to Wolfe, “Anyway, it's all over now, isn't it?
“No, confound it, he said peevishly. “I still have to earn that fee.
It was six o'clock, and he had come down from the plant rooms with some more pointed remarks about the treatment the plants had got at Hewitt's place. The remarks were completely uncalled for. Considering the two journeys they had taken, out to Long Island and then back again, the plants were in splendid shape, especially those hard to handle like the Miltonias and Phalaenopsis.
Wolfe was merely trying to sell the idea, at least to himself, that the orchids had missed him.
Fritz might have been a mother whose lost little boy has been brought home after wandering in the desert for days, living on cactus pulp and lizards' tails.
W'olfe had gained not an ounce less than ten pounds in seventy-two hours, in spite of all the activity of getting resettled, and at the rate he was going he would be back to normal long before Thanksgiving. The pleats in his face were already showing a tendency to spread out, and of course the beard was gone, and the slick had been shampooed out of his hair. I had tried to persuade him to stay in training, but he wouldn't even bother to put up an argument. He just spent more time than ever with Fritz, arranging about meals.
He had not got home for dinner Tuesday evening after all, in spite of the satisfaction he had got by putting in a call to Fritz on Zeck's phone. We were now cleaned up with Westchester, but it had not been simple. The death of Arnold
Zeck had of course started a chain reaction that went both deep and wide, and naturally there had been an earnest desire to make goats out of Wolfe and me, but they didn't have a damn' thing on us, and when word came from somewhere that
