He said something and handed me the glass and watched me drink it, and then went over and knelt down by Scott.
The stuff tasted bitter. I put the empty glass on the table and got hold of the guy who had gone for the doctor – by this time I recognized him as the elevator man – and told him to go downstairs and switch the Chapin phone in, and then go outside and see if Scott's taxi was at the curb. Then I made it through the diningroom again into the sitting-room and got into a chair by the telephone stand. I got the operator, and gave her the number.
Fritz answered. I said, 'This is Archie.
What was it you told me a while ago about Mr. Wolfe?'
'Why… Mr. Wolfe is gone.' I could hear him better, and I could tell he was trying not to let his voice shake. 'He told me he was going to get you, and that he suspected you of trying to coerce him into raising your pay. He went -9f 'Wait a minute, Fritz. Talk slow.
What time is it? My watch says a quarter to seven.'
'Yes. That's right. Mr. Wolfe has been gone nearly four hours. Archie, where are you?' ^ 'To hell with where I am. What happened? Someone came for him?' 'Yes. I went to the door, and a man handed me an envelope.'
'Was it a taxi-driver?'
'Yes, I think so. I took the envelope to Mr. Wolfe, and pretty soon he came to the kitchen and told me he was going. Mr.
Hibbard helped him into his coat, the brown one with the big collar, and I got his hat and stick and gloves -'
'Did you see the taxi?'
'Yes, I went out with Mr. Wolfe and opened the door of the cab for him.
Archie, for God's sake, tell me what I can do -' |,i B 'You can't do anything. Let me talk to Mr. Hibbard.'
'But Archie – I am so disturbed -'
'So am I. Hold the fort, Fritz, and sit tight. Put Hibbard on.'
I waited, and before long heard
Hibbard's hello. I said to him:
'This is Archie Goodwin, Mr. Hibbard.
Now listen, I can't talk much. When Nero Wolfe gets home again we want to be able to tell him that you've kept your word.
You promised him to stay dead until
Monday evening. Understand?'
Hibbard sounded irritated. 'Of course I understand, Mr. Goodwin, but it seems to me -'
'For God's sake forget how it seems to you. Either you keep your word or you don't.'
'Well… I do.'
'That's fine. Tell Fritz I'll call again as soon as I have anything to say.'
I hung up. The brown stuff the doctor had given me seemed to be working, but not to much advantage; my head was pounding like the hammers of hell. The elevator man had come back and was standing there. I looked at him and he said Scott's taxi was gone. I got hold of a in the phone again and called Spring 7- 3100.
Cramer wasn't in his office and they couldn't find him around. I got my wallet out of my pocket and with some care managed to find my lists of telephone numbers, and called Cramer's home. At first they said he wasn't there, but I persuaded them to change their mnds, and finally he came to the phone. I didn't know a cop's voice could ever sound so welcome to me. I told him where I was and what had happened to me, and said I was trying to remember what it was he had said that morning about doing a favor for Nero Wolfe. He said whatever it was he had meant it. I told him:
'Okay, now's your chance. That crazy Chapin bitch has stole a taxi and she's got Nero Wolfe in it taking him somewhere. I don't know where and I wouldn't know even if my head was working. She got him four hours ago and she's had time to get to Albany or anywhere else. – No matter how she got him, I'll settle for that some other day. Listen, inspector, for God's sake. Send out a general for a brown taxi, a Stuyvesant, MO 29-6342. Got it down?
Say it back. – Will you put the radios on it? Will you send it to Westchester and Long Island and Jersey? Listen, the dope I was cooking up was that it was her that croaked Doc Burton. By God, if I ever get my hands on her – What? I'm not excited. – Okay. Okay, inspector, thanks.':, I hung up. Someone had come in and was standing there, and I looked up and saw it was a flatfoot wearing a silly grin, directed at me. He asked me something and I told him to take his shoes off to rest his brains. He made me some kind of a reply that was intended to be smart, and I laid my head down on the top of the telephone stand to get the range, and banged it up and down a few times on the wood, but it didn't seem to do any good.
The elevator man said something to the cop and he went towards the kitchen.
I got up and went to open a window and damn near fell out. The cold air was like ice. The way I felt I was sure of two things: first, that if my head went on like that much longer it would blow up, and second, that Wolfe was dead. It seemed obvious that after that woman once got him into that taxi there was nothing for her to do with him but kill him. I stood looking out onto Perry Street, trying to hold my head together, and I had a feeling that all of New York was there in front of me, between me and the house fronts I could see across the street – the Battery, the river fronts, Central Park, Flatbush, Harlem, Park Avenue, all of it – and Wolfe was there somewhere
