ask Mr. Albert Freyer, counsel for Peter Hays, and see if you have better luck.”
“Nuts. Is Peter Hays Paul Herold?”
“He told Mr. Goodwin he is not. You say he told Lieutenant Murphy he is not. He should know.”
“Then why are you on the warpath?”
“Because both my curiosity and cupidity have been aroused, and together they are potent. Believe me, Mr. Cramer, I have been candid to the limit of my discretion. Will you have some beer?”
“No. I’m going. I have to start somebody on these Arkoffs and Irwins.”
“Then the Hays case is open again. That is not a gibe, merely a fact. Can you spare me another minute? I would like to know exactly what was found in Johnny Keems’s pockets.”
“I’ve told you.” Cramer got up. “The usual items.”
“Yes, but I’d like a complete list. I would appreciate it, if you’ll indulge me.”
Cramer eyed him. He could never make up his mind whether Wolfe was really after something or was merely putting on an act. Thinking he might find out, he turned to me. “Get my office, Goodwin.”
I swiveled and dialed, and when I had the number Cramer came to my desk and took it. I was supposing he would tell someone to get the list from the file and read it off to me, but no sir. That way I could have faked something, and who would trust Goodwin? He stayed at the phone, and when the list had been dug out and was called off to him he relayed it to me, item by item, and I wrote it down. As follows:
Motor operator’s license
Social Security card
Eastern Insurance Co. Identification card
2 tickets to baseball game for May 11th
3 letters in envelopes (personal matters)
Newspaper clipping about fluorine in drinking water
$22.16 in bills and coins
Pack of cigarettes
2 books of matches
4 keys on a ring
1 handkerchief
Ballpoint pen
Pencil
Pocket knife
I started to hand it to Wolfe, but Cramer reached and grabbed it. When he had finished studying it he returned it to me and I passed it to Wolfe, and Cramer asked him, “Well?”
“Thank you very much.” Wolfe sounded as if he meant it. “One question: is it possible that something, some small article, was taken from his clothing before this list was made?”
“Possible, yes. Not very likely. The man and woman who saw it from the parked car are respectable and responsible citizens. The man went to where the body was lying, and the woman blew the horn, and an officer came in a couple of minutes. The officer was the first one to touch the body. Why? What’s missing?”
“Money. Archie, how much did you give Johnny for expenses?”
“One hundred dollars.”
“And presumably he had a little of his own. Of course, Mr. Cramer, I am not ass enough to suggest that you have a thief on your force, but that hundred dollars belonged to me, since Johnny Keems had possession of it as my agent. If by any chance it should turn up-”
“Goddam you, I ought to knock you through that wall,” Cramer said through his teeth, and whirled and tramped out.
I waited until I heard the front door slam, then went to the hall and on to the one-way glass panel to see him cross the sidewalk and climb into his car. When I returned to the office Wolfe was sitting with his fingers interlaced at the apex of his central mound, trying not to look smug.
I stood and looked down at him. “I’ll be damned,” I said. “So you’ve got your little fact that stings. Next, who did he grease with it?”
He nodded. “Not too difficult, I should think. Apparently you share my assumption that he bribed somebody?”
“No question about it. Johnny wasn’t perfect, but he came close to it about money. That hundred bucks was yours, and for him that was that.” I sat down. “I’m glad to hear that it won’t be difficult to find out who got it. I was afraid it might be.”
“I think not-at least not to reach an assumption worth testing. Let us suppose it was you instead of Johnny. Having seen Mrs. Arkoff, you arrive at the Irwins’ apartment and find them about ready to leave, being detained by a necessary repair to Mrs. Irwin’s garment which is being made by the maid. Mostly they merely confirm what Mrs. Arkoff has already told you, but contribute one new detail: that the suggestion to invite Mrs. Molloy came originally from Mrs. Irwin. That is interesting, even provocative, and you want to pursue it, and try to,
