seen the car hit Johnny Keems were no help at all. They were sure the driver had been a man, but whether he was broad or narrow, light or dark, big or little, or with or without a clipped mustache, they couldn’t say. Wolfe phoned Patrick Degan at his office and got eight names and addresses from him, friends and associates of Molloy who might furnish some hint of where the pile had come from, and told Orrie to make the rounds.
No word from Saul Panzer.
At half-past four I went to answer the doorbell, and there was the predicament on the stoop. I didn’t know it was the predicament; I thought it was just our client, James R. Herold of Omaha, coming for a progress report; so I swung the door wide and welcomed him and took his things and ushered him to the office and moved a chair so he would be facing me. I told him on the way that Wolfe wouldn’t be available until six o’clock but I was at his service. I admit that with the light from the window on his face I should have guessed he hadn’t come merely for a report. He looked, as he hadn’t before, like a man in trouble. His thin straight mouth was now tight and drawn, and his eyes were more dead than alive. He spoke. “I’d rather see Wolfe but I guess you’ll do. I want to pay him to date, the expenses. I’d like to have an itemized account. Lieutenant Murphy has found my son, and I’ve seen him. I won’t object if you want to add a small fee to the expenses.”
At least I know a predicament when it pushes my nose in. When a man as pigheaded as Wolfe has ironclad rules he’s stuck with them. If I went upstairs to him and broke the news there wasn’t a chance. He would tell me to tell Herold that he would like to discuss the matter and would be down at six o’clock; and it was ten to one, and clear from the look on Herold’s face and the tone of his voice, that he wouldn’t wait. He would say we could mail him a bill and up and go.
So I stood up. “About the fee,” I said, “I wouldn’t want to decide that. That’s up to Mr. Wolfe. Come along and we’ll see what he says. This way.”
I used the elevator instead of the stairs because the noise it made would notify Wolfe that something drastic was happening. Pushing the button to bring it down, entering with the ex-client and pushing the button marked R for roof, my mind wasn’t on the predicament at all, it was on Murphy. If I had had him there I wouldn’t have said a word. I wouldn’t have bothered with words. As we stopped at the top and the door slid open I told Herold, “I’ll lead the way, if you don’t mind.”
It’s hard to believe anyone could go along those aisles without seeing the array of color at all, but my mind was on Murphy. I don’t know where Herold’s was. Wolfe wasn’t in the first room, the cool one, nor in the second, the medium, nor in the third, the tropical, and I went on through to the potting room. He was with Theodore at the bench, and turned to glare at us with a pot in one hand and a bunch of sphagnum in the other. With no greeting for the man who, in his ignorance, he thought was still his client, he barked at me, “Why this intrusion?”
“To report,” I said. “Mr. Herold just came, and I told him you were engaged and took him to the office, and this is what he said. Quote.” I recited Herold’s little speech verbatim, and ended, “Unquote.”
He had several choices. The rule that nobody came to the roof except to look at orchids had already been broken, by me. He could break the other one by going down to the office with us, or he could tell Herold that he would join him in the office at six o’clock, or he could throw the pot at me. He chose none of them. He turned his back on us, put the pot on the bench, tossed the sphagnum aside, got a trowelful of the charcoal and osmundine mixture from the tub, and dumped it into the pot. He reached for another pot and repeated the operation. And another. When six pots had been prepared he turned around and spoke.
“You have a record of the expenses, Archie.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Invoice them, including the commitments for today, and add the fee. The fee is fifty thousand dollars.”
He turned to the bench and picked up a pot. I said, “Yes, sir,” turned to go, and told Herold, “Okay, he’s the boss.”
“He’s not my boss.” He was staring at Wolfe’s back, which is an eyeful. “You don’t mean that. That’s ridiculous!” No reaction. He took a step and raised his voice. “You haven’t earned any fee at all! Lieutenant Murphy phoned me last night, and I took a plane, and he arranged for me to see my son. Do you even know where he is? If you do, why didn’t you tell me?”
Wolfe turned and said quietly, “Yes, I know where he is. I suspect you, Mr. Herold.”
“
“Of chicanery. Mr. Murphy has his own credit and glory to consider, and so couldn’t be expected to toot my horn, but I do not believe he made no mention of the part I’ve played. He’s not an utter fool. I think you came here aware that I have earned a fee and conceived a shoddy stratagem to minimize it. The fee is fifty thousand dollars.”
“I won’t pay it!”
“Yes, you will.” Wolfe made a face. “I don’t run from contention, sir, but this sort of squabble is extremely distasteful. I’ll tell you briefly how it will go. I’ll render my bill, you’ll refuse to pay it, and I’ll sue you. By the time the action goes to trial I shall be armed with evidence that I not only found your son, which is what you hired me to do, but that I also freed him from a charge of murder by proving his innocence. Actually I doubt if you’ll let it go to trial. You’ll settle.”
Herold looked around, saw a big comfortable chair, moved to it, and sat. Presumably he had had a tough day.
“That’s my chair,” Wolfe snapped. He can snap. “There are stools.”
Three sound reasons: one, he didn’t like Mr. Herold; two, he wanted to squash him; and three, if it went on he might want the chair himself. If Herold got to his feet and stayed on them he was still a contender; if he stayed in the chair he was cornered; if he took to a stool he was licked. He went to a stool and got on it. He spoke, not squabbling.
“Did you say you can prove his innocence?”
“No. Not now. But I expect to.” Wolfe propped the back of his lap against the bench. “Mr. Goodwin saw him and talked with him Wednesday morning, day before yesterday, and established that he is your son. He didn’t want you to be notified. That’s an understatement. Did you speak with him today?”
