“Where are you?”
“At Homicide West. I just got here with a man named William Lesser. When did you see him last?”
“Give me a reason. I always need a reason.”
“Yeah, I know. He came to Delia Brandt’s apartment twenty minutes ago and found us there. He says he had a date with her. He also says he thinks you killed her. Is that a good enough reason? When did you see him last?”
I never got to answer that. Wolfe’s voice broke in.
“Mr. Stebbins, this is Nero Wolfe. I would like to speak with Mr. Cramer.”
“He’s busy.” I swear Purley got hoarser the instant he heard Wolfe. “We want Goodwin down here.”
“Not until I have spoken with Mr. Cramer.”
Silence; then: “Hold it. I’ll see.”
We waited. I looked at Wolfe, but it was one-way because his eyes were closed. He opened them only when Cramer’s voice came.
“You there, Wolfe? Cramer. What do you want?”
“I want to expose a murderer, and I’m ready to. If you wish to be present, bring Mr. and-”
“I’m coming there right now!”
“No. I have to study some documents. You wouldn’t get in. Come at nine o’clock, and bring Mr. and Mrs. Irwin and Mr. and Mrs. Arkoff-and you may as well bring Mr. Lesser. He deserves to be in the audience. The others must be. Nine o’clock.”
“Goddam it, I want to know-”
“You will, but not now. I have work to do.”
He cradled his phone, and I followed suit. He spoke. “Archie, phone Mr. Freyer, Mr. Degan, and Mr. Herold. If he wishes to bring his wife he may. For this sort of thing the bigger the audience the better. And inform Mrs. Molloy.”
“Mrs. Molloy won’t be here.”
“She is here.”
“I mean she won’t be in the audience, not if Herold is. She doesn’t know Peter Hays is Paul Herold, and let him tell her if and when he wants to. Anyway she doesn’t want to be with people, and you don’t need her.”
“Very well.” He leered at me. He may have thought it was a tender glance of sympathy, but I call it a leer. “It is understood, of course, that you were not there today. If an explanation of how I got this material is required I’ll supply it.”
“Then that’s all for me?” Saul asked.
“No. You’ll be at his elbow. He has degenerated into a maniac. If you’ll dine with us? Now I must digest this stuff.”
He went back to the pile of papers.
Chapter 18
THE HOST WAS LATE to the party, but it wasn’t his fault. I wasn’t present at the private argument Cramer insisted on having with Wolfe in the dining room, being busy elsewhere, but as I passed in the hall, admitting guests as they arrived, I could hear their voices through the closed door. Since the door to the office was soundproofed and I kept it shut, they weren’t audible in there.
The red leather chair was of course reserved for Inspector Cramer, and Purley Stebbins was on one nearby against the wall, facing the gathering. Jerome and Rita Arkoff and Tom and Fanny Irwin were in the front row, where Saul and I had spaced the chairs, but Irwin had moved his close to his wife’s-not, however, taking her hand to hold. Mr. and Mrs. Herold and Albert Freyer were grouped over by the globe, off apart. Back of the Arkoffs and Irwins were William Lesser and Patrick Degan, and between them and slightly to the rear was Saul Panzer. That way the path from me to Degan was unobstructed and Saul was only an arm’s length from him.
It was a quarter past nine, and the silence, broken only by a mutter here and there, was getting pretty heavy when the door opened and Wolfe and Cramer entered. Wolfe crossed to his desk and sat, but Cramer stood to make a speech.
“I want you to understand,” he told them, “that this is not an official inquiry. Five of you came here at my request, but that’s all it was, a request. Sergeant Stebbins and I are here as observers, and we take no responsibility for anything Nero Wolfe says or does. As it stands now, you can walk out whenever you feel like it.”
“This is a little irregular, isn’t it, Inspector?” Arkoff asked.
“I said you can walk out,” Cramer told him. He stood a moment, turned and sat, and scowled at Wolfe.
Wolfe was taking them in. “I’m going to begin,” he said conversationally, “by reporting a coincidence, though it is unessential. It is unessential, but not irrelevant. Reading the
