obligation to preserve the property under his care, and it couldn't be paid out of surplus income because you don't leave any surplus. The only way is to call this fellow's bluff-”
I was about ready to go to the cabinet for some more Irish, since apparently the previous serving had all been assimilated, when I saw it wouldn't be necessary.
Wolfe shoved back his chair and got up, moved around and stopped in front of
Llewellyn, and spoke loud enough to penetrate the Dudley Frost noise:
“I must go. Thank God. You can tell Mr. Goodwin your decision.” He started his progress to the door, and didn't halt when Dudley Frost called at him:
“Now here! You can't run away like that! All right, all right, sir! All right!”
His target gone, he turned to his sister-in-law: “Didn't I say, Calida, we'd call his bluff? See that? All it needs in a case like this-”
Mrs. Frost hadn't bothered to turn in her chair to witness Wolfe's departure.
Llewellyn had reached across for another grip on his father's knee and was expostulating: “Now, Dad, cut it out-now listen a minute-”
I stood up and said, “If you folks want to talk this over, I'll leave you alone a while.”
Mrs. Frost shook her head. “Thank you, I don't believe it will be necessary.”
She turned to her nephew and sounded crisp: “Lew,.you started this. It looks as if you'll have to continue it.”
Llewellyn answered her, and his father joined in, but I paid no attention as I got at my desk and stuck a sheet of paper in the typewriter. I dated it at the top and tapped it off.
To NERO WOLFE:
Please continue until further notice the investigation into the murder of Molly
Lauck for which I engaged you yesterday, Monday, March 30, 1936.
I whirled it out of the machine, laid it on a corner of Wolfe's desk, and handed
Llewellyn my pen. He bent over the paper to read it. His father jumped up and pulled at him.
“Don't sign that! What is it? Let me see it! Don't sign anything at all-”
Llewellyn surrendered it to him, and he read it through twice, with a frown.
Mrs. Frost stretched out a hand for it, and ran over it at a glance. She looked at me.
“I don't believe my nephew will have to sign anything…”
“I believe he will.” I was about as fed up as Wolfe had been. “One thing you people don't seem to realize, if Mr. Wolfe should feel himself relieved of his obligation to his client and tells Inspector Cramer his angle on that break of
Miss Frost's, there won't be any argument about it. When Cramer has been working on a popular murder case for a week without getting anywhere, he gets so tough he swallows cigars whole. Of course he won't use a piece of hose on Miss Frost, but he'll have her brought to headquarters and snarl at her all night. You wouldn't want-”
“All right.” Dudley Frost had his frown on me. My son is wiling for Wolfe to continue. I've thought all along that's the best way to handle it. But he won't sign this. He won't sign anything-”
“Yes he will.” I took the paper from Calida Frost and put it on the desk again.
“What do you think?” I threw up my hands “Holy heaven! You're three and I'm one.
Thats no good in case of bad memories. What is there to it, anyhow? It says
‘until further notice.’ Mr. Wolfe said you could tell me your decision. Well,
I've got to have a record of it or so help me, I'll have a talk with Inspector
Cramer myself.
Lew Frost looked at his aunt and his father, and then at me. “It certainly is one sweet mess.” He grimaced in disgust “If I had ten thousand dollars this minute, I swear to God…” I said, “Look out, that pen drips sometimes. Go ahead and sign it.”
While the other two frowned at him, he bent over tne paper and scrawled his name.
Chapter Five
“I had a notion to call in a notary and make Stebbins swear to an affidavit.”
Inspector Cramer chewed on his cigar some more. “Nero Wolfe a mile away from home in broad daylight and in his right mind? Then it must be a raid on the
United States Treasury and we'll have to call out the army and declare martial law.”
