I finished my second cup of coffee and got up and stretched and from then on I was as busy as a pickpocket on New Year's Eve. When Fred and Orrie came I let them in, and after they had got their instructions from Wolfe I distributed expense money to all four oЈ them and let them out again. The siege was still on. There were two dicks out there now, one of them about the size of Charles Laughton before he heard beauty calling, and every time anyone passed in or out he got the kind of scrutiny you read about. I got the long-distance call through to London, and Wolfe talked from his room to Ethelbert Hitchcock, which I consider the all-time low for a name for a snoop, even in England. I phoned Murger's for the copies of Metropolitan Biographies, and they delivered them within a quarter of an hour and I took them up to the plant rooms, as Wolfe had said he would glance at them after nine o'clock. As I was going out I stopped where Theodore Horstmann was turning out some old Cattleyas trianae and growled at him, 'You're going to get shot in the gizzard.'
I swear to God he looked pale.
I phoned Henry H. Barber, the lawyer that we could count on for almost anything except fee-splitting, to make sure he would be available on a minute's notice all day, and to tell him that he was to consider himself retained, through us, by Miss Clara Fox, in two actions: a suit to collect a debt from the Marquis of Clivers, and a suit for damages through false arrest against Ramsey Muir. Likewise, in the first case. Miss Hilda Lindquist.
It looked as if I had a minute loose, so I mounted the two flights to the south room and knocked on the door, and called out my name. She said come in, and I entered.
She was in the armchair, with books and magazines on the table, but none of them was opened. Maybe she had slept like a log, but her eyes looked tired. She frowned at me, I said, 'You shouldn't sit so close to the window. If they wanted to bad enough they could see in here from that Thirty-fourth Street roof.'
She glanced around. 'I shouldn't think so, with those curtains.'
'They're pretty thin. Let me move you back a little, anyhow.' She got up, and I shoved the chair and table toward the bed. 'I'm not usually nervous, but this is a stunt we're pulling.'
She sat down again and looked up at me. 'You don't like it, do you, Mr. Goodwin? I could see last night you didn't approve of it. Neither do I.'
I grinned at her. 'Bless your dear little heart, what difference does that make? Nero Wolfe is putting on a show and we're in the cast. Stick to the script, don't forget that.'
'I don't call it a show.' She was frowning again. 'A man has been murdered and it was my fault. I don't like to hide, and I don't want to. I'd rather-'
I showed her both palms. 'Forget it. You came to get Wolfe to help you, didn't you? All right, let him. He may be a nut, but you're lucky that he spotted the gleam of honesty in your eye or you'd be in one sweet mess this minute. You behave yourself. For instance, if that phone there on the stand is in any way a temptation…'
She shook her head. 'If it is, I'll resist it'
'Well, there's no use leaving it here anyhow.' I went and pulled the connection out of the plug and gathered the cord and instrument under my arm. 'I learned about feminine impulses in school. There goes the office phone. Don't open the door and don't go close to the windows.'
I beat it and went down two steps at a time. It was Dick Morley on the phone, with a tale. I offered to connect him with Wolfe in the plant rooms, but he said not to disturb him, he could give it to me. He had had a little trouble. The Clara Fox larceny charge was being handled by an Assistant District Attorney named Frisbie whom Morley knew only fairly well, and Frisbie hadn't seemed especially inclined to open up, hut Morley had got some facts. A warrant for Clara Fox's arrest, and a search warrant for her apartment, had been issued late Monday afternoon. The apartment had not been searched because detectives under Frisbie's direction had gone first to the garage where she kept her car, and had found in it, wrapped in a newspaper under the back seat, a package of hundred dollar bills amounting to $30,000. The case was considered airtight. Frisbie's men no longer had the warrant for arrest because it had been turned over to Inspector Cramer at the request of the Police Commissioner.
I thanked Morley and hung up and went upstairs to the plant rooms and told Wolfe the sad story. He was in the tropical room trimming wilts. When I finished he said, 'We were wrong, Archie. Not hyenas. Hyenas wait for a carcass. Get Mr. Perry on the phone, connect it here, and take it down.'
I went back to the office. It wasn't so easy to get Perry. His secretary was reluctant, or he was, or they both were, but I finally managed to get him on and put him through to Wolfe. Then I began a fresh page of the notebook.
Perry said he was quite busy, he hoped Wolfe could make it brief. Wolfe said he hoped so too, that first he wished to learn if he had misunderstood Perry Monday afternoon. He had gathered that Perry had believed Miss Fox to be innocent, had been opposed to any precipitate action, and had desired a careful and complete investigation. Perry said that was correct.
Wolfe's tone got sharp. 'But you did not know until after seven o'clock last evening that I was not going to investigate for you, and the warrant for Miss Fox's arrest was issued an hour earlier than that. You would not call that precipitate?'
Perry sounded flustered. 'Well… precipitate… yes, it was. It was, yes. You see… you asked me yesterday if I am not the fount of justice in this organization. To a certain extent, yes. But there is always… well… the human element. I am not a czar, neither in fact nor by temperament. When you phoned me last evening you may have thought me irritable- as a matter of fact, I thought of calling you back to apologize. The truth is I was chagrined and deeply annoyed. I knew then that a warrant had been issued for the arrest at the instance of Mr. Muir. Surely you can appreciate my position. Mr. Muir is a high official of my corporation. When I learned later in the evening that the money had been found in Miss Fox's car, I was astounded… I couldn't believe it… but what could I do? I was amazed…'
'Indeed.' Wolte still snapped. 'You've got your money back. Do you intend to proceed with the prosecution?'
'You don't need to take that tone, Wolfe.' Perry sharpened a little. 'I told you there is the human element. I'm noЈ a czar. Muir makes an issue of it. I'm being frank with you. I can't talk him off. Granted that I could kick the first vice-president out of the company if I wanted to, which is a good deal to grant, do you think I should? After all, he has the law-'
'Then you're with him on it?'
