here last night and apparently no one else did?'
'But that's absolutely idiotic! Why shouldn't you come here?'
'All right, I should. But I think they came within an inch of arresting me.'
'Then you need a lawyer. Where's Demarest? Did he send you to Nero Wolfe?'
Cynthia shook her head. 'I haven't seen him, but I'm going to as soon as -'
'Damn it, you should have seen him first!'
'I'm not taking your time,' Cynthia declared, 'to ask you what I should have done. I'll tend to that, thank you. I want to ask you to do something.'
I thought she was making a bad start and needed help. 'May I join in?' I inquired pleasantly.
Bernard scowled at me. 'This thing is absolutely crazy,' he complained. 'What we ought to do is ignore it! Simply ignore it!'
'Yeah,' I agreed, 'that would be innocent and brave, but it might get complicated. If one of you gets charged with murder and locked up it would take a master ignorer -'
'Good God, why should we? How could we? Why would any of us kill a man we never saw or heard of before? The thing for the police to do is find out how he ever got in here – that's their problem.'
'I completely agree,' I assured him heartily. 'The trouble is you've got a logical mind and some cops haven't. So the fact remains that one of you, especially one of you that has a key to this place, is apt to get arrested for murder, and right now the odds strongly favor Miss Nieder because they know she used her key last night. Getting convicted is something else, but she would rather not even be arrested right in the middle of the showings of the fall line. May I go on a minute?'
'We're busy as the devil,' Bernard muttered.
'I'll be brief. Miss Nieder has hired Mr. Wolfe. She will consult her lawyer, Demarest, within the hour. But meanwhile -'
The door swung open and a man entered. He too shut the door behind him, half turning to close it gently, and then spoke as he advanced.
'Good afternoon, Cynthia. Good afternoon, Bernard. What on earth is going on here?' He saw me. 'Who are you, sir, an officer of the law? So am I, in a way. My name is Demarest – Henry R. Demarest, Counselor.' He was coming to me to shake on it, and I stood up and obliged.
'Goodwin, Archie,' I said, 'assistant to Nero Wolfe, private detective.'
'Oho!' His brows went up. 'Nero Wolfe, eh?' He turned to the others and I had his broad back and the pudgy behind of his neck. 'What is all this? A dead man found on the premises and I have to learn it from a policeman asking me about my key? May I ask why I was not informed?'
'We were busy,' Bernard said gruffly. 'And not with business. The whole police force was here.'
'I tried to phone you last night,' Cynthia said, 'but you weren't at home, and today you were out at lunch, and I have arranged with Nero Wolfe to keep me from being convicted of murder, and Mr. Goodwin came here with me. I was nearly arrested because I came here last night and stayed fifteen minutes.'
Demarest nodded. He had deposited his hat on Bernard's desk and his fanny on Bernard's chair the other side of the desk, which seemed a little arbitrary. He nodded again at Cynthia.
'I know. A friend at the District Attorney's office has given me the particulars. But my dear child, you should have called on me at once. I should have been beside you! You went to Nero Wolfe instead? Why?'
He irritated me. Also Cynthia sent me a glance which I interpreted to mean that hired help are supposed to earn their pay, so I horned in.
'Maybe I can answer that, Mr. Demarest. In fact that's what I was about to do when you entered. You know how it stands now, do you?'
'I know how it stood thirty minutes ago.'
'Then you're up with us. I was explaining to Mr. Daumery that Miss Nieder would prefer not to be arrested. Primarily that's what sent her to Mr. Wolfe. I was going on to explain what she can expect of Mr. Wolfe. She won't have to pay him for an all-out job. On a case like this that would mean checking on everybody who entered or left the building last evening after hours, which would be quite a chore itself, considering how careless elevator men get. Things like that are much better left to the police, and a lot of similar jobs, for instance the fingerprint roundup, the laboratory angles, checking alibis, and so on. Naturally the five people who have keys to this place are special cases. Their alibis will get it good, and they'll be tailed day and night, and all the rest of it. We'll let the city pay for all that, not Miss Nieder. That's what Mr. Wolfe won't do.'
'It doesn't leave much, does it?' Demarest inquired.
'Enough to keep him occupied. Apparently you've heard of him, Mr. Demarest, so you probably know he goes about it his way. That's what he's doing now, and that's why I'm here. He sent me to arrange a little meeting at his office tonight. Miss Nieder, Miss Zarella, Mr. Daumery, Mr. Roper, and you. You are the five who have keys. Half-past eight would suit him fine if it would suit you. Refreshments served.'
Bernard and Demarest made noises. The one from Bernard was an impatient grunt, but the one from Demarest sounded more like a chuckle.
'We're summoned,' the lawyer said.
I grinned at him. 'I wouldn't dream of putting it that way.'
'No, but we are.' He chuckled again. 'We who have keys. I offer a comment. You said that Wolfe's primary function, as Miss Nieder sees it, is to prevent her arrest. Obviously he intends to perform it by getting someone else arrested – and tried and convicted. That may prove to be a difficult and expensive undertaking, and
