back.
I took a step toward him-that was involuntary- then wheeled and went and closed the door to the hall, and returned. At a glance, from the description Caroline had given me, it was Sidney Karnow. He was dressed, but without a jacket or tie. I squatted and slipped a hand inside his shirt and held my breath; nothing doing. I picked a few fibers from the rug and put them over his nostrils; they didn’t move. I got the lashes of his right eye between finger and thumb and pulled the lid partly down; it came stiffly and didn’t want to go back. I lifted his hand and pressed hard on the fingernail, and then removed the pressure; it stayed white. Actually I was overdoing it, because the temperature of the skin of his chest had been enough.
I stood up and looked down at him. It was unquestionably Karnow. I looked at my wristwatch and saw 7:22. Through the open door beyond him I could see the glitter of bathroom tiles and fittings, and, detouring around his outstretched arm, I went and squatted again for a close-up of two objects on the floor. One was a GI sidearm, a.45. I didn’t touch it. The other was a big wad of bath towels, and I touched it enough to learn, from a scorched hole and powder black, that it had been used to muffle the gun. I had seen no sign on the body of a bullet’s entrance or exit, and to find it I would have had to turn him over, and what did it matter? I got erect and shut my eyes to think. It is my habit, long established, when I open doors where I haven’t been invited, to avoid touching the knob with my fingertips. Had I followed it this time? I decided yes. Also, had I flipped the light switch with my knuckle? Again yes. Had I made prints anywhere else? No.
I crossed to the switch and used my knuckle again, got out my handkerchief to open the door and pull it shut after me, took an elevator down to the lobby floor, found a phone booth and dialed a number. The voice that answered belonged to Fritz. I told him I wanted Wolfe.
He was shocked. “But Archie, he’s at dinner!”
“Yeah, I know. Tell him I’ve been trapped by cannibals and they’re slicing me, and step on it.”
It was a full two minutes before Wolfe’s outraged voice came. “Well, Archie?”
“No, sir. Not well. I’m calling from a booth in the Churchill lobby. I left the clients in the bar, went up to Karnow’s room, found the door unlocked, and entered. Karnow was on the floor, dead, shot with an army gun. The gun’s there, but it wasn’t suicide, the gun was muffled with a wad of towels. How do I earn that five grand now?”
“Confound it, in the middle of a meal.”
If you think that was put on, you’re wrong. I know that damn fat genius. That was how he felt, and he said it, that’s all.
I ignored it. “I left nothing in the room,” I told him, “and I had no audience, so we’re fancy free. I know it’s hard to talk with your mouth full, but-”
“Shut up.” Silence for four seconds, then: “Did he die within the past ninety minutes?”
“No. The skin on his chest has started to cool off.”
“Did you see anything suggestive?”
“No. I was in there maybe three minutes. I wanted to interrupt your dinner. I can go back and give it a whirl.”
“Don’t.” He was curt. “There’s nothing to be gained by deferring the discovery. I’ll have Fritz notify the police anonymously. Bring Mr. Aubry and Mrs. Karnow-have they eaten?”
“They may be eating now. I told them to.”
“See that they eat, and then bring them here on a pretext. Devise one.”
“Don’t tell them?”
“No. I’ll tell them. Have them here in an hour and ten minutes, not sooner. I’ve barely started my dinner -and now this.”
He hung up.
After crossing the lobby and proceeding along one of the long, wide, and luxurious corridors, near the entrance to the Tulip Bar I was stopped by an old acquaintance, Tim Evarts, the first assistant house dick, only they don’t call him that, of the Churchill. He wanted to chin, but I eased him off. If he had known that I had just found a corpse in one of his rooms and forgot to mention it, he wouldn’t have been so chummy.
The big room was only half filled with customers at that hour. The clients were at a table over in a corner, and as I approached and Aubry got up to move a chair for me I gave them both a mark for good conduct. Presumably they were on the sharpest edge of anxiety to hear what I was bringing, but they didn’t yap or claw at me.
When I was seated I spoke to their waiting faces. “No answer to my knock. I’ll have to try again. Meanwhile let’s eat.”
I couldn’t see that their disappointment was anything but plain, wholesome disappointment.
“I can’t eat now,” Caroline said wearily.
“I strongly advise it,” I told her. “I don’t mean a major meal, but something like a piece of melon and a sturgeon sandwich? We can get that here. Then I’ll try again, and if there’s still no answer well see. You can’t stick around here all night.”
“He might show up any minute,” Aubry suggested. “Or he might come in and leave again. Wouldn’t it be better if you stayed up there?”
“Not on an empty stomach.” I was firm. “And I’ll bet Mrs.– What do I call you?”
“Oh, call me Caroline.”
“I’ll bet you haven’t eaten for a week. You may need some energy, so you’d better refuel.”
