'All set,' I told them. 'Make yourselves comfortable. If you need anything don't yell, this room is soundproofed; push this button.' I put my finger on it, under the edge of the table. 'I'll give you the news as soon as there is any.' I was going.
'But this is hanging in the air on a thread,' Carl protested.
'You're damn right it is,' I agreed grimly. 'Your only hope is that Mr. Wolfe has now put his foot in it, and it's up to him to get both you and him loose, not to mention me. He can't possibly do it, which is an advantage, because the only things he ever really strains himself on are those that can't be done. The next two hours are time out. He doesn't let anything interfere with his afternoon session, from four to six, with his orchids up on the roof. By the way, there is a small gleam. Inspector Cramer beat it back to the shop because he got a phone call that Janet had been hurt. If she got hurt with scissors with you not there, it may be a real break.'
'Janet?' Tina was distressed. 'Was she hurt much?'
I looked at her suspiciously. Surely that was phony. But she looked as if she really meant it. Maybe with some people who have been hurt plenty and often themselves, that's the way they react when someone else gets it, someone they know.
'I don't know,' I said, 'and I'm not going to try to find out. Curiosity can be justified only up to a point, and this is no time to stretch it. We'll have to sit it out, at least until six o'clock.' I glanced at my wrist. 'That's only an hour and twenty minutes. Then we'll see if Mr. Wolfe has cooked up a charade. If not, he may at least invite you to dinner. See you later.' 96
As I turned to go Carl sprang and broke my neck.
I have had enough unpleasant surprises over the years so that I am never completely off guard, but I admit I was careless that time because I underestimated him. He was a full three inches and thirty pounds under me, but I should have known that a guy who had managed a getaway from a concentration camp, and also from a continent, must have learned some good tricks. He had. The one he tried on me took him off the floor and through the air at my back, got his knees in my spine and his arm hooked under my chin. I was careless, but not quite careless enough. I heard and felt his rush too late to wheel or step, but in time to arch my back and drop my chin. He fastened onto me piggyback, and his muscles were a real surprise.
If he was that quick on the spring he might be just as quick with his left hand getting out a knife, so I didn't try to get subtle. I bent my knees, called on my legs for all they had, jumped straight up as high as I could with him on me, jerked backwards in the air to horizontal, and hit the floor--or he did, with me on top. It squashed air out of him and jolted his arm loose. I bounced off to the right, got my feet under me, and came up, facing Tina in case she was prepared to help.
She wasn't. She was just standing there, frozen, with no blood left in her, anyway not in her face. I moved my head a little from left to right and then slowly in a circle. 'I thought he broke my neck,' I told her, 'but he didn't. He only tried to.'
She had no comment. Carl was on the floor, pulling air in for replacement. I stepped to him, reached down for his arm, yanked him upright, and went over him good. The only tool he had was a pocket knife with two little blades.
I backed up a step and remarked, 'You act on impulse, don't you?'
'I couldn't break your neck,' he said, as if his feelings were hurt. 'You're too strong.'
'You sure could try.'
'No. I only wanted to go. If we stay here there is no hope. It would have made you numb, that was all.'
97
'Yeah. Napoleon's been numb for over a century. I hope your ribs hurt. If so, think of me.'
I went to the door to the office, passed through, closed the door, and locked it. There in privacy I took a survey, physical and mental. It was no pleasure to move my head, especially backward, but it did move. My back was sore where his knees had hit it, but some assorted twisting and bending proved that all the joints worked without cracking. I sat at my desk for the mental part. Getting my neck broke, or damn near it, had cleared my brain. Being smart enough to get it in that neither Carl nor Tina could drive a car was all right as far as it went, but it proved nothing at all about the scissors in Jake Wallen's back; it merely showed that there are motives and motives. The cops thought Wallen had been killed by a cornered hit-and-run driver, but what did I think? And even more important, what did Wolfe think? Was he up ahead of me as usual, or was he being too offhand, since no fee was involved, and maybe letting us in for a bloody nose?
I sat and surveyed and got so dissatisfied that I rang the plant rooms, told Wolfe about Carl's attempt to numb me, and tried to go on from there, but he brushed me off and said it could wait until six o'clock. I sat some more, practiced moving my head in various directions, and then got up to do back exercises. I was bending to touch the floor with my fingers when the phone rang.
It was Sergeant Purley Stebbins. 'Archie? Purley. I'm at the barber shop. We want you here quick.'
Two things told me it was no hostile mandate: his tone and the 'Archie.' The nature of my encounters with him usually had him calling me Goodwin, but occasionally it was Archie.
I responded in kind. 'I'm busy but I guess so. If you really want me. Do you care to specify?'
'When you get here. You're needed, that's all. Grab a cab.'
I buzzed Wolfe on the house phone and reported the development. Then I got a gun from the drawer, went to the
kitchen and gave it to Fritz, described-the status of the guests, and told him to keep his eyes and ears open. Then I hopped.
Ijj-j^HE crowd of spectators ganged up in the corridor outside U the Goldenrod Barber Shop was twice as big as it had been before, for two reasons. It was just past five o'clock, and home-goers were flocking through for the subway; and inside the shop there was a fine assortment of cops and dicks to look at. The corridor sported not one flatfoot, but three, keeping people away from the entrance and moving. I told one of them my name and errand and was ordered to wait, and in a minute Purley came and escorted me in.
