At six-thirty, when the scientists were still monopolizing the room where Getz had got it, and city employees were wandering all over the place, and the various inmates were still in various rooms conversing privately with Homicide men, and I had typed and signed my own frank and full statement, I was confidently expecting that I would soon be out on the sidewalk unattended, flagging a taxi. I was in the front room on the ground floor, seated at Pat Lowell's desk, having used her typewriter, and Sergeant Purley Stebbins was sitting across from me, looking over my statement.
He lifted his head and regarded me, perfectly friendly. A perfectly friendly look from Stebbins would, from almost anyone else, cause you to get your guard up and be ready to either duck or counter, but Purley wasn't responsible for
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the design of his big bony face and his pig-bristle eyebrows. 'I guess you got it all in,' he admitted. 'As you told it.' 'I suggest,' I said modestly, 'that when this case is put away you send that to the school to be used as a model report.'
'Yeah.' He stood up. 'You're a good typist.' He turned to
g?I arose too, saying casually, 'I can run along now?'
The door opened, and Inspector Cramer entered. I didn't like his expression as he darted a glance at me. Knowing him well in all his moods, I didn't like the way his broad shoulders were hunched, or his clamped jaw, or the glint in his eye.
'Here's Goodwin's statement,' Purley said. 'Okay.'
'As he told it?'
'Yes.'
'Send him downtown and hold him.'
It caught me completely off balance. 'Hold me?' I demanded, squeaking almost like Hildebrand.
'Yes, sir.' Nothing could catch Purley off balance. 'On your order?'
'No, charge him. Sullivan Act. He has no license for the gun we found on him.'
'Ha, ha,' I said. 'Ha, ha, and ha, ha. There, you got your laugh. A very fine gag. Ha.'
'You're going down, Goodwin. I'll be down to see you later.'
As I said, I knew him well. He meant it. I had his eyes. 'This,' I said, 'is way out of my reach. I've told you where and how and why I got that gun.' I pointed to the paper in Purley's hand. 'Read it. It's all down, punctuated.'
'You had the gun in your holster and you have no license for it.'
'Nuts. But I get it. You've been hoping for years to hang something on Nero Wolfe, and to you I'm just a part of him, and you think here's your chance. Of course it won't stick. Wouldn't you rather have something that will? Like resisting arrest and assaulting an officer? Glad to oblige. Watch it--'
Tipping forward, I started a left hook for his jaw, fast and 144
vicious, then jerked it down and went back on my heels. It didn't create a panic, but I had the satisfaction of seeing Cramer take a quick step back and Stebbins one forward. They bumped.
'There,' I said. 'With both of you to swear to it, that ought to be good for at least two years. I'll throw the typewriter at you if you'll promise to catch it.'
'Cut the clowning,' Purley growled.
'You lied about that gun,' Cramer snapped. 'If you don't want to get taken down to think it over, think now. Tell me what you came here for and what happened.'
'I've told you.'
'A string of lies.'
(Civ T ? >*
No, sir.
'You can have 'em back. I'm not trying to hang something on Wolfe, or you either. I want to know why you came here and what happened.'
'Oh, for God's sake.' I moved my eyes. 'Okay, Purley, where's my escort?'
Cramer strode four paces to the door, opened it, and called, 'Bring Mr. Koven in here!'
Harry Koven entered with a dick at his elbow. He looked as if he was even farther away from happiness than before.
'We'll sit down,' Cramer said.
He left me behind the desk. Purley and the dick took chairs in the background. Cramer stationed himself across the desk from me, where Purley had been, with Koven on a chair at his left. He opened up.
'I told you, Mr. Koven, that I would ask you to repeat your story in Goodwin's presence, and you said you would.'
Koven nodded. 'That's right.' He was hoarse.
'We won't need all the details. Just answer me briefly. When you called on Nero Wolfe last Saturday evening, what did you ask him to do?'
'I told him I was going to have Dazzle Dan start a detective agency in a new series.' The hoarseness bothered Koven, and he cleared his throat explosively. 'I told him I needed technical assistance, and possibly a tie-up, if we
