When I returned to the office Wolfe was sitting slumped, taking air in through his nose and letting it out through his mouth, audibly. I stuck my hands in my pockets and looked down at him.
'So she told the cops about Dahlmann showing the paper,' I said. 'That'll help. Twenty minutes to lunch. Beer? I'll make an exception.'
He made a face.
'I could probably,' I suggested, 'get Los Angeles phone information to dig up a Mrs. Charles Draper, and you could ask her how they're making out with the verses.'
'Pointless,' he growled. 'If she killed him and got the answers, she would certainly have made the call and given her friends the verses. She admits she has brains. If I had had the answers I might… but no, that would have been premature. You have an appointment at two-thirty.'
'Right. Since expenses are on the house it wouldn't cost you anything to get Saul and Fred and Orrie and Johnny and Bill and hang tails on them, but with four of them living at the Churchill it would be a hell of a job-'
'Useless. If anything is to be learned by that kind of routine the police will get it long before we can. They probably--'
The phone rang. I got it at my desk, heard a deep gruff voice that needed filing, an old familiar voice, asked it to hold on, and told Wolfe that Sergeant Purley Stebbins wished to speak to him. He reached for his instrument, and since I am supposed to stay on unless I am told not to, I did so.
'This is Nero Wolfe, Mr. Stebbins. How do you do.'
'So-so. I'd like to drop in to see you-say three o'clock?'
'I'm sorry, I'll be engaged.'
'Three-thirty?'
'I'll still be engaged.'
'Well… I guess it can wait until six. Make it six o'clock?'
Purley knew that Wolfe's schedule, four to six up in the plant rooms, might be changed for an H-bomb, but nothing much short of that.
'I'm sorry, Mr. Stebbins, but I'll have no time today or this evening. Perhaps you can tell me--'
'Sure, I can tell you. Just a little friendly talk, that's all. I want to get your slant on a murder case.'
'I have no slant on any murder case.'
'No? Then why the hell--' He bit it off. He went on, 'Look, I know you and you know me. I'm no fancy dancer. But how about this, at half-past twelve a woman named Gertrude Frazee entered your premises and as far as I know she's still there. And you have no slant on the murder of a man named Louis Dahlmann? Tell it to Goodwin. I'm not trying to get a piece of hide, I just want to come and ask you some questions. Six o'clock?'
'Mr. Stebbins.' Wolfe was controlling himself. 'I have no commission to investigate the murder of Louis Dahlmann, or any other. On past occasions you and your associates have resented my presumption in undertaking to invesitgate a homicide. You have bullied me and harried me. When I offend again I shall expect you upon me again, but this time I am not invading your territory, so for heaven's sake let me alone.'
He hung up and so did I, synchronizing with him. I spoke. 'I admit that was neat and a chance not to be passed up, but wait till he tells Cramer.'
'I know.' He sounded better. 'Is the chain bolt on?'
I went to the hall to make sure, and then to the kitchen to tell Fritz we were under siege.
Chapter 5
I could merely report that I kept my two-thirty appointment and got the verses and answers, and let it go at that, but I think it's about time you had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Talbott Heery. He was quite a surprise to me, I don't know why, unless I had unconsciously decided what a perfume tycoon should look like and he didn't match. Nor did he smell. He was over six feet, broader than me and some ten years older, and his clear smooth skin, stretched tight over the bones, didn't look as if it had ever needed to be shaved. Nor was there any sign of grease or soot or paint. He might have been a member of the Men's Nature League.
Buff and O'Garro were with him, but not Assa. They had to do some explaining to get me admitted to the vault. Buff and Heery and I went to a small room, and soon O'Garro and an attendant came with the box, only about five by three and eighteen inches long, evidently rented for this purpose exclusively. The attendant left, and O'Garro unlocked the box and opened it, and took out some envelopes, six of them. The sealed flaps had gobs of sealing wax. Four of them had been cut open. He asked me, 'You want only the last group of five?'
I told him yes, and he handed me the two uncut envelopes. One of them was inscribed, 'Verses, second group of five, Pour Amour Contest,' and the other, 'Answers, second group of five, Pour Amour Contest.' As I got out my knife to slit them open O'Garro said, 'I don't want to see them,' and backed up against the end wall, and the others followed suit. From that distance they couldn't read typing, but they could watch me, and they did. There were pencils and paper pads on the table, but I preferred my pen and notebook, and sat down and used them. The five four-line verses were all on one sheet, and so were the answers--the names of five women, with brief explanations of the references in the verses.
