I was with him. 'Need any professional coaching?'
'I sure do.' He was at the rack getting his things. 'I'll start at the bottom and work down.'
'That's the spirit.' I opened the door. 'If you get your throat cut or something just give me a ring.'
'Glad to, Archie. You'd be the one all right.'
'Okay. Keep your gloves on.'
He went, and I shut the door and went back to work. There had been a day when I got a little peeved if Wolfe gave Saul a chore without telling me what it was, and also told him not to tell me, but that was long past. It didn't peeve me any more; it merely bit me because I couldn't guess it. I sat at my desk a good ten minutes trying to figure it, then realized that was about as useful as reading a novel in verse, and hit the typewriter.
My speed at typing notes of interviews depends on the circumstances. Once in a real pinch I did ten pages an hour for three hours, but my average is around six or seven, and I have been known to mosey along at four or five. That morning I stepped on it, to get as much done as possible before Wolfe came down from the plant rooms at eleven o'clock, since he would certainly have some errands ready for me. I was interrupted by phone calls-- one from Rudolph Hansen, wanting a progress report, one from Oliver Buff, wanting the same, one from Philip Younger, wanting me to arrange an appointment for him with the LBA crowd and getting sore when I stalled him, and one from Lon Cohen of the Gazette, wanting to know if I felt like giving him something hot on the Dahlmann murder. Being busy, I didn't start an argument by saying we weren't working on the murder; I just told him he'd have to stand in line, and didn't bother to ask him how he knew we were in the play. Probably Miss Frazee. In spite of the interruptions, I had finished Wheelock and Younger and Tescher by eleven o'clock, and started on Rollins.
The sound of Wolfe's elevator came, and he appeared, told me good morning, crossed to his chair and got his poundage adjusted, and spoke. 'I left my papers in my room. May I have yours?'
I should have put them on his desk, since I knew he had had company for breakfast. I took them to him and then resumed at the typewriter. He glanced through the morning mail, which was mostly circulars and requests from worthy causes, then settled back with the news. That was okay, since there could have been an item that might affect the program for the day. He is not a fast reader, and I pounded along in high so as to be finished by the time he was ready. It was still before noon by ten minutes when I rolled the last page of Rollins from the machine, and after collating the originals and carbons I turned for a glance at him.
He had put the papers down and was deep in Beauty for Ashes.
No commonplace crack would fit the situation. It was serious and could be critical. I stapled the reports, labeled a folder 'Lippert, Buff and Assa' and put them in it, went and put the folder in the cabinet, came back to my desk and put things away, turned to him and announced, 'I'm all set. Hansen and Buff phoned to ask how we're coming, and I told them there was no use crowding. Philip Younger wants you to get him a conference with LBA, and I said maybe later. Lon Cohen wants the murderer's name with a picture by five o'clock. That's the crop. I'm ready for instructions.'
He finished a paragraph--no, it was verse. He finished something, then his eyes came at me over the top of the book. 'I haven't any,' he stated.
'Oh. Tomorrow, maybe? Or some day next week?'
'I don't know. I gave it some thought last night, and I don't know.'
I stared at him. 'This is your finest hour,' I said emphatically. 'This is the rawest you have ever pulled. You took the case just twenty-four hours ago. Why didn't you turn it down? That you have the gall to sit there on your fanny and read poetry is bad enough, but that you tell me to do likewise…' I stood up. 'I quit.' 'I haven't told you to read poetry.' 'You might as well. I'm quitting, and I'm going to the ball game.'
He shook his head. 'You can't quit in the middle of a case, and you can't go to the ball game because I couldn't get you if you were suddenly needed.'
'Needed for what? Bring you beer?'
'No.' He put the book down, drew a long deep sigh, and leaned back. 'I suppose this has to be. You're enraged because I haven't devised a list of sallies and exploits for you. You have of course pondered the situation, as I have. I sympathize with your eagerness to do something. What would you suggest?'
'It's not up to me. If I did the suggesting around here, that would be my desk and this would be yours.'
'Nevertheless, I put it to you. Please sit down so I can look at you without stretching my neck. Thank you. There is nothing you can do about any of these people that the police have not already done, and are doing, with incomparably greater resources and numbers. Keeping them under surveillance, investigating their past, learning if any of them had a gun, checking their alibis, harassing them by prolonged and repetitive inquisition--do you want to compete with the police on any of those?'
'You know damn well I don't. I want you to go to work and come up with instructions for me. Unless Saul is handling it?'
'Saul has been given a little task I didn't want to spare you for. You will accept my decision that at the moment there is nothing to be done by either you or me. That condition may continue for a week, until after the deadline has come and gone. Messrs. Hansen and Buff and O'Garro and Assa--and Mr. Heery too--are quite wrong in thinking that the culprit must be exposed before the deadline; on the contrary, it will be much more feasible after the deadline, unless--'
'That won't do us any good. You can't stall them that long. They'll bounce you.'
'I doubt it. I'd have something to say about it. And anyway, I was saying that it will be more feasible after the deadline unless something happens, and I rather think that something will. The tension is extremely severe, not only for the culprit, but also for the others, in one way or another. That's why you can't go to the ball game; you must be at hand. Also for the phone calls. They'll get increasingly exigent and must be handled discreetly but firmly. I could help some with them, but it would be best for me to be so deeply engaged with the problem that I am unavailable. Of course they are not to be told that I think the solution may have to wait until after the deadline.'
'Say by the Fourth of July,' I suggested bitterly.
