Nobody said so. I gave them four seconds and went on. 'Another point. I've told you that Inspector Cramer of Homicide came to see Mr. Wolfe last night. I'm not quoting him, but when he left Mr. Wolfe's main impression was that he wasn't completely sold on the idea that one of the contestants killed Dahlmann to get the paper in the wallet. Someone could have killed him for a quite different reason and didn't take the wallet or anything else, and later one of you went there to see him and found him dead. You looked to see if the wallet was in his pocket, and it was, and you didn't want it found on his body on account of the risk that what was on the paper might possibly be made public, so you took the wallet and beat it. That would--'
They all broke in. Hansen said, 'Absurd. Mr. Wolfe certainly wasn't--'
'Just a minute,' I stopped him. 'Mr. Wolfe told Cramer that he thought it likely that one of the contestants took the wallet, and that he was assuming that whoever killed Dahlmann took the wallet, but that doesn't mean he can toss Cramer's idea in the garbage as a pipe dream. He has no proof it didn't happen like that; all he has is what you men told him. So if he doesn't want to run the risk of being made a monkey of, which he doesn't, believe me, he has to keep that on the list of possibles, and in that case how can he tell you what he's doing and going to do? Tell who? His client is Lippert, Buff and Assa, but there's no such person as Lippert, Buff and Assa, it would have to be one of you, and it might be the very guy who went to Dahlmann's place and retrieved the wallet. Therefore--'
'It's absurd on the face of it,' Hansen said. 'It would--'
'Let me finish. Therefore Mr. Wolfe has a double reason not to keep you posted on every move-first, he never does with anybody, and second, one of you could be holding out on him and set to spike him. I don't think he thinks you are, but it's a cinch he wouldn't take that chance. There's no use trying to persuade me it's absurd, because Mr. Wolfe is the expert on absurdity, not me, and I wouldn't undertake to pass it on. That about covers the situation, except this, that he's fed up with your shoving. I had to disturb him to tell him about the performance you have put on this afternoon because I had to ask him if he wanted me to come up here, and I am now reporting that he is fed up. He is willing to go on with the job only with the understanding that what he is committed to get for you is results as they were outlined, as quickly and satisfactorily as possible, using his best ability and judgment. If you want him to continue on that basis, okay. If not, he might be willing to take on the job for Mr. Heery, but I doubt it, without the consent and approval of LBA, because you're all in it together.'
'What then?' Hansen asked, colder than ever. 'He has dismissed me as his attorney. What would he do?'
'1 don't know, but I can give you a guess, and I know him fairly well. I think he would give Inspector Cramer the whole story as he knows it, including whatever he may have learned since he talked with you people, and forget it.'
'Let him!' O'Garro barked. 'To hell with him!':
Buflf said, 'Take it easy, Pat.'
'I think we're overlooking something,' Assa said. 'We've let our personal feelings get involved, and that's wrong. The one thing we all want is to save the contest, and what we've got to ask ourselves is whether we're more likely to do that with Wolfe or without him. Let me ask you this, Goodwin. I agree with Mr. Hansen that Inspector Cramer's idea is absurd, but just suppose that Wolfe did find evidence, or thought he did, that one of us went to Dahlmann's apartment and found him dead and took the wallet. Whom would he report it to?'
'That would depend. If LBA was still his client, to LBA. He was hired--these were Hansen's words--to find out who took the wallet and got the paper. If he did what he was hired to do, or thought he had, naturally he would tell his client and no one else. There would be two offenses involved, swiping a wallet and failing to report discovery of a dead body, but that wouldn't bother him. But he couldn't report to a client if he no longer had one, and my guess is he would just empty the bag for Cramer.'
'That,' Hansen said, 'is an unmistakable threat.'
'Is it?' I grinned at him. 'That's bad. I thought I was just answering a question. I withdraw it.'
Talbott Heery, across the mahogany top from me, suddenly was up and on his feet, in all his height and breadth, glaring around with no favorites. 'If I ever saw a bunch of lightweights,' he told them, 'this is it. You know goddam well Nero Wolfe is our only hope of getting out of this without losing most of our hide, and listen to you!' He put two fists on the table. 'I'll tell you this right now: at the end of the contract you're done with Heery Products! If I had had any sense--'
'Tape it, Tal.' O'Garro's voice was raised, with a sneer in it. 'Go downstairs and tape it! We'll get along without you and without Nero Wolfe too! I don't--'
The others joined in and they were boiling again. I was perfectly willing to sit and watch the bubbles, but Oliver Buff arose and took my sleeve and practically pulled me to my feet, and was steering me to the door. His teeth were set on his lower lip, but had to release it for speech. 'If you'll wait outside,' he said, pushing me into the hall. 'We'll send for you.' He shut the door.
Outside could have meant right there, but eavesdropping is vulgar if you can't distinguish words, and I soon found that I couldn't, so I moseyed down the wide carpeted hall and on through into the reception room. A couple of the upholstered chairs had customers, but not the same ones as when I had arrived. When I lingered instead of pushing the elevator button the aristocratic brunette at the desk gave me a look, and, not wanting her to worry, I went and told her the evidence was all in and I was waiting for the verdict. She had a notion to give me a smile--I was wearing a dark brown pin-stripe that was a good fit, with a solid tan shirt and a soft wool medium- brown tie--but decided it would be better to wait until we heard the verdict. I decided she was too cagey for one of my temperament, and crossed the rugs over to a battery of large cabinets with glass fronts that covered all of a wall and part of two others. They were filled with an assortment of objects of all sizes, shapes, colors, and materials.
Being a detective, I soon detected what they were: samples of the products of LBA clients, past and present. I thought it was very democratic to have them here in the executive reception room instead of down on a lower floor with the riffraff. Altogether there must have been several thousand different items, from spark plugs to ocean liners to paper drinking cups to pharmaceuticals-though in the case of the liners and trucks and refrigerators, and other bulky items, they had settled for photographs instead of the real thing. There was an elegant little model of a completely equipped super-modern kitchen, about eighteen inches long, that I would have taken home for a doll's house, if I had had a wife and we had had a child and the child had been a girl and the girl had liked dolls. I was having a second look at the Heery Products section, which alone had over a hundred specimens, and was trying to decide what I thought of yellow for packaging, when the brunette called my name and I turned.
'You may go in,' she said, and darned if the smile didn't nearly break through. Of course she had had plenty of time to inspect me from behind, and I never had a suit that fitted better. I repaid her with a friendly glance that spoke volumes as I stepped to the door to the inner hall.
