from the minds of the police and the public, I must begin by removing it from my own mind. That will take many hours of hard work.'
'Oh,' Dorothy Keyes put in, her brows going up, 'you suspect us, do you?'
82 Rex Stout
Wolfe, ignoring her, asked Broadyke, 'Well, sir?'
'I'll have to phone,' Broadyke muttered.
'You may,' Wolfe conceded, as if he were yielding a point. His eyes moved, left and right and left again, and settled on Audrey Rooney, whose chair was a little in the rear, to one side of Wayne Safford's. 'Miss Rooney,' he shot at her, 'you seem to be the most vulnerable, since you were on the scene. When did Mr. Keyes dismiss you from his employ, and what for?'
Audrey had been sitting straight and still, with her lips tight. 'Well, it was--' she began, but stopped to clear her throat and then didn't continue because of an interruption.
The doorbell had rung, and I had left it to Fritz to answer it, which was the custom when I was engaged with Wolfe and visitors, unless superseding orders had been given. Now the door to the hall opened, and Fritz entered, closed the door behind him, and announced. 'A gentleman to see you, sir. Mr. Victor Talbott.'
The name plopped in the middle of us like a paratrooper at a picnic.
'By God!' Wayne Safford exclaimed.
'How the devil--' Frank Broadyke started, and stopped.
'So you told him!' Pohl spat at Dorothy Keyes.
Dorothy merely raised her brows. I was getting fed up with that routine and wished she would try something else.
Audrey Rooney's mouth was hanging open.
'Show him in,' Wolfe told Fritz.
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Like millions of my fellow citizens, I had done some sizing up of Victor Talbott from pictures of him in the papers, and within ten seconds after he had joined us in the office I had decided the label I had tied on him .could stay. He was the guy who, at a cocktail party or before dinner, grabs the tray of appetizers and passes it around, looking into eyes and making cracks.
Not counting me, he was easily the best-looking male in the room.
Entering, he shot a glance and a smile at Dorothy Keyes, ignored the others, came to a stop in front of Wolfe's desk, and said pleasantly, 'You're Nero Wolfe, of course. I'm Vie Talbott. I suppose you'd rather not shake hands with me under the circumstances--that is, if you're accepting the job these people eame to offer you. Are you?'
; 'How do you do, sir,' Wolfe rumbled. 'Good heavens, I've shaken hands with--how many murderers, Archie?'
'Oh--forty,' I estimated.
'At least that. That's Mr. Goodwin, Mr. Talbott.'
Evidently Vie figured I might be squeamish too, for he gave me a nod but extended no hand. Then he turned to face the guests. 'What about it, folks? Have you hired the great detective?'
'Nuts,' Wayne Safford squeaked at him. 'You come prancing in, huh?'
Ferdinand Pohl had left his chair and was advancing on the gate-crasher. I was on my feet, ready to move. There was plenty of feeling loose in the room, and I didn't want any of our clients hurt. But all Pohl did was to tap Talbott on the chest with a thick forefinger and growl at him, 'Listen, my boy. You're not go 84 Rex Stoat
ing to sell anything here. You've made one sale too many as it is.' Pohl whirled to Wolfe. 'What did you let him in for?'
'Permit me to say,' Broadyke put in, 'that it does seem an excess of hospitality.'
'By the way, Vie'--it was Dorothy's soft voice-- 'Ferdy says I was your accomplice.'
The remarks from the others had made no visible impression on him, but it was different with Dorothy. He turned to her, and the look on his face was good for a whole chapter in his biography. He was absolutely all hers unless I needed an oculist. She could lift her lovely brows a thousand times a day without feeding him up. He let his eyes speak to her and then wheeled to use his tongue for Pohl. 'Do you know what I think of you, Ferdy? I guess you do!'
'If you please,' Wolfe said sharply. 'You don't need my office for exchanging your opinions of one another; you can do that anywhere. We have work to do. Mr. Talbott, you asked if I've accepted a job that has been offered me. I have. I have engaged to investigate the murder of Sigmund Keyes. But I have received no confidences and can still decline it. Have you a better offer? What did you come here for?'
Talbott smiled at him. 'That's the way to talk,' he said admiringly. 'No, I have nothing to offer in the way of a job, but I felt I ought to be in on this. I figured it this way: they were going to hire you to get me arrested for murder, so naturally you would like to have a look at me and ask me some questions--and here I am.'
'Pleading not guilty, of course. Archie. A chair for Mr. Talbott.'
'Of course,' he agreed, thanking me with a smile for the chair I brought, and sitting down. 'Otherwise
Curtains for Three 85
lyou'd have no job. Shoot.' Suddenly he flushed. 'Un Ider the circumstances, I guess I shouldn't have said 'shoot.''
