I got up and went to the hall to let her out, to make sure that the door was properly closed behind her. When I was back in the office I sat down and tossed the notebook into a drawer and remarked, 'Now she's got us all tagged. I'm a coward, you're a shyster, and the executor of her father's estate is a rat. That poor kid needs some fresh contacts.'
Wolfe merely grunted, but it was a good-humored grunt, for the dinner hour was near, and he never permits himself to get irritated just before a meal.
'So,' I said, 'unless she does some fancy handling in a hurry she will be gathered in before noon tomorrow, and she was the last we had. All five of them, and also the suspect we were supposed to pin it on. I hope Saul and Orrie are doing better than we are. I have a date for dinner and a show with a friend, but I can break it if there's anything I can be doing--'
'Nothing, thank you.'
I glared at him. 'Oh, Saul and Orrie are doing it?'
'There's nothing for this evening, for you. I'll be here, attending to matters.'
Yes, he would. He would be here, reading books, drinking beer, and having Fritz tell anyone who called that he was engaged. It wasn't the first time he had decided that a case wasn't worth the effort and to hell with it. On such occasions my mission was to keep after him until I had him jarred loose, but this time my position was that if Orrie Cather could spend the after Curtains for Three 129
an in my chair he could damn well do my work. So I ; it lay and went up to my room to redecorate for the ifening out.
It was a very nice evening on all counts. Dinner at Rowan's, while not up to the standard Fritz had , my palate trained to, was always good. So was the aw, and so was the dance band at the Flamingo Club, we went afterward to get better acquainted, I had only known her seven years. What with i and that I didn't get home until after three o'clock, 1, following routine, looked in at the office to jiggle s handle of the safe and glance around. If there was a i for me Wolfe always left it on my desk under erweight, and there one was, on a sheet from his i, in his small thin handwriting that was as easy to as type, ran through it.
ag: Your work on the Keyes case has been | quite satisfactory. Now that it is solved, you may proceed as arranged and go to Mr. Hewitt's 6 place on Long Island in the morning to get 'those plants. Theodore will have the cartons ready for you. Don't forget to watch the ventila- tion.
NW
I;.',-! read it through again and turned it over to look at s back, to see if there was another installment, but it i blank.
'i I sat at my desk and dialed a number. None of my st friends or enemies was there, but I got a ser nt I knew named Rowley, and asked him, 'On the yes case, do you need anything you haven't got?'
130 Rex Stout
'Huh?' He always sounded hoarse. 'We need everything. Send it C.O.D.'
'A guy told me you had it on ice.'
'Aw, go to bed.'
He was gone. I sat a moment and then dialed again, the number of the Gazette office. Lon Cohen had gone home, but one of the journalists told me that as far as they knew the Keyes case was still back on a shelf, collecting dust.
I crumpled Wolfe's message and tossed it in the wastebasket, muttered, 'The damn fat faker,' and went up to bed.
XIII
In the Thursday morning papers there wasn't a single word in the coverage of the Keyes case to indicate that anyone had advanced even an inch in the hot pursuit of the murderer.
And I spent the whole day, from ten to six, driving to Lewis Hewitt's place on Long Island, helping to select and clean and pack ten dozen yearling plants, and driving back again. I did no visible fuming, but you can imagine my state of mind, and on my way home, when a cop stopped me as I was approaching Queens boro Bridge, and actually went so low as to ask me where the fire was, I had to get my tongue between my teeth to keep myself from going witty on him.
While I was lugging the last carton of plants up the stoop I had a surprise. A car I had often seen before, with PD on it, rolled up to the curb and stopped behind the sedan, and Inspector Cramer emerged from it.
'What has Wolfe got now?' he demanded, coming up the steps to me.
Curtains for Three 131
'A dozen zygopetalum,' I told him coldly, 'a dozen enanthera, a dozen odontoglossum--'
'Let me by,' he said rudely.
I did so.
What I should have done, to drive it in that I was ow a delivery boy and not a detective, was to go on ilping Theodore get the orchids upstairs, and I set teeth and started to do that, but it wasn't long efore Wolfe's bellow came from the office. 'Archie!'
I went on in. Cramer was in the red leather chair jth an unlighted cigar tilted toward the ceiling by the ip of his teeth. Wolfe, his tightened lips showing that s was enjoying a quiet subdued rage, was frowning at
'I'm doing important work,' I said curtly. 'It can wait. Get Mr. Skinner on the phone. If he left his office, get him at home.' I would have gone to much greater lengths if ler hadn't been there. As it was, all I did was 51 crossed to my desk and sat down and started i dial. 'Cut it!' Cramer barked savagely.
I went on dialing. 'I said stop it!'
