Three big ones. Or just hand her bottle.' His tone was mean and his face was mean, and any 156 Rex Stoat
how that was no way to talk in front of the help in a strange house, meaning me. He was some younger than Colonel Brown, but he already looked enough like Mrs. Orwin, especially the eyes, to make it more than a guess that they were mother and son. That point was settled when she commanded him, 'Be quiet, Gene!' She turned to the colonel. 'Perhaps you should go and see about her?'
He shook his head, with a fond but manly smile at her. 'It's not necessary, Mimi. Really.'
'She's all right,' I assured them and pushed off, thinking there were a lot of names in this world that could stand a reshuffle. Calling that overweight narrow-eyed pearl-and-mink proprietor Mimi was a paradox.
I moved around among the guests, being gracious. Fully aware that I was not equipped with a Geiger counter that would flash a signal if and when I established a contact with a strangler, the fact remained that I had been known to have hunches, and it would be something for my scrapbook if I picked one as the killer of Doris Hatten and it turned out later to be sunfast.
Cynthia Brown hadn't given me the Hatten, only the Doris, but with the context that was enough. At the time it had happened, some five months ago, early in October, the papers had given it a big play of course. She had been strangled with her own scarf, of white silk with the Declaration of Independence printed on it, in her cozy fifth-floor apartment in the West Seventies, and the scarf had been left around her neck, knotted at the back. The cops had never got within a mile of charging anyone, and Sergeant Purley Stebbins of Homicide had told me that they had never even found
Curtains for Three 157
jfwho was paying the rent, but there was no law st Purley being discreet, kept on the go through the plant rooms, leaving /itches open for a hunch. Some of them were ' preposterous, but with everyone else I made an tunity to exchange some words, fullface and close at took time, and it was no help to my current i chronic campaign for a raise in wages, since it was ||sromen, not the men, that Wolfe wanted off his ,1 stuck at it anyhow. It was true that if Cynthia |en the level, and if she hadn't changed her mind by ne I got Wolfe in to her, we would soon have Bcations, but I had had that tingle at the bottom spine and I was stubborn. I say, it took time, and meanwhile five o'clock and went, and the crowd thinned out. Going on ty the remaining groups seemed to get the I all at once that time was up and made for the to the stairs. I was in the moderate room it happened, and the first thing I knew I was s there, except for a guy at the north bench, study l row of dowianas. He didn't interest me, as I had iy canvassed him and crossed him off as the ; type for a strangler, but as I glanced his way he enly bent forward to pick up a pot with a flower plant, and as he did so I felt my back stiffening. |r stiffening was a reflex, but I knew what had it: the way his fingers closed around the pot, Uy the thumbs. No matter how careful you are er people's property, you don't pick up a five-inch las if you were going to squeeze the life out of it. [made my way around to him. When I got there he ^holding the pot so that the flowers were only a few
from his eyes. -Nice flower,' I said brightly.
158 Bex Stout
He nodded. 'What color do you caD the sepals?'
'Nankeen yellow.'
He leaned to put the pot back, still choking it. I swiveled my head. The only people in sight, beyond the glass partition between us and the cool room, were Nero Wolfe and a small group of guests, among whom were the Orwin trio and Bill McNab, the garden editor of the Gazette. As I turned my head back to my man he straightened up, pivoted on his heel, and marched off without a word. Whatever else he might or might not have been guilty of, he certainly had bad manners.
I followed him, on into the warm room and through, out to the landing, and down the three Sights of stairs. Along the main hall I was courteous enough not to step on his heel, but a lengthened stride would have reached it. The hall was next to empty. A woman, ready for the street in a caracul coat, was standing there, and Saul Panzer was posted near the front door with nothing to do. I followed my man on into the front room, the cloakroom, where Fritz Brenner was helping a guest on with his coat. Of course the racks were practically bare, and with one glance my man saw his property and went to get it. His coat was a brown tweed that had been through a lot more than one winter. I stepped forward to help, but he ignored me without even bothering to shake his head. I was beginning to feel hurt. When he emerged to the hall I was beside him, and as he moved to the front door I spoke.
'Excuse me, but we're checking guests out as well as in. Your name, please?'
'Ridiculous,' he said curtly, and reached for the knob, pulled the door open, and crossed the sill. Saul, knowing I must have had a reason for wanting to check him out, was at my elbow, and we stood watching his back as he descended the seven steps of the stoop.
Curtains for Three 159
il?' Saul muttered at me. hook my head and was parting my lips to mutter back, when a sound came from behind us aade us both whirl around--a screech from a a, not loud but full of feeling. As we whirled, t and the guest he had been serving came out of ont room, and all four of us saw the woman in the 1 coat come running out of the office into the hall, pt coming, gasping something, and the guest, a noise like an alarmed male, moved to meet [moved faster, needing about eight jumps to the Indoor and two inside. There I stopped.
course I knew the thing on the floor was but only because I had left her in there in jjpdothes. With the face blue and contorted, the halfway out, and the eyes popping, it could een almost anybody. I knelt and slipped my jijnside her dress front, kept it there ten seconds, felt nothing.
I's voice came from behind. 'I'm here.' |got up and went to the phone on my desk and 1 dialing, telling Saul, 'No one leaves. We'll keep ; got. Have the door open for Doc Vollmer.' |-only two whirs the nurse answered, and put on, and I snapped it at him. 'Doc, Archie
Come on the run. Strangled woman. Yeah,
?
shed the phone back, reached for the house iand buzzed the plant rooms, and after a wait had i irritated bark in my ear. 'Yes?' in the office. You'd better come down. That tive client I mentioned is here on the floor, <ied. I think she's gone, but I've sent for Voll
i this flummery?' he roared.
160 |ex S5 tout
'No,ar. C-^>nie down and look at her and then me.'
