I went to the phone and started dialing WAtkins 98241. Doc Vollmer came out of his corner and went to get his black case from the floor and put it on a chair. Wolfe was pathetic. He moved around behind his desk and lowered himself into his own oversized custom made number, the only spot on earth where he was ever completely comfortable, but there smack in front of him was the object on the floor, so after a moment he made a face, got back onto his feet, grunted like an outraged boar, went across to the other side of the room to the shelves, and inspected the backbones of books.
But even that pitiful diversion got interrupted. As I finished with my phone call and hung up, sudden sounds of commotion came from the hall. Dashing across, getting fingernails on the edge of the door and pulling it open,, and passing through, I saw trouble. A group was gathered in the open doorway of the dining room, which was across the hall. Saul Panzer went bounding past me toward the front. At the front door Colonel Percy Brown was stiff- arming Fritz Brenner with one hand and reaching for the doorknob with the other. Fritz, who is chef and housekeeper, is not supposed to double in acrobatics, but he did fine. Dropping to the floor, he grabbed the colonel's ankles and jerked his feet out'from under him. Then I was there, and Saul with his gun out; and there with us was the guest with the mop of black hair.
'You damn fool,' I told the colonel as he sat up. 'If you'd got outdoors Saul would have winged you,'
'Guilt,' said the black-haired guest emphatically. 'The compression got unbearable and he exploded. I was watching him. I'm a psychiatrist.' 'Good for you.' I took his elbow and turned him.
Curtains f?r Three 1?5
> back in and watch all of 'em. FA that wall mir*?r ? can include yourself.'
'This is illegal/' stated Colonel grown, who kisad nbled to his feet and was short d breath, aul herded them to the rear. Fiiz got hold of *ny eve. 'Archie, I've got to ask Mr.Wolfe about f3Bnf '
'Nuts,' I said savagely. 'By dmertime this ptsace 1 be more crowded than it was tte afternoon. O?jm
tty is coming, sent by the city. Ift a good thing- we
Are a cloakroom ready.'
f'But he has to eat; you know that. I should feasave
I ducks in the oven now. If I have to stay here alt. the 1 and attack people as they try to leave, what, will
,.-*tr
|'Nuts,' I said. I patted him on the shoulder. -=*tExs my manners, Fritz, I'm upset Fve just strai?Bgled
; woman.' 'Nuts,' he said scornfully.
might as well have,' I declared, he doorbell rang. I reached for the switeb* and 1 on the stoop light and looked through the ^jjanel '-way glass. It was the first consignment of ' cops.
Ill
ny opinion Inspector Cramer made a ra^?stake. ?ion, hell, of course he did. It is true that in an room s a murder has occurred the city scientists------mea sniffers, print-takers, specialists, ph?s?togra may shoot the works, and they do. But * except circumstances the job shouldn't take attB week, _ the case of our office a couple of hours, should t been ample. In fact, it was. By eight o'cfcewek the
166 Rex Stout
scientists were through. But Cramer, like a sap, gave the order to seal it up until further notice, in Wolfe's hearing. He knew damn well that Wolfe spent as least three hundred evenings a year in there, in the only chair and under the only light that he really liked, and that was why he did it. It was a mistake. If he hadn't made it, Wolfe might have called his attention to a certain fact as soon as Wolfe saw it himself, and Cramer would have been saved a lot of trouble.
The two of them got the fact at the same time, from me. We were in the dining room-^his was shortly after the scientists had got busy in the office, and the guests, under guard, had been shunted to the front room--and I was relating my conversation with Cynthia Brown. They wanted all of it, or Cramer did rather, and they got it. Whatever else my years as Wolfe's assistant may have done for me or to me, they have practically turned me into a tape recorder, and Wolfe and Cramer didn't get a rewrite of that conversation, they got the real thing, word for word. They also got the rest of my afternoon, complete. When I finished, Cramer had a slew of questions, but Wolfe not a one. Maybe he had already focused on the fact above referred to, but neither Cramer nor I had. The short- hand dick seated at one end of the dining table had the fact too, in his notebook along with the rest of it, but he j wasn't supposed to focus.
.Cramer called a recess on the questions to take steps. He called men in and gave orders. Colonel Brown was to be photographed and fingerprinted and headquarters records were to be checked for him and Cynthia. The file on the murder of Doris Hatten was to | be brought to him at once. The lab reports were to be j rushed. Saul Panzer and Fritz Brenner were to be] brought in.
Curtains for Three 14?
came. Fritz stood like a soldier at attention, nd grave. Saul, only five feet seven, with the ; eyes and one of the biggest noses I have ever in his impressed brown suit, and his necktie -he stood like Saul, not slouching and not ie would stand like that if he were being I the Medal of Honor or if he were in front of a Hf^uad. - ' .
s Cramer knew both of them. He picked on ift>u and Fritz were in the hall aU afternoon?' 1 nodded. The hall and the front room, yes.' f did you see enter or leave the office?'
Archie go in about four o'clock--I was just fout of the front room with someone's hat and saw Mrs. Carlisle come out just after she In between those two I saw no one either cleave. We were busy most of the time, either or the front room.' 1 grunted. 'How about you, Fritz?' no one.' Fritz spoke louder than usual. 'I ren see Archie go in.' He took a step forward, , soldier. 'I would like to say something.' ad.' : a great deal of all this disturbance is un. My duties here are of the household and not but I cannot help hearing what reaches , and I am aware of the many times that Mr. i found the answer to problems that were too This happened here in his own house, it should be left entirely to him.' i, 'Fritz, I didn't know you had it in you!' i disturbance,'' he insisted firmly, goddamned.' Cramer was goggling at him. you to say that, huh?'
M& Rex Stout
'Bah.' Wolfe was contemptuous. 'It can't be helped, Fritz. Have we plenty of ham?'
