“I’ve got a chance to make a pot but I can’t do it alone. I don’t even know how to start. My mother told me that if I can find the money she paid the kidnapers, or any part of it, I can have it. Half a million. I want Wolfe to help me. He can have a fifth of it for his share.”
My brows were up. “When did your mother tell you that?”
“Wednesday evening.”
“She may feel different about it now.”
“No, she doesn’t. I asked her this afternoon. She’s not very-she’s in pretty bad shape-but I didn’t think it would hurt to ask her. She said yes. She said she wouldn’t want any of that money now anyhow.”
My brows were still up. “The police know about the kidnaping. And the FBI.”
“I don’t know about the FBI. We told the police this morning.”
“Dozens of trained men are on the job already. By tomorrow there’ll be hundreds. Fat chance you’d have.”
“Damn it, I know I wouldn’t! That’s why I’ve got to have Nero Wolfe! Isn’t he better than they are?”
“That’s a point.” I was looking at another point. We had never taken a crack at that kind of problem, and if Wolfe could be peekayed into tackling it, it would be interesting to see how he went about it. It would also be interesting to collect his share if there was anything to share.
“I’ll tell you,” I said. “I doubt very much if Mr Wolfe will touch it. He’s not only eccentric, he hates to work, and he seldom takes a case on a contingent basis. But I’m willing to put it up to him. You may come inside to wait.”
“If you can get inside,” he squeaked. That tenor didn’t fit his make-up at all.
“I can try,” I said, and made for the stoop, and he followed me up. The chain-lock was on, so I had to push the button. If Fritz, letting us in, was surprised to see me bringing a customer who had been turned away twice, he didn’t show it. Fritz shows only what he thinks it is proper to show. I took Tedder to the front room and left him, and went to the office by way of the hall instead of the connecting door. Wolfe, at his desk, had the middle drawer open and was fingering in it. Counting caps of beer bottles to see how much he had gained on the week’s quota by being away twenty-four hours. I waited to speak until he shut the drawer and looked up.
“Regards from Mandel. I didn’t see the DA. They probably won’t bother us again unless and until they have to decide that Jimmy Vail didn’t die by accident, which they would hate to do. You have seen the
“Yes.”
“Any comment?”
“No.”
“Then I’m still not fired. I’m taking a leave of absence without pay. Say a month, but it may be more.”
His lips tightened. He took a deep breath. “Are you bent on vexing me beyond endurance?”
“No, sir. I want to grab an opportunity. When I arrived just now Noel Tedder was there on the sidewalk, vexed beyond endurance because you wouldn’t see him. His mother told him Wednesday that he could have the money she paid the kidnaper if he could find it and get it, and he came to offer you a one-fifth share to help him. Of course you wouldn’t be interested now that you only take cases where all you have to do is put a notice in the paper, so I’m going to tell him I’ll take it on myself. I took the liberty of putting him in the front room. I thought I ought to tell you first. Of course it’s long odds, but if I got it, the whole pile, my cut would be a hundred grand and I could quit vexing you and open my own office, maybe with Saul Panzer for a partner, and we could-”
“Shut up!”
“Yes, sir. That will be one advantage, you won’t have to bellow-”
“Shut up.”
“Yes, sir.”
He regarded me, not with affection. “So you expect to badger me into this fantastic gamble.”
“You might take a minute out to look at it. It would be satisfactory to find something that ten thousand cops and FBI men will be looking for. And each year when you top the eighty-per-cent bracket you relax. I admit it’s a big if, but if you raked this in and added it to what you’ve already collected this year, you could relax until winter, and it’s not May yet. If you missed, you would only be out expenses. As for my badgering you, we have nothing on and nothing in prospect, and if I take a month off Fritz can dust your desk and empty the wastebasket and you can open the mail.”
“That’s bluster. You wouldn’t.”
“The hell I wouldn’t.”
He closed his eyes, probably to contemplate the rosy possibility of months and months with no work to do and no would-be customers admitted. In a minute he opened them and muttered, “Very well, bring him in.”
Chapter 7
