'One. Button your lip. Answer nothing whatever. Two. Tell the truth straight through. The works. Three. Tell a simple basic lie with no trimmings, and stick to it. If you try a fancy lie, or a mixture of truth and lies, or part of the truth but try to save some, you're sunk. Of course I'm just talking to pass the time. In the present situation, as far as I know, there is no reason why you shouldn't just tell the truth.'
'You said to leave it to you.'
'Yes, but they won't. There are very few people in their jurisdiction they wouldn't rather leave it to than me, on account of certain--here they come. We can stop talking. Naturally we would watch.'
An official car I had seen before rolled to a stop behind the prowl car, and Inspector Cramer of Homicide West climbed out.
70
3 at Wolfe's Door
in
If you are surprised that an inspector had come in response to a report that a corpse had been found, I wasn't. The report had of course given the location, in front of 918 West 35th Street, and that address held memories, most of them sour, for the personnel at Homicide West, from Cramer down. A violent death that was in any way connected with Nero Wolfe made them itch, and presumably the report had included the item that Archie Goodwin was present and had stuck his nose in.
My client and I watched the routine activities from our grandstand seat. They were swift, efficient, and thorough. Traffic was detoured at the corner of Ninth Avenue. A section of the street and sidewalk was roped off to enclose the taxi. Floodlights were focused on the taxi and surroundings. A photographer took shots from various angles. Pedestrians from both directions were shunted across the street, where a crowd gathered behind the rope. Some twenty city employees, in uniform and out, were on the scene in less than half an hour after the cop had made the radio call--five of them known to me by name and four others by sight. The second floodlight had just been turned on when Cramer came around the front of the taxi, crossed to the steps and mounted the first three, and faced me. Since I was sitting, that made our eyes level.
'All right,' he said. 'Let's go in. I might as well have you and Wolfe together, and this woman too. That may simplify it. Open the door.'
'On the contrary,' I said, not moving, 'it would complicate it. Mr. Wolfe is in the office reading a book and knows nothing of all the excitement, and cares less. If I went in and told him you wanted to see him, and what about, you know what he would say and so do I. Nothing doing.'
'Who came here in that taxi?'
Method Three for Murder 71
'I don't know. I know nothing whatever about the taxi. When I came out it was there at the curb.'
'When did you come out?'
'Twenty minutes past nine.'
'Why did you come out?'
'To find a place to spend the night. I have quit my job, so if you're determined to see Mr. Wolfe you'll have to ring the bell.'
'You're telling me you've quit?'
'Right. I don't work here any more.'
'By God. I thought you and Wolfe had tried all the wrinkles there are, but this is a new one. Do you expect me to buy it?'
'It's not a wrinkle. I meant it. I wouldn't sign a pledge never to sleep here again, that depends on Mr. Wolfe's handling of a certain problem, but when I left the house I meant it. The problem has no connection with that taxi or what's in it.'
'Did this woman leave the house with you?'
'No. When I opened the door, coming out, she was coming up the stoop. She said she wanted to see Nero Wolfe, and when I told her I no longer worked for him, and anyway he probably wouldn't see her, she said she guessed that for what she wanted I would be better than him. She offered to pay me fifty dollars for consultation on how to win a bet she had made, and we sat here to consult. We had been here fifteen or twenty minutes when the prowl car came along and stopped by the taxi, which had been standing there when I left the house, and naturally I was curious and went to take a look. The cop asked me my name and I told him. When he went to his radio to report I came back to my client, but we didn't do much consulting on account of the commotion. That's the crop.'
'Had you ever seen this woman before?'
'No.'
'What was the bet she wanted to consult about?'
'That's her affair. She's here. Ask her.'
'Did she come in that taxi?'
'Not to my knowledge. Ask her.'
'Did you see her get out of the taxi?'
72 3 '* Wolfe's Door
'No. She was halfway up the stoop when I opened the door.'
'Did you see anyone get out of the taxi? Or near it?'
'No.'
