chairs, a dressing table, a chest of drawers, and a big finelooking bed. I focused my gaze on the man who was lying on the bed, and saw that he checked with the description Saul had given of the item Naomi Karn had met at Santoretti's, in spite of a couple of missing details. The blue shirt, gray four-in-hand, and gray tropical worsted coat were there on him, but below them was only white drawers, bare legs, and blue socks and garters. He was breathing like a geyser getting ready to shoot. Fred, looking down at him proudly, whispered, 'He groaned when I pulled his pants off, so I quit.' I nodded. 'He don't look very dignified. Have you named him yet?'* 'Yeah, but it's a mix-up. It says Dawson downstairs, and this is where he said to bring him, and he had keys, but that's not his name. His name's Eugene Davis, and he's in a law firm; Dunwoodie, Prescott & Davis, 40 Broadway.' CHAPTER SEVEN I gave fred an eye. The comic aspect of things retreated into the wings. 'What makes you think so?' I demanded. 'I frisked him. Look, there on the dresser.' I tiptoed across to inspect the little heap of articles. Among other things, a driving license for Eugene Davis. A membership card in the New York County Bar Association for Eugene Davis, of Dunwoodie, Prescott & Davis. A pass to the New York World's Fair 1939, with a picture of him thereon. An accident insurance identification card. Three letters received by Eugene Davis at his business address. Two snapshots of Naomi Karn, one in a bathing suit. . . . I told Fred, 'Go and stay at the hall door and scream if anyone comes. I'm going to browse around.' I made it snappy but thorough. Davis lay there sucking it in like a bear caught short on Atmosphere common. I covered it all, that bedroom and a smaller one, bathroom, kitchenette, and the big living room, including closets. I would have floated right out of a window if I had found a last will and testament of Noel Hawthorne dated sub99
100 WHERE THERE'S A WILL sequent to March 7th, 1938, but I didn't. Nor anything else that seemed pertinent to a will or a murder or any phenomenon I was interested in, unless you want to count eight more pictures of Naomi Karn, of various shapes and sizes, three of them inscribed 'To Gene,' with dates in 193 5 and 1936. Even the refrigerator was empty. I took a parting look at the member of the bar, collected Fred and escorted him out and down to the street and into the roadster, drove around the corner onto Sixth Avenue, drew up at the curb in the morning shadow of the buildings, and demanded: 'How come?' Fred protested, 'We ought to park where we can see--' 'He'll be there for hours. Tell Papa.'* 'Well, I tailed him--' 'Did he and the female subject leave Santoretti's together?' 'Yeah, at eleven o'clock. They walked west to Lexington, with me on foot and Saul stringing along in his bus. He put her in a taxi and Saul followed it. He stood and watched the taxi, going uptown, until it was out of sight, and then he started walking south as if he'd just remembered something he'd left in Florida. He's a giraffe. I damn near ran my legs off. The damn fool walked clear to 8th Street!' WHERE THERE'S A WILL 101 'We'll warn him not to do that again. How you must have suffered. Skip things like that. I can't bear it.' 'Go spit up a rope. He went into a place on 8th Street near Sixth, a bar and restaurant named Wellman's. I happen to know a guy that works there. I waited outside a while, and then I went in and saw that Sam was there filling and spilling?he's the guy I know. I bought a drink and chinned with him. The subject was there at the bar taking on cargo. He would sip at one maybe ten minutes and then down it would go and he'd get a refill. After that had been going on for an hour and a half Sam began frowning at him and I asked Sam about him. By the way, I had to turn loose of two dollars and sixty cents for refreshments.' 'I'll bet you did. Wait till Wolfe sees the expense account. I won't pass it.' 'Now, look here, Archie?' 'I'll see. Finish your report to your superior.' 'Wait till I laugh. Haw. Sam said the subject was a good customer, too damn good sometimes. His name was Dawson and he lived in the neighborhood. A dozen times in the past two years Sam had had to get him home in a taxi. Well, it went on and on. After a while he staggered over to a table and sat down and asked for more. Finally he flopped. Sam and I made a couple of efforts to straighten him up, 102 WHERE THERE'S A WILL but he was out. So I offered to see him home, and Sam thought that was swell of me, and so did I until I started carrying him up that two flights of stairs. He weighs two hundred if he weighs an ounce.' 'Saul says a hundred and seventy.' 'Saul didn't carry him upstairs. It was a quarter after five when I got him here. I took his pants and shoes off, and then sat and thought it over. The main thing was, why should I get you out of bed at that hour? I know how you are before breakfast--'
'So you took a nap and then phoned an SOS as if--' ~~^ 'I didn't take a nap. I just wanted you to realize--'
'Okay. Save it. I may as well admit that the boss will pay for the drinks. I also admit it's handy your knowing so many Sams in so many bars. I'll be back pretty soon.' I hopped out, went to the corner and entered a drugstore, found a phone booth, and dialed a number. A familiar voice said hello. 'This is Archie, Fritz. Give the plant rooms a buzz.' 'Mr. Wolfe isn't up there.' I glanced at my wrist watch and saw 10:0?. FR1;WHERE THERE'S A WILL 103 'What are you talking about? Certainly he's up there.' 'No, really, Archie. Mr. Wolfe has gone out.' 'You're crazy. If he told you to say that--who does he think he's kidding, anyhow? Ring the plant rooms.' 'But Archie, I tell you he went. He received a telephone call and went. He gave me messages for you--wait--I wrote them down--First, Saul reported and he arranged to have Orrie relieve him; Second, that owing to your absence he would have to ride in a taxicab. Third, that you are to go in the sedan to the residence of Mr. Hawthorne, deceased, on 67th Street.' 'Is this straight, Fritz?' 'Honest for God, Archie. It took my breath.' 'I'll bet it did.' I hung up and went back out to the car and told Fred: 'A new era has begun. The earth has turned around and started the other way. Mr. Wolfe has left home in a taxicab to work on a case.' 'Huh? Nuts.' ' 'Nope. As Fritz says, honest for God. He really has. So if you'll--' 'But Jesus, Archie. He'll get killed or something.'
FR1;104 WHERE THERE'S A WILL 'Don't I know it? You beat it. Go on home and finish your nap. Your friend Davis is set for several hours at least. If we need you I'll give you a ring.' 'But if Mr. Wolfe--' 'I'll tend to him.' He climbed out and stood there shaking his head and looking worried as I drove off. I wasn't worried, but I was slightly dazed, as I headed the roadster north. Arriving at the garage on Eleventh Avenue, I transferred to the sedan, circled down the ramp to the street, and started north again. I figured that it must be the state of the bank account that was responsible for Wolfe's shattering his inflexible rule never to go calling on business, but though I knew he was concerned about it I hadn't realized that he was in a condition of absolute frenzy. I was feeling pretty sorry for him as I parked the sedan on 67th Street and walked to the entrance of the Hawthorne stone pile. There were no city employees standing around and no reporters or photographers climbing in at the windows, so I concluded that Skinner and Cramer still hadn't blown the horn for the busy intersection. The butler who opened the door had distinguished ancestry oozing from every pore. I said: 'Good morning, Jeeves. I'm Lord Goodwin. If WHERE THERE^S A WILL 105 ^ Mr. Nero Wolfe got here alive, he's expecting me. A big fat man. Is he here?' 'Yes, sir.' He permitted me to slide through. 'Your hat, sir? This way if you please, sir.' He moved across the large entrance hall to a doorway and stood aside for me. 'I shall inform Mr. Dunn and Mr. 'Wolfe that you are here.' I sauntered by him with a nod and he went off. So that was why Wolfe was zooming around like a wren building a nest. It would have been more pat to our purpose if it had been the secretary of the treasury instead of the secretary of state, but you can't have a silver lining without a cloud. I shrugged it off and glanced around. With all its size and elegant and successful effort to live up to ? the butler, the room was not what I would live in if my rich uncle died. There were too many chairs that looked as if they had been made to have their pictures taken instead of to sit on. The only thing I saw that I liked was a marble statue over in a ft corner of a woman reaching for a bath towel?at least she had an arm stretched as if she was reaching for something, and she was ready for a towel. I strolled across to appreciate it, and, as I stood doing so, got a certain feeling in the back of my neck, though I hadn't heard a sound. I whirled on my heel, and saw what had caused it. Mrs. Noel Hawthorne was there at the other end of the room, FR1;106 WHERE THERE'S A WILL facing me. That is, she would have been facing me if she had had a face. She had on a long gray dress that reached to her ankles, and the veil was the same gray. She just stood there. I was certainly allergic to that damn veil. There was something about it that was bad for my nerves. I wanted to say, 'Good morning, Mrs. Hawthorne,' with my customary suavity, but had the feeling it would come out a yell, so I said nothing. Neither did she. After she had stood there an hour, which I suppose was actually nine seconds, she turned and, noiselessly on the thick carpet, disappeared the other side of some draperies. I strode across the room as if I was going to do something; I suppose if I had had my sword handy I would have lunged through the drapery with it like Hamlet in the third act. Before I got there a voice from the rear stopped me: 'Hullo!' I jerked around like Gary Cooper surrounded by cutthroats, saw who it was and felt like a fool, and blurted savagely, 'Hullo yourself!' Sara Dunn, the professional fiend, approached. 'I forget your name. I suppose you're going to sit in with Nero Wolfe and
