Rex Stout: Prisoner's Base

“Yes. I submit this comment: I suspect that the money will come from you in any case, directly or indirectly. If, as the trustee of your property, Mr. Helmar has wide discretion, as he probably has, it is more than likely that the payment for finding and producing you would come from that property, so actually—”

“This is blackmail!”

“I doubt if you can properly—”

“It’s blackmail! You’re saying that if I don’t pay you ten thousand dollars you’ll tell Perry Helmar I’m here and get it from him!”

“I’m saying no such thing.” Wolfe was being patient. “I said I had an alternative suggestion. If you don’t like that one here’s the other.” He looked at the wall clock. “It’s ten minutes past eleven. Mr. Goodwin helped you unpack; he can help you pack. You can be out of here in five minutes, with your luggage, and there will be no surveillance. We will not even so much as spy from a window to see which way you turn. We will forget you exist for ten hours and forty-five minutes. At the end of that period, at ten o’clock tomorrow morning, I shall phone Mr. Helmar, take his job on the terms he proposed, and start after you.”

Wolfe fluttered a hand. “It was distasteful to me, having to offer to take the money direct from you instead of through Mr. Helmar, but I felt you merited that consideration. I’m glad you contemn it as blackmail, since I like to pretend that I earn at least a fraction of what I collect; but the offer stands until ten in the morning, should you decide that you prefer it to this hide-and-seek.”

“I’m not going to pay you any ten thousand dollars!” She had her chin up.

“Good.”

“It’s ridiculous!”

“I agree. Also, of course, the alternative is ridiculous for me. Leaving here, you can go straight home, phone Mr. Helmar that you are there and will see him in the morning, and go to bed, leaving me to go whistle for my dinner. I’ll have to risk that; there’s no way around it.”

“I’m not going home, and I’m not going to phone anyone.”

“As you please.” Wolfe glanced at the clock. “It’s a quarter past eleven, and you have no time to lose if you expect to make it a job for me. Archie, will you bring her luggage down, please?”

I arose, in no hurry. The situation was highly unsatisfactory, but how could I change it? Priscilla wasn’t waiting. She was out of her chair, saying, “I can manage, thanks,” and on her way.

I watched her crossing the hall and starting up, and then turned to Wolfe. “It reminds me more of ‘run sheep run,’ as we called it in Ohio. That’s what the shepherd yelled — ‘run sheep run!’ It ought to be an exciting game and lots of fun, but I think I should tell you before she leaves, I’m not absolutely sure I’ll want to play. You may have to fire me.”

He only muttered, “Get her out of here.”

I took my time mounting the stairs, thinking she wouldn’t want my help folding things. The door to the south room was standing open. From the landing I called, “May I come in?”

“Don’t bother,” her voice came. “I’ll make out.”

She was moving around, I. went to the threshold. The suitcase, open on the rack, was three-fourths packed. That girl would have been a very satisfactory traveling companion. Without a glance at me, she finished the suitcase, swift and efficient, and started on the hatbox.

“Watch your money,” I said. “You have plenty. Don’t give it to a stranger to hold.”

“Sending little sister off to camp?” she asked, without giving me the eyes. It may have been banter, but it wasn’t any too light.

“Yeah. Down there you said you supposed you should congratulate me, and I asked you to save it. I doubt if I deserve it.”

“I guess you don’t. I take it back.”

She pulled the zipper all the way around the hatbox, got her jacket and hat and put them on, and took her handbag from the table. She reached for the hatbox, but I already had it, and also the suitcase. She went first, and I followed. Down in the lower hall she didn’t glance into the office as we passed by, but I did, and saw Wolfe at his desk, leaning back with his eyes closed. When I had the front door open she made to take the luggage, but I hung on to it. She persisted but so did I, and since I weighed more I won. At the foot of the stoop we turned east, walked to Tenth Avenue, and crossed to the other side.

“I will not,” I told her, “file the brand and number of the taxi, or if I do I won’t report it or refer to it. However, I am making no promise that I will permanently forget your name. Some day I may think of something I’ll want to ask you. If I don’t see you before June thirtieth, happy birthday.”

We parted on those terms — not exactly gushy, but not implacable. After watching her taxi roll off uptown, I walked back to the house, expecting an extended session with Wolfe, and not with any uncontrollable glee. It was an interesting situation, I was willing to hand him that, but I wasn’t at all sure I liked my part. However, I found that I was to be allowed to sleep on it. By the time I got back Wolfe had gone to bed, which suited me fine.

The next morning, Tuesday, there was a clash. I was having orange juice and griddle cakes and grilled Georgia ham and honey and coffee and melon and more coffee in the kitchen, as usual, when Fritz came back down from taking Wolfe’s breakfast tray up to him and said I was wanted. That was according to precedent. Since Wolfe didn’t come downstairs before going up to the plant rooms at nine o’clock, his habit was to send for me if he had morning instructions not suited to the house phone. Fritz said nothing had been said about urgency, so I finished my second cup of coffee without gulping and then went up the one flight to Wolfe’s room, directly under the one Priscilla had not slept in. He had finished breakfast and was out of bed, standing by a window in his two acres of yellow pajamas, massaging his scalp with his fingertips. I wished him good morning, and he was good enough to reciprocate.

“What time is it?” he demanded.

There were two clocks in the room, one on his bed table and one on the wall not ten feet from where he was standing, but I humored him, looking at my wrist.

“Eight thirty-two.”

“Please get Mr. Helmar at his office sharp at ten o’clock and put him through to me upstairs. It would be pointless for you to go there, since we are more up-to-date than he is. Meanwhile it won’t hurt to ring Miss Eads’s apartment to learn if she’s at home. Unless you already have?”

“No, sir.”

“Then try it. If she’s not there we should be prepared to waste no time. Get after Saul, Fred, and Orrie at once, and tell them to be here by eleven o’clock if possible.”

I shook my head, regretfully but firmly. “No, sir. I warned you that you may have to fire me. I don’t refuse to play, but I will not help with any fudging. You told her that we would forget her existence until ten this morning. I have done so. I have no idea who or what you’re talking about. Do you want me to come upstairs at ten o’clock to see if you have any instructions?”

“No,” he snapped, and headed for the bathroom, Reaching it and opening the door, he yelled at me over his shoulder, “I mean yes!” and disappeared within. To save Fritz a trip, I took the breakfast tray down with me.

Ordinarily, unless there is a job on, I don’t go to the office until the morning mail comes, somewhere between 8:45 and nine o’clock. So when the doorbell rang a little before nine I was still in the kitchen, discussing the Giants and Dodgers with Fritz. Going through to the hall and proceeding toward the front, I stopped dead when I saw through the one-way glass who it was.

I’m just reporting. As far as I know, no electrons had darted in either direction when I first laid eyes on Priscilla Eads, nor had I felt faint or dizzy at any point during my association with her, but the fact remains that I have never had swifter or stronger hunches than the two that were connected with her. Monday evening, before Helmar had said much more than twenty words about his missing ward, I had said to myself, “She’s upstairs,” and knew it. Tuesday morning, when I saw Inspector Cramer of Manhattan Homicide on the stoop, I said to myself, “She’s dead,” and knew it. Halting, I stood three seconds before advancing to open the door.