Рекс Стаут: In the Best Families

Leeds spoke to her sharply, but I don’t know what he said. By then my eyes had got pretty well accommodated to the circumstances. However, I am not saying that there in the dark among the trees, at a distance of twenty feet, I recognized the blob on the ground. I do assert that at the instant I pressed the button of the flashlight, before the light came, I knew already that it was the body of Mrs. Barry Rackham.

This time I got no reprimand. Leeds was with me as I stepped off the trail and covered the twenty feet. She was lying on her side, as Nobby had been, but her neck was twisted so that her face was nearly upturned to the sky, and I thought for a second it was a broken neck until I saw the blood on the front of her white sweater. I stooped and got my fingers on her wrist. Leeds picked up a dead leaf, laid it on her mouth and nostrils, and asked me to kneel to help him keep the breeze away.

When we had gazed at the motionless leaf for twenty seconds he said, “She’s dead.”

“Yeah.” I stood up. “Even if she weren’t, she would be by the time we got her to the house. I’ll go—”

“She is dead, isn’t she?”

“Certainly. I’ll—”

“By God.” He got erect, coming up straight in one movement. “Nobby and now her. You stay here—” He took a quick step, but I caught his arm. He jerked loose, violently.

I said fast, “Take it easy.” I got his arm again, and he was trembling. “You bust in there and there’s no telling what you’ll do. Stay here and I’ll go—”

He pulled free and started off.

“Wait!” I commanded, and he halted. “But first get a doctor and call the police. Do that first. I’m going to your place. We left that knife in the dog, and someone might want it. Can’t you put Hebe on guard here?”

He spoke, not to me but to Hebe. She came to him, a darting shadow, close to him. He leaned over to touch the shoulder of the body of Mrs. Barry Rackham and said, “Watch it, Hebe.” The dog moved alongside the body, and Leeds, with nothing to say to me, went. He didn’t leap or run, but he sure was gone. I called after him, “Phone the police before you kill anybody!” stepped to the trail, and headed for Hillside Kennels.

With the flashlight I had no trouble finding my way. This time, as I approached, the livestock barked plenty, and, hoping the kennel doors were all closed tight, I had my gun out as I passed the runs and the buildings. Nothing attacked me but noise, and that stopped when I had entered the house and closed the door. Apparently if an enemy once got inside it was then up to the master.

Nobby was still there on the bench, and the knife was still in him. With only a glance at him in passing, I made for the little living room, where I had previously seen a phone on a table, turned on a light, went to the phone, and got the operator and gave her a number. As I waited a look at my wristwatch showed me five minutes past midnight. I hoped Wolfe hadn’t forgotten to plug in the line to his room when he went up to bed. He hadn’t. After the ring signal had come five times I had his voice.

“Nero Wolfe speaking.”

“Archie. Sorry to wake you up, but I need orders. We’re minus a client. Mrs. Rackham. This is a quick guess, but it looks as if someone stabbed her with a knife and then stuck the knife in a dog. Anyhow, she’s dead. I’ve just—”

“What is this?” It was almost a bellow. “Flummery?”

“No, sir. I’ve just come from where she’s lying in the woods. Leeds and I found her. The dog’s dead too, here on a bench. I don’t—”

“Archie!”

“Yes, sir.”

“This is insupportable, under the circumstances.”

“Yes, sir, all of that.”

“Is Mr. Rackham out of it?”

“Not as far as I know. I told you we just found her.”

“Where are you?”

“At Leeds’ place, alone. I’m here guarding the knife in the dog. Leeds went to Birchvale to get a doctor and the cops and maybe to kill somebody. I can’t help it. I’ve got all the time in the world. How much do you want?”

“Anything that might help.”

“Okay, but in case I get interrupted here’s a question first. On two counts, because I’m here working for you and because I helped find the body, they’re going to be damn curious. How much do I spill? There’s no one on this line unless the operator’s listening in.”

A grunt and a pause. “On what I know now, everything about Mrs. Rackham’s talk with me and the purpose of your trip there. About Mrs. Rackham and Mr. Leeds and what you have seen and heard there, everything. But you will of course confine yourself strictly to that.”

“Nothing about sausage?”

“Absolutely nothing. The question is idiotic.”

“Yeah, I just asked. Okay. Well, I got here and met dogs and people. Leeds’ place is on a corner of Mrs. Rackham’s property, and we walked through the woods for dinner at Birchvale. There were eight of us at dinner...”

I’m fairly good with a billiard cue, and only Saul Panzer can beat me at tailing a man or woman in New York, but what I am best at is reporting a complicated event to Nero Wolfe. With, I figured, a probable maximum of ten minutes for it, I covered all the essentials in eight, leaving him two for questions. He had some, of course. But I think he had the picture well enough to sleep on when I saw the light of a car through the window, told him good-by, and hung up. I stepped from the living room into the little hall, opened the outside door, and was standing on the stone slab as a car with STATE POLICE painted on it came down the narrow drive and stopped. Two uniformed public servants piled out and made for me. I only hoped neither of them was my pet Westchester hate, Lieutenant Con Noonan, and had my hope granted. They were both rank-and-file.

One of them spoke. “Your name Goodwin?”

I conceded it. Dogs had started to bark.

“After finding a dead body you went off and came here to rest your feet?”

“I didn’t find the body. A dog did. As for my feet, do you mind stepping inside?”

I held the door open, and they crossed the threshold. With a thumb I called their attention to Nobby, on the bench.

“That’s another dog. It had just crawled here to die, there on the doorstep. It struck me that Mrs. Rackham might have been killed with that knife before it was used on the dog, and that you guys would be interested in the knife as is, before somebody took it to slice bread with, for instance. So when Leeds went to the house to phone I came here. I have no corns.”

One of them had stepped to the bench to look down at Nobby. He asked, “Have you touched the knife?”

“No.”

“Was Leeds here with you?”

“Yes.”

“Did he touch the knife?”

“I don’t think so. If he did I didn’t see him.”

The cop turned to his colleague. “We won’t move it, not now. You’d better stick here. Right?”

“Right.”

“You’ll be getting word. Come along, Goodwin.”

He marched to the door and opened it and let me pass through first. Outdoors he crossed to his car, got in behind the wheel, and told me, “Hop in.”

I stood. “Where to?”

“Where I’m going.”

“I’m sorry,” I said regretfully, “but I like to know where. If it’s White Plains or a barracks, I would need a different kind of invitation. Either that or physical help.”

“Oh, you’re a lawyer.”

“No, but I know a lawyer.”

“Congratulations.” He leaned toward me and spoke through his nose. “Mr. Goodwin, I’m driving to Mrs. Rackham’s house, Birchvale. Would you care to join me?”

“I’d love to, thanks so much,” I said warmly and climbed in.

The rest of that night, more than six hours, from half-past midnight until well after sunrise, I might as well have been in bed asleep for all I got out of it. I learned only one thing, that the sun rises on April ninth at 5:39, and even that wasn’t reliable because I didn’t know whether it was a true horizon.