Rex Stout: The Rodeo Murder

Cramer’s jaw was clamped. “You know the law,” he said, and wheeled and headed for the door.

When a visitor leaves the office it is my custom to precede him to the hall and the front door to let him out; but when it’s Cramer and he’s striding out in a huff I would have to hop on it to get ahead of him, which would be undignified, so I just follow to see that he doesn’t take our hats from the shelf and tramp on them. When I emerged from the office Cramer was halfway down the hall, and after one glance I did hop on it. Out on the stoop, reaching a finger to the bell button, was Laura Jay.

I can outhop Cramer any day, but he was too far ahead and was opening the door when I reached it. Not wanting to give him an excuse to take me downtown, I didn’t bump him. I braked. He said, “Good morning, Miss Jay. Come in.”

I got Laura’s eye and said, “Inspector Cramer is just leaving.”

“I’m in no hurry,” Cramer said, and backed up a step to give her room. “Come in, Miss Jay.”

I saw it coming in her eyes — that is, I saw something was coming. They were at Cramer, not at me, but I saw the sudden sharp gleam of an idea, and then she acted on it. She came in all right, on the jump, through the air straight at Cramer, hands first reaching for his face. By instinct he should have jerked back, but experience is better than instinct. He ducked below her hands and came up against her with his arms around her, clamping her to him, leaving her nothing to paw but air. I got her wrists from the rear, pulled them to me, and crossed her arms behind her back.

“Okay,” I said, “you can unwrap.”

Cramer slipped his arms from under hers and backed away. “All right, Miss Jay,” he said. “What’s the idea?”

She tried to twist her head around. “Let me go,” she demanded. “You’re breaking my arm.”

“Will you behave yourself?”

“Yes.”

As I let go she started to tremble, but then she stiffened, pulling her shoulders back. “I guess I lost my head,” she told Cramer. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I do that sometimes, I just lose my head.”

“It’s a bad habit, Miss Jay. What time is your appointment with Nero Wolfe?”

“I haven’t got an appointment.”

“What do you want to see him about?”

“I don’t want to see him. I came to see Archie Goodwin.”

“What about?”

Before she could answer a voice came from behind Cramer. “Now what?” Wolfe was there, at the door to the office.

Cramer ignored him. “To see Goodwin about what?” he demanded.

“I think I know,” I said. “It’s a personal matter. Strictly personal.”

“That’s it,” Laura said. “It’s personal.”

Cramer looked at me, and back at her. Of course the question was, if he took us downtown and turned us over to a couple of experts could they pry it out of us? He voted no. He spoke to me. “You heard me tell Wolfe he knows the law. So do you,” and marched to the door, opened it, and was gone.

“Well?” Wolfe demanded.

I tried the door to make sure it was shut, and turned. “Miss Jay came to see me. I’ll take her in the front room.”

“No. The office.” He turned and headed for the kitchen.

I allowed myself an inside grin. Thanks to my having produced the check with Lily’s offer of a job in Cramer’s presence, he was actually working. When Laura and I had entered the office he would emerge from the kitchen and station himself at the hole. On the office side the hole was covered by a picture of a waterfall, on the wall at eye level to the right of Wolfe’s desk. On the other side, in a little alcove at the end of the hall, it was covered by a sliding panel, and with the panel pushed aside you could not only hear but also see through the waterfall. I had once stood there for three hours with a notebook, recording a conversation Wolfe was having with an embezzler.

Laura retrieved her handbag, a big gray leather one, from the floor where it had dropped when she went for Cramer, and I escorted her to the office, took her jacket and put it on the couch, moved a chair for her to face my desk, swiveled my chair around, and sat. I looked at her. She was a wreck. I wouldn’t have known her, especially since I had previously seen her all rigged out, and now she was in a plain gray dress with a black belt. Her cheeks sagged, her hair straggled, and her eyes were red and puffed. You wouldn’t suppose a dashing cowgirl could get into such a state.

“First,” I said, “why? Why did you go for him?”

She swallowed. “I just lost my head.” She swallowed again. “I ought to thank you for helping me, when he asked what I came to see you for. I didn’t know what to say.”

“You’re welcome. What do you say if I ask you?”

“I came to find out something. To find out if you told them what Cal told you yesterday. I know you must have because they’ve arrested him.”

I shook my head. “They’re holding him as a material witness because it was his rope and he found the body. I promised Cal I wouldn’t repeat what he told me, and I haven’t. If I did they’d have a motive for him, they couldn’t ask for better, and they’d charge him with murder.”

“You haven’t told them? You swear you haven’t?”

“I only swear on the witness stand and I’m not there yet. I have told no one, but I am now faced with a problem. Miss Rowan has hired Nero Wolfe to investigate the murder, and he will ask me for a full report of what happened there yesterday. I can’t tell him what Cal told me because of my promise to Cal, and I’ll have to tell him I am leaving something out, which he won’t like. If Cal were available I would get his permission to tell Mr. Wolfe, but he isn’t.”

“Then you haven’t even told Nero Wolfe?”

“No.”

“Will you promise me you won’t tell the police? That you’ll never tell them no matter what happens?”

“Certainly not.” I eyed her. “Use your head if you’ve found it again. Their charging Cal with murder doesn’t depend only on me. They have found out that Eisler took a woman to his apartment Sunday night and they’re going over it for fingerprints. If they find some of yours, and if they learn that you and Cal are good friends, as they will, he’s in for it, and I would be a damn fool to wait till they get me on the stand under oath.”

I turned a palm up. “You see, one trouble is, you and me talking, that you think Cal killed him and I know he didn’t. You should be ashamed of yourself. You have known him two years and I only met him last week, but I know him better than you do. I can be fooled and have been, but when he got me aside yesterday and asked me how to go about taking some hide off a toad he was not getting set to commit a murder, and the murder of Wade Eisler was premeditated by whoever took Cal’s rope. Not to mention how he looked and talked when he showed me the body. If I thought there was a chance that Cal killed him I wouldn’t leave anything out when I report to Mr. Wolfe. But I can’t promise to hang on to it no matter what happens.”

“You can if you will,” she said. “I don’t think Cal killed him. I know he didn’t. I did.”

My eyes widened. “You did what? Killed Eisler?”

“Yes.” She swallowed. “Don’t you see how it is? Of course I’ve got to tell them I killed him, but when they arrest me Cal will say he killed him because I told him about Sunday night. But I’ll say I didn’t tell him about Sunday night, and it will be my word against his, and they’ll think he’s just trying to protect me. So it does depend on you. You’ve got to promise you won’t tell them what Cal told you yesterday. Because I killed him, and why should you protect me? Why should you care what happens to me if I killed a man?”