Rex Stout - In the Best Families

The frown was going. “You say you gathered that?

“I didn't put it right. I was told that in so many words.

“By Roeder?

“Yes.

The frown was gone. “If this is straight, Goodwin, I've made a good buy.

“It's straight all right, but don't trust me. I warned you. Those are the facts, but you can have a guess without any additional charge if you want it.

“A guess about what?

“About them and you. This guess is why I'm here. This guess is why I went into that bar so you would see me, and followed you out like a half-wit to give you a chance to flag me.

“Oh. So you staged this.

“Certainly. I wanted to tell you about this guess, and if you were in a mood to buy something first, why not?

He looked aloof. “Let's have the guess.

“Well- I considered. “It really is a guess, but with a background. Do you want the background first?

“No, the guess.

“Right. That Zeck is getting set to frame you for the murder of your wife.

I think Rackham would have thrown another glass if he had happened to have it in his hand, possibly at me this time. His blood moved fast. The colour came up in his neck and face, and he sort of swelled all over; then his jaw clamped.

“Go on, he mumbled.

“That's all the guess amounts to. Do you want the background?

He didn't answer. I went on. “It won't cost you a cent. Take the way I was approached. If it's a plain tailing job with no frills, why all the folderol?

Why couldn't Christy just put it to me? And why pay me double the market of the highest-priced agencies? Item. If Zeck has his friends at White Plains, which is far from incredible, and if the current furore is upsetting their stomachs, there's nothing they would appreciate more than having their toughest unsolved murder case wrapped up for them. Item. Hiring me is purely defensive, and Zeck and his staff don't function that way, especially not when the enemy is a former colleague and they've got a grudge.

I shook my head. “I can't see it with that background. But listen to this.

Roeder came up to my office and stayed an hour, and do you know what he spent most of it doing? Asking me questions about the evening of April eighth! What has that got to do with my handling a tailing job? Nothing! Why should they be interested in April eighth at all? I think they brought me this job, at double pay, just to start a conversation with me and soften me up. It has already been hinted that Zeck might like to meet me. I think that to frame you for murder they've got to have first-hand dope from someone who was there, and I'm elected.

I think they're probably sizing me up, to decide whether I'm qualified to be asked to remember something that happened that night which has slipped my mind up to now, at a nice juicy price.

I turned my palms up. “It's just a guess.

He still had nothing to say. His blood had apparently eased up a little. He was staring at my face, but I doubted if he was seeing it.

“If you care to know why I wanted you to hear it, I went on, “you can have that too. I have my weak spots, and one of them is my professional pride. It got a hard blow when Nero Wolfe scooted instead of staying to fight it out, with your wife's cheque for ten grand deposited barely in time to get through before she was croaked. If the ten grand is returned to her estate, who gets it? You. And it could be that you killed her. I prefer to leave it where it is and earn it.

Among other things, she was killed while I was there, and I helped find the body. That's a fine goddam mess for a good detective, and I was thinking I was one.

He found his tongue. “I didn't kill her. I swear to you, Goodwin, I didn't kill her.

“Oh, skip it. Whether you did or didn't, not only do I not want to help frame you, I don't want anyone to frame anybody, not on this one. I've got a personal interest in it. I intend to earn that ten grand, and I don't want Zeck to bitch it up by getting you burned, even if you're the right one, on a fix. Therefore I wanted you to know about this. As I told you, I haven't got it spelled out, it's only a guess with background, and I admit it may be a bum one. What do you think? Am I hearing noises?

Rackham picked up his drink, which hadn't been touched, took a little sip, about enough for a sparrow, and put it down again. He sat a while, licking his lips.

“I don't get you, he said wistfully.

“Then forget it. You're ail paid up. I've been known to guess wrong before.

“I don't mean that, I mean you. Why? What's your play?

“I told you, professional pride. If that's too fancy for you, consider how I was getting boxed in, with Zeck on my right and you on my left, I wanted a window open. If you don't like that either, just cross me off as screwy. You don't trust me anyhow. I merely thought that if my guess is good, and if I get approached with an offer of a leading part, and maybe even asked to help with the script, and if I decided I would like to consult you about it, it would be nice if we'd already met and got a little acquainted. I flipped a hand. “If you don't get me, what the hell, I'm ahead six thousand bucks.

I stood up. “One way to settle it, you could phone Zeck and ask him. That would be hard on me, but what can a double-crosser expect? So I'll trot along. I moved towards the door and was navigating a course through the scattered fragments of glass in the path when he decided to speak.

“Wait a minute, he said, still wistful. “You mentioned when you get approached.

“If I get approached.

“You will. That's the way they work. Whatever they offer, I'll top it. Come straight to me and I'll top it. I want to see you anyhow, every day-wait a minute. Come back and sit down. We can make a deal right now, for you to-

“No, I said, kind but firm. “You're so damn' scared it would be a temptation to bargain you out of your last pair of pants. Wait till you cool off a little and get some spunk back. Ring me any time. You understand, of course, we're still tailing you.

I left him.

Several times, walking downtown, I had to rein myself in. I would slow down to a normal gait, and in another block or so there I would be again, pounding along as fast as I could swing it, though all I had ahead was an open evening. I grinned at myself indulgently. I was excited, that was all. The game was on, I had pitched the first ball, and it had cut the inside corner above his knees.

Not only that, it was a game with no rules. It was hard to believe that Rackham could possibly go to Zeck or any of his men with it, but if he did I was on a spot hot enough to fry an egg, and Wolfe was as good as gone. That was why I had tried to talk Wolfe out of it. But now that I had started it rolling and there was no more argument, I was merely so excited that I couldn't walk slow if you paid me.

I had had it in mind to drop in at Rusterman's Restaurant for dinner and say hallo to Marko that evening, but now I didn't feel like sitting through all the motions, so I kept going to Eleventh Avenue, to Mart's Diner, and perched on a stool while I cleaned up a plate of beef stew, three ripe tomatoes sliced by me, and two pieces of blueberry pie. Even with a full stomach I was still excited.