Rex Stout - Homicide Trinity (Crime Line)

"Mr. Parker? Good afternoon. Mr. Cramer is here waving warrants at Mr. Goodwin and me… No. Material witnesses. He may or may not serve them. Please have your secretary ring my number every ten minutes. If Fritz tells you that we have gone with Mr. Cramer you will know what to do… Yes, of course. Thank you."

As he hung up Cramer left his chair, spoke to Steb- bins, got his coat from the chair arm, and tramped out, with Purley at his heels. I stepped to the hall to see that both of them were outside when the door shut. When I returned, Wolfe was leaning back with his eyes closed, his fists on his chair arms, and his mouth working. When he does that with his lips, pushing them out and pulling them in, out and in, he is not to be interrupted, so I crossed to my desk and sat. That can last anywhere from two minutes to half an hour.

That time it wasn't much more than two minutes. He opened his eyes, straightened up, and growled, "Did he omit the fourth assumption deliberately? Has it oc- curred to him?"

"I doubt it. He was concentrating on us. But it soon will."

"It has occurred to you?"

"Sure. From that time-table it's obvious. When it does occur to him he'll probably mess it up. It's not the kind he's good at."

He nodded. "We must forestall him. Can you get her here?"

"I can try. I supposed that was what you were work- ing at. I can make a stab at it on the phone, and if that doesn't work we can invent another card trick. When do you want her? Now?"

"No. I must have time to contrive a plan. What time is it?" He would have had to twist his neck to look up at the wall clock.

"Ten after three."

"Say six o'clock. We must also have the others, in- cluding Mr. Otis."

Though the Churchill number wasn't as familiar to me as Parker's I knew it, and got at the phone and dialed. I asked for Mrs. Morton Sorell, and after a wait had a voice I had heard before.

"Mrs. Sorell's apartment. Who is it, please?"

"This is Archie Goodwin, Mrs. Sorell. I'm calling from Nero Wolfe's office. A police inspector was here for a talk with Mr. Wolfe and just left. Before that three men you know were here-Edey and Heydecker and Jett. There have been some very interesting developments, and Mr. Wolfe would like to discuss them with you before he makes up his mind about something. You were asking this morning if he would work for you, and that's one possibility. Would six o'clock suit you? You have the address."

Silence. Then her voice: "What are the develop- ments?"

"Mr. Wolfe would rather tell you himself. I'm sure you'll find them interesting."

"Why can't he come here?"

"Because as I told you, he never leaves his house on business."

"You do. You come. Come now."

"I would love to, but some other time. Mr. Wolfe wants to discuss it with you himself."

Silence. Then: "Will the policeman be there?" "Certainly not."

Silence, then: "You say six o'clock?"

"That's right."

"Very well. I'll come."

I hung up, turned, and told Wolfe, "All set. She wants me to come there but that will have to wait. You have less than three hours to cook up a charade, and for two of them you'll be with the orchids. Anything for me?"

"Get Mr. Otis," he muttered.

Chapter 8

I felt then, and I still feel, that it was a waste of money to have Saul and Fred and Orrie there; and since we had no client it was Wolfe's money. When Saul phoned in at five o'clock I could just as well have told him to call it a day. I do not claim that I can handle five people all having a fit at once, even if one of them is seventy-five years old and another one is a woman, but there was no reason to suppose that more than one of them would really explode, and I could certainly handle him. But when Saul phoned I followed instructions, and there went sixty bucks.

They weren't visible when, at eight minutes after six, the bell rang and I went and opened the door to admit Rita Sorell, nor when I escorted her to the office, intro- duced her to Wolfe, and draped her fur coat, probably milky mink, over the back of the red leather chair. No one was visible but Wolfe. The fact that she gave Wolfe a smile and fluttered her long dark lashes at him didn't mean that she was a snob; I had got mine in the hall.

"I'm not in the habit," she told him, "of going to see men when they send for me. This is a new experience. Maybe that's why I came; I like new experiences. Mr. Goodwin said you wanted to discuss something?" Wolfe nodded. "I do. Something private and per- sonal. And since the discussion will be more productive if it is frank and unreserved, we should be alone. If you please, Archie? No notes will be needed."

I objected. "Mrs. Sorell might want to ask me-"

"No. Leave us, please."

I went. After shutting the door as I entered the hall, I turned right, went and opened the door to the front room, entered, shut that door too, and glanced around.

All was in order. Lament Otis was in the big chair by a window, the one Ann Paige had left by, and she was on one side of him and Edey on the other. Jett's chair was tilted back against the wall to the right. On the couch facing me was Heydecker, in between Fred Durkin and Orrie Gather. Saul Panzer stood in the center of the room. Their faces all came to me and Edey started to speak.

I cut him off. "If you talk," I said, "you won't hear, and even if you don't want to hear, others do. You can talk later. As Mr. Wolfe told you, a speaker behind the couch is wired to a mike in his office, and he is there talking with someone. Since you'll recognize her voice I don't need to name her. Okay, Saul."

Saul, who had moved to the rear of the couch, flipped the switch and Wolfe's voice sounded.

"… and she described her problem to Mr. Goodwin before he came up to me. She said that on Monday evening of last week she saw a member of the firm in a booth in a lunchroom in secret conference with you;

that she had concluded that he was betraying the inter- est of one of the firm's clients to you, the client being your husband; that for reasons she thought cogent she would not tell another member or members of the firm;

that she had finally, yesterday afternoon, told the one she was accusing and asked for an explanation, and got none; that she refused to name him until she had spoken with me; and that she had come to engage my services. Mr. Goodwin has of course reported this to the police."

MRS. SORELL: "She didn't name him?"

WOLFE: "No. As I said, Mrs. Sorell, this discussion should be frank and unreserved. I am not going to pretend that you have named him and are committed. You told Mr. Goodwin on the phone today that you were with a man in a booth in a lunchroom last Monday evening, and you said his name is Gregory Jett; but you could have been merely scattering dust, and at will you can deny you made the call."

Jett had caused a slight commotion by jerking for- ward in his tilted chair, but not enough to drown the voice, and a touch on his arm by me had stopped him.

MRS. SORELL: "What if I don't deny it? What if I repeat it, it was Gregory Jett?"

WOLFE: "I wouldn't advise you to. If in addition to scattering dust you were gratifying an animus you'll have to try again. It wasn't Mr. Jett. It was Mr. Hey- decker."