Rex Stout - The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

With the coffee I returned to Miss Dacos, having done some calculating. If Wolfe left Hewitt's at four o'clock he would get back around five-thirty, but he might leave later, say five, and arrive at six-thirty, in need of refreshment after the dangerous trip in the dark of night surrounded by thousands of treacherous machines. It would have to be after dinner. When Pierre left after serving coffee I told Mrs Bruner, "Of course Mr Wolfe will have to see Miss Dacos. She may know nothing, as you say, but he'll have to satisfy himself on that. Will you tell her to be here at nine o'clock this evening? In this room. Our office may be bugged."

"But I told you it was just a girl talking."

I said she was probably right, but one of Wolfe's specialties was prying something useful out of people who just talk, and when she finished her coffee I took her to Felix's office in the rear, and she got Miss Dacos on the phone and arranged it.

After I escorted her downstairs and into her car I went back up and had another cup of coffee. I would wait to call Wolfe until I was sure they had finished lunch. I sat and looked things over. I had slipped up on one point; I hadn't asked if Miss Dacos had been present when Morris Althaus and Frank Odell had talked with Mrs Bruner in her office. Of course Miss Dacos could tell us, but it was the kind of detail that Wolfe expects me to cover, and I expect me to too. How good a guess was it that it was Sarah Dacos who had told the cops about the three men? Not good at all, unless she had dressed it up or down either for the cops or for Mrs Bruner. She couldn't see them go to a car around the corner, and get the license number, from the window of Number 63. Then we could be getting corroboration, but for the first alternative, that the FBI killed him, not for the one we preferred. But so what, since it was no longer futile, according to Wolfe's program.

I remembered how, crossing Washington Square yesterday on my sightseeing trip, I had thought it was coincidence that Arbor Street was in the Village and Sarah Dacos lived in the Village. Now it might be more than coincidence; it might be some more cause and effect.

At three o'clock I went to Felix's office and called Lewis Hewitt's number. There's something wrong with the way the people in that palace handle phone calls. It took a good four minutes, but finally Wolfe's voice came.

"Yes. Archie?"

"Yes and no," I said, "but more yes than no. I'm at Rusterman's. Mrs Bruner and I had lunch here. If you get here before six-thirty I can report before dinner. We might as well eat here because someone is coming at nine o'clock to discuss things."

"Coming there?"

"Yes, sir.

"Why? Why not the office?"

"It will be better here. Unless you want an attractive young woman practically sitting on your lap for a couple of hours with the radio going."

"What young woman?"

"Sarah Dacos, Mrs Bruner's secretary. I'll report when you come."

"If I come. Very well." He hung up.

I dialed the number I knew best and told Fritz we would dine at Rusterman's and he would have to leave the venison chops in the marinade until tomorrow. Then I got Mrs David Althaus's number from the book and dialed it, but by the time she got on I had decided not to ask her on the phone. All I wanted to know was if she had ever heard her son mention a girl named Sarah Dacos, but I had three hours to kill, so I might as well take a walk. I asked if she would let me in if I came around four-thirty, and she said yes. On the way out I told Felix that Wolfe and I would be there for dinner.

9

I was back in the soundproofed room, on my fanny with my legs stretched out and my eyes focused on my toes, going over the mess for the tenth time, when Wolfe arrived at twenty minutes to seven, ushered in by Felix. Knowing that was the busiest time of day downstairs for Felix, I shooed him out and took Wolfe's coat and hung it up and said I hoped he had had an interesting trip.

He growled and went and sat in the armchair which Marko Vukcic had bought years ago for his friend Nero's exclusive use.

Between Wolfe's visits it is kept in the room that was Marko's personal den. "I have decided," he said, "that every man alive today is half idiot and half hero. Only heroes could survive in the maelstrom, and only idiots would want to."

"It's tough in spots," I conceded, "but you'll feel better after you eat. Felix has woodcock."

"I know he has." He glared. "You enjoy it."

"I have up to now. Now, I'm not so sure. How about Hewitt?"

"Confound it, he enjoys it too. Everything is arranged. Saul was very helpful, as he always is. Satisfactory."

I went and took a chair. "My report may not be satisfactory, but it has its points. To begin at the end, Mrs Althaus says that she never heard her son mention Sarah Dacos."

"Why should he?"

"That's one of the points. Cause and effect."

I reported, the conversations in full and the actions in detail, including the frolic with the G-men. It had been our first actual contact with the enemy, and I thought he should know how we had handled ourselves. That armchair wasn't as good as his in the office for leaning back and closing his eyes, but it would do, and it was almost like home. When I finished he didn't move a muscle, not even opening an eye. I sat through three minutes of complete silence and then spoke.

"I understand, of course, that all that bored you-if you bothered to listen. You don't give a damn who killed Morris Althaus. All you're interested in is this cocky shenanigan you're cooking up, and to hell with who murdered whom. I appreciate your not snoring. A sensitive man like me."

His eyes opened. "Pfui. I can say satisfactory, and I do. Satisfactory. But you could have proceeded. You could have had that woman here this afternoon instead of this evening."

I nodded. "You're not only bored, your connections are jammed. You said we prefer by far the second alternative, so we certainly want to know if there is any chance of getting it. Sarah Dacos was there in the house, if not when he was shot, soon after. It's possible she can settle it, one way or the other. If you want-"

The door opened, and Pierre entered with a loaded tray. I glanced at my watch: 7:15. So he had told Felix a quarter past seven; by gum, he was hanging on to one rule at least, and he would certainly hang on to another one, no business talk at the table. He got up and left the room to wash his hands. By the time he got back Pierre had the mussels served and was waiting to hold his chair. He sat, forked a mussel to his mouth, used his tongue and teeth on it, swallowed, nodded, and said, "Mr Hewitt has bloomed four crosses between Miltonia sanderae and Odontoglossum pyramus. One of them is worth naming."

So they had found time to visit the orchid house.

Around half past eight Felix came and asked if he could have a minute to discuss the problem of shipping langoustes from France by air. It developed that what he really wanted was Wolfe's approval of frozen langoustes, and of course he didn't get it. But he was stubborn, and they were still at it when Pierre ushered Sarah Dacos in. She was right on time. As I took her coat she accepted my offer of coffee, so I put her in a chair at the table and waited until Felix had gone to tell Wolfe her name.