“You never answered my question,” she complained. “Must I show this to the police and let them take it?” Her sheet was in her hand, and Younger had his.
“As you please—or rather, as you will. If you don’t, when they learn that you got it, as of course they will, they’ll be ruffled, but they are already. Suit yourself.”
I was up and halfway to the door, to escort them out, but they weren’t coming. They wanted to know what was what, then and there. Younger was so stubborn that I finally had to take his arm and put a little pressure on, and by the time I got him to the front, with his hat and coat on, and over the threshold to the stoop, he was in no humor to offer me a drink. They left together, and I hoped Younger would give Mrs. Wheelock a lift back to the hotel. She didn’t have the physique or the vigor for a midtown bus.
I returned to the office and told Wolfe, “I know you like to do your own digesting, but one thing occurs to me. As far as the contest is concerned, it no longer matters who lifted the wallet. They’ve all got the answers now and there’ll have to be a new deal, so what’s left of our job?” He grunted. “We still have it. You know what I was hired to do.”
“Yes, sir. I ought to. But what if the client has lost interest in what you were hired to do?”
“We’ll handle that contingency when we face it. For the immediate present there is enough to occupy us. I told you that with such tension something was sure to snap, though I must confess that I hadn’t listed this among the possibilities. You will phone the others, all of them, and notify them of the meeting this evening, but from the kitchen or your room. I have to work. I haven’t the slightest idea what course to take at the meeting, and I must contrive one. Now that this has happened we must move quickly, or you will be quite right—there will be no job left. I may need—confound it!”
The phone was ringing. I had it off the cradle automatically before remembering that my base of operations had been moved. An urgent male voice gave me not a request but an order, and I covered the transmitter and turned to Wolfe. “Buff. Exploding. You and only you.” He reached for his receiver. I stayed with mine.
Chapter 15
“Nero Wolfe spea—”
“This is Buff. Is your wire tapped?”
“Not to my knowledge. I think we must assume it isn’t, just as we assume an atom bomb won’t interrupt us. Otherwise life becomes—”
“I couldn’t reach Hansen so I got you.” Buffs words were piling up. “A city detective is here, a Lieutenant Rowcliff, in my office. I came to another room to phone. He says that they have information that one of the contestants, Susan Tescher, received in the mail this morning a list of the answers to the five verses. Before he told me that he had asked me how many copies of the answers were in existence, and I told him what we have been telling them all along, just the one in the safe deposit box as far as we know. We haven’t mentioned the copy Goodwin took. But with that woman getting a copy in the mail, the police—”
“One moment, Mr. Buff. Three of the other contestants also received copies in the mail, and I suppose—”
“Three others! Then what—who sent them?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t, and Mr. Goodwin didn’t”
“Where’s the copy he took?”
“In the inner compartment of my safe. That’s where he put it, and it must still be there. Hold the wire a moment while he looks.”
I put my receiver down, went to the safe, swung the outer door open, and got at the dial of the four-way combination of the inner door. It takes a little time. Opening the door, there on top of the stack of papers I saw the leaves from my notebook. I took them out, made sure all four were there, returned them, shut the door and the outer door, announced to Wolfe, “Intact,” and went back to my chair and picked up the receiver.
Wolfe spoke. “Mr. Buff? Mr. Goodwin’s copy has remained in my safe and is there now. Mrs. Wheelock and Mr. Younger have been to see me, and Mr. Heery has phoned me that Mr. Rollins was in his office. Have you heard from Mr. Heery?”
“Yes. He phoned Assa. We were just going to call you when this detective came. What’s this about a meeting?”
“There will be ore at nine o’clock this evening, at my office, for all those concerned. Mr. Goodwin was going-”
“That can wait.” Buff was sounding more like a top executive than he had before. “What about the police? We’ve lied to them. We’ve told them that we know of no copy except the one in the safe deposit box. I have just repeated it to this detective. He’s waiting in my office. What about it?”
“Well.” Wolfe was judicious. “You were not under oath. The police have been lied to informally many times by many people, including me. The right to lie in the service of your own interests is highly valued and frequently exercised. However, the police are investigating a murder, and now the number of extant copies of the answers will be of vital concern to them. Hitherto they would have been annoyed at discovery of your lie; if you fail to disclose it now and they discover it later they will be enraged. I suggest that you disclose it immediately.”
“Admit we all lied?”
“Certainly. There is no depravity attached and there can be no penalty. No man should tell a lie unless he is shrewd enough to recognize the time for renouncing it, if and when it comes, and knows how to renounce it gracefully. About the meeting this evening—”
“We can discuss that later. I’ll call you.”
He was off. Wolfe cradled the receiver, pushed the phone to one side, heaved a sigh clear down to where a strip of his yellow shut showed between his vest and pants, as usual, leaned back, and shut his eyes.
“Of course you know,” I said, “that that will bring us company.”
“It can’t be helped,” he muttered. Since the phone numbers of LBA and the Churchill were in my head, the only ones I had to scribble in my notebook were Clock magazine and Hansen’s and Heery’s offices. That done, I went to the kitchen, where Fritz was putting some lamb hearts to soak in sour milk and an assortment of herbs and spices, asked if I could use his phone, and started in. Four of them-Wheelock, Younger, Heery, and Buff—had already been invited and would get a reminder call later. Presumably Rollins had also been invited, but that had to be checked. I got two of them without much difficulty, O’Garro and Assa, on one call, but had a hell of a time with the others. Four different calls to Gertrude Frazee’s room, eighteen-fourteen, at the Churchill, in a period of forty minutes, got me no answer. Three calls failed to land Rudolph Hansen, but he finally called back, and of course had to speak to Wolfe. I stood pat that he couldn’t, and though he refused to accept the invitation to the meeting, I knew nothing could keep him away. I also got Harold Rollins, who told me in one short superior sentence that he would be present and hung up.
Susan Tescher was a tough one. First Clock told me she was in conference. Then Clock said she wasn’t there today. I asked for Mr. Knudsen, the tall and bony one, but he had stepped out. I asked for Mr. Schultz, the tall and broad one, and he was engaged. I asked for Mr. Hibbard, the tall and skinny one, of the legal staff, and darned if I didn’t get him. I told him about the meeting, and who would be there, and said that if Miss Tescher didn’t come she might find herself tomorrow morning confronted with a fait accompli, knowing as I did that any lawyer would feel that a guy who used words like fait accompli was a man to be reckoned with. As I was starting to dial the Churchill number for another stab at Miss Frazee, the doorbell rang. I went to the hall for a look through the panel, then opened the door to the office. Apparently Wolfe hadn’t moved a muscle.
I announced, “Stebbins.”
He opened his eyes. “At least it’s better than Mr. Cramer. Bring him in.”
I went and unbolted the door, swung it wide, and said hospitably, “Hello there. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“I’ll bet you have.” He marched on by me, making quite an air wash, and on by the rack, removing his hat as he entered the office. By the time I attended to the door and caught up he was standing in front of Wolfe’s desk and talking. “. . . the copy of the contest answers that Goodwin made last Wednesday. Where is it?”