I didn’t know if Avery Ballou was the early kind of president, and waited till a quarter to ten to dial the number of the Federal Holding Corporation. A woman answered, of course, and switched me to a man. He would submit my name to Mr. Ballou only if I told him what I wanted; that’s one of the ways junior executives try to keep wise to what their seniors are up to. I finally persuaded him the name was enough and Ballou would want it, but there was a long wait before his voice came.
“Goodwin? Archie Goodwin?”
“Right. Mr. Ballou?”
“Yes.”
“There has been a development in that matter we discussed Thursday evening, and we must tell you about it. Can you be here at eleven o’clock? Same address.”
“This morning?”
“Yes.”
“I’m afraid I can’t. Is it urgent?”
“Yes. Eleven-thirty or twelve would do, but eleven would be better. It shouldn’t take more than ten minutes.”
“Hold the wire… All right. I’ll be there at eleven or shortly after.”
If the junior executive had listened in, he must have been wondering what the hell could make Ballou jump like that, and wishing he knew.
After buzzing the plant rooms to tell Wolfe he was coming, I had a problem. Even if Julie was awake, it wasn’t advisable to go up and tell her that a man was coming whom she must not see, so would she please stay in her room with the door shut. She was a fine brave plucky game girl, and she might go to my room, which fronts on 35th Street, and look out the window just to be helpful. It wouldn’t be fair to tempt her like that, so I went to the kitchen, explained the situation to Fritz, and arranged with him. When the bell rang and I went to the door, he would go up to the second stair landing with the vacuum cleaner and camp there. If her door was open, he would vacuum the hall carpet. He said he couldn’t vacuum that carpet for an hour, and I said he wouldn’t have to.
Actually it was only eight or nine minutes. Wolfe came down on the dot at eleven, as he always does, and hadn’t finished looking through the mail when the bell rang. I waited until Fritz was on his way upstairs, then admitted the caller, took his hat and coat, and followed him to the office. He stood and told Wolfe he didn’t have time to sit.
“I like eyes at a level,” Wolfe said. “It takes three seconds to sit.”
Ballou sat.
“I’ll make it as brief as possible,” Wolfe said. “The first point, I am now satisfied that you didn’t kill Isabel Kerr, because I know who did, barely short of certainty. Her brother-in-law. The blackmailer. The second point, there is no longer any question of achieving my primary purpose, to clear Mr. Cather. That is assured. The third point, I would like to earn that fifty thousand dollars. How can I earn it?”
“I thought that was understood. Keep me out of this mess. Keep my name out. I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I have wanted a dozen times to call you, but I’m afraid to talk on the phone.”
Wolfe shook his head. “It needs definition. Your name is known now. Five people know it – Mr. and Mrs. Fleming, Mr. Cather, Mr. Goodwin, and I. As for the last three, the best you can get is our assurance that we will disclose it to no one. As for Mr. and Mrs. Fleming, the best I could possibly do would be to create a situation which would make it highly unlikely that they would ever disclose it. I can’t open their skulls and remove the cells where your name is filed. You see that.”
“Yes.”
“You would be the judge of the situation. I want to earn the money, not extort it. Now the fourth point, the reason I had to see you without delay. To proceed with any expectation of success, I must enlist help. I need the assistance of a woman named Julie Jaquette, or Amy Jackson, who was the friend –”
“I know the name. I know about her.”
“From Miss Kerr.”
“Yes.”
“She doesn’t know your name, and she doesn’t need to. She calls you the lobster. I want to ask her help, without telling her your name, and I want to tell her that if we succeed she will receive fifty thousand dollars in cash. Will you supply it?”
Ballou frowned at him.
“You told me,” Wolfe said, “that the fifty thousand was just a retainer and implied that there would be more if I served your purpose. I wouldn’t want more. I’ll get it done in a day or two, or not at all. I make it contingent on success, against precedent, to preclude any smell of extortion. Also, the prospect is dim. What are the odds against us, Archie?”
I didn’t have to consider. “A thousand to one.”
“This is pointless,” Ballou said. “You know damned well I’m trapped. You told me you’re my only hope. What’s another fifty thousand, or ten times fifty? If you think she can help, all right. You don’t seem –”
He wasn’t interrupted; I was, by the sound of the vacuum cleaner. I rose and went to the hall, stood at the foot of the stairs, and heard no voices, just the vacuum cleaner. I was thinking the conversation was finished anyway and was turning to go and tell him where the door was, when he came. I was at the rack, ready with his coat, by the time he got there. His car was out in front, and I waited until he was in it and it was rolling, before going to the stairs and on up to the second landing.
Fritz was giving the carpet a play, and Julie, in pajamas and barefoot, was standing in the doorway, watching him. He had his back to her, pretending he didn’t know she was there. I went and switched the vacuum off with my toe and spoke. “You might have waited until she was up.”
“I am up,” she said. “What time is it? I forgot to wind my watch.”
A bellow came from below. “Archie! Where are you?” I called down where I was, and more bellow came. “Tell Miss Jaquette I want her!”
Ballou had been gone not more than three minutes, and already he had a situation created. Which I handled. I told Julie her breakfast couldn’t be ready for half an hour and asked if she would consider having grapefruit juice and coffee in the office while Wolfe explained something to her. She asked why I couldn’t explain it, and I said because Wolfe knew more words. She went to change, and I went down and thanked Fritz for helping out in a pinch, requested coffee for the guest, and poured a glass of grapefruit juice.
And after that handling, when I went to the office Wolfe said perhaps it would be better for him to discuss it with me, and then I would discuss it with her. I didn’t try to talk him out of it; I just said no. I admit it was still in my gizzard that it was pure luck that she hadn’t been ironed out while I was standing right by her. I’m all for luck, but you shouldn’t crowd it. After what I had told her about lowering the blind and closing the drapes, I should have gone over for a look behind the wall before she got out of the taxi.
When she came down, not in the blue thing, in a dark green woolen dress, the tray was there on the stand by the red leather chair. She sat, picked up the glass and took a sip of juice, and said, “I’m all balled up. This will be the first time since I don’t know when that I don’t have breakfast in bed. It had better be good – I mean what you’re going to explain.”
Wolfe was regarding her, his lips tight. “I apologize. But we should lose no time. I say ‘we’ because I’m going to propose a collaboration. Have you all the money you want, Miss Jaquette?”
She had started the glass for her mouth but stopped it halfway. “Of all the dumb questions,” she said.
“But not pointless. Nor impertinent. I need to know if a chance – a long one, but a chance – of making fifty thousand dollars would interest you. Would it?”
“That’s even dumber.”
“Would it?”
“You’re asking me?”
“I am.”
“Fifty grand in cash?”
“Yes.”
“Less income tax.”
“Not until you paid it. I suggest nothing; I state a fact: it would be in cash, and you would sign no receipt.”
She sipped juice. “Do you know what I would do if I had fifty grand in one wad? I would go to school for four straight years. Or five.” She sipped juice. “I suppose some college; I finished high school. I have a feeling there are a lot of things I ought to know that I don’t know. I always have it. You say you’re being serious?”