his handkerchief. Also that if we had come down a little
sooner—”
“Shut up!”
“Yes, sir.”
“This is insupportable.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I will not accept it.”
“No, sir. I could bum the tie and we could tell Cramer
that whatever he used he must have waited until he
was sure she was dead and then removed it and took
it—”
The Homicide Trinity 13
“Shut up. She told you that nobody knew she came
here.”
“Bah,” I said. “Not a chance and you know it. We’re
stuck. I put off calling until you came down only to be
polite. If I put it off any longer that will only make it
worse because I’ll have to tell them the exact time I
found her.” I looked at my wrist. “It’s already been
twenty-one minutes. Would you rather make the call
yourself?”
No reply. He was staring down at the necktie, with
his jaw set and his mouth so tight he had no lips. I gave
him five seconds, to be polite, and then went to the
kitchen, to the phone on the table where I ate breakfast,
and dialed a number.
Chapter 2
Inspector Cramer of Homicide West finished the
last page of the statement I had typed and signed,
put it on top of the other pages on the table, tapped
it with a finger, and spoke. “I still think you’re lying,
Goodwin.”
It was a quarter past eleven. We were in the dining
room. The gang of scientists had finished in the office
and departed, and it was no longer out of bounds, but I
had no special desire to move back in. For one thing,
they had taken the rug, along with Wolfe’s necktie and
the paperweight and a few other items. Of course they
had also taken Bertha Aaron, so I wouldn’t have to see
her again, but even so I was perfectly willing to stay in
the dining room. They had brought the typewriter
there after the fingerprint detail had finished with it, so
I could type the statement.
Now, after nearly five hours, they were gone, all
except Sergeant Purley Stebbins, who was in the office
14 Rex Stout
using the phone, and Cramer. Fritz was in the kitchen,
on his third bottle of wine, absolutely miserable. Added
to the humiliation of a homicide in the house he kept
was the incredible fact that Wolfe had passed up a meal.
He had refused to eat a bite. Around eight o’clock he
had gone up to his room, and Fritz had gone up twice
with a tray, and he had only snarled at him. When I had
gone up at 10:30 with a statement for him to sign, and
told him they were taking the rug, he made a noise but
had no words. With all that for background in addition
to my personal reactions, it was no wonder that when
Cramer told me he still thought I was lying I was
outspoken.
“I’ve been trying for years,” I said, “to think who it is
you remind me of. I just remembered. It was a certain
animal I saw once in a cage. It begins with B. Are you
going to take me down or not?”
“No.” His big round face is always redder at night,
making his gray hair look whiter. “You can save the
wisecracks. You wouldn’t lie about anything that can
be checked, but we can’t check your account of what she
told you. She’s dead. Accepting your statement, and
Wolfe’s, that you have never had any dealings with her
or anyone connected with that law firm, you might still
save something for your private use—or change some-
thing. One thing especially. You ask me to believe that
she told—”
“Excuse me. I don’t care a single measly damn what
you believe. Neither does Mr. Wolfe. You can’t name
anything we wouldn’t rather have done than report
what happened, but we had no choice, so we reported it
and you have our statements. If you know what she said
better than I do, that’s fine with me.”
“I was talking,” he said.
“Yeah. I was interrupting.”
“You say that she gave you all those details, how she
saw a member of the firm in a cheap restaurant or
lunchroom with an opposing client, the day she saw
him, her telling him about it this afternoon, all the rest
of it, including naming Mrs. Sorell, but she didn’t name
The Homicide Trinity 15
the member of the firm. I don’t believe it.” He tapped
the statement and his head came forward. “And I’m
telling you this, Goodwin. If you use that name for your
private purposes and profit, and that includes Wolfe, if
you get yourselves hired to investigate this murder and
you use information you have withheld from me to solve
the case and collect a fee, I’ll get you for it if it costs me
an eye!”
I cocked my head. “Look,” I said. “Apparently you
don’t realize. It’s already been on the radio, and tomor-
row it will be in the papers, that a woman who had come
to consult Nero Wolfe was murdered in his office, stran-
gled with his necktie, while he was up playing with his
orchids and chatting with Archie Goodwin. I can hear
the horse laugh from here. Mr. Wolfe couldn’t swallow
any dinner; he wouldn’t even try. We knew and felt all
this the second we saw her there on the floor. If we had
known which member of the firm it was, if she had told
me his name, what would we have done? You ought to
know, since you claim you know us. I would have gone
after him. Mr. Wolfe would have left the office, shut the
door, and gone to the kitchen, and would have been
there drinking beer when Fritz came home. When he
went to the office and discovered the body would have
depended on when and what he heard from me. With
any luck I would have got here with the murderer
before you and the scientists arrived. That wouldn’t
have erased the fact that she had been strangled with
his necktie, but it would have blurred it. I give you this
just to show you that you don’t know us as well as you
think you do. As for your believing me, I couldn’t care
less.”
His sharp gray eyes were narrowed at me. “So you
would have gone and got him. So he killed her. Huh?
How did he know she was here? How did he get in?”
I produced a word I’ll leave out, and added, “Again? I
have discussed that with Stebbins, and Rowcliff, and
you. Now again?”
“What the hell,” he said. He folded the statement and
stuck it in his pocket, shoved his chair back, got up,
16 Rex Stout
growled at me, “If it costs me both eyes,” and tramped
out. From the hall he spoke to Stebbins in the office. It
will give you some idea of how low I was when I say that
I didn’t even go to the hall to see that they took only
what belonged to them. You might think that after
being in the house five hours Purley would have
stepped to the door to say good night, but no. I heard
the front door close with a bang, so it was Purley.
Cramer never banged doors.
I slumped further down in my chair. At twenty min-
utes to midnight I said aloud, “I could go for a walk,” but
apparently that didn’t appeal to me. At 11:45 I arose,
picked up the carbons of my statement, went to the
office, and put them in a drawer of my desk. Looking
around, I saw that they had left it in fairly decent shape.
I went and brought the typewriter and put it where it
belonged, tried the door of the safe, went to the hall to
see that the front door was locked and put the chain bolt
on, and proceeded to the kitchen. Fritz was in my
breakfast chair, humped over with his forehead on the
edge of the table.
“You’re pie-eyed,” I said.
His head came up. “No, Archie. I have tried, but no.”
“Go to bed.”
“No. He will be hungry.”
“He may never be hungry again. Pleasant dreams.”
I went to the hall, mounted one flight, turned left,
tapped on the door, heard a sound that was half growl
and half groan, opened the door, and entered. Wolfe,
fully clothed, wearing a necktie, was in the big chair
with a book.
“They’ve gone,” I said. “Last ones out, Cramer and
Stebbins. Fritz is standing watch in the kitchen expect-
ing a call for food. You’d better buzz him. Is there any
alternative to going to bed?”
“Can you sleep?” he demanded.
“Probably. I always have.”
“I can’t read.” He put the book down. “Have you ever
known me to show rancor?”