I grinned at his scowl. “So you’re squatting. Where’s Dorothy?”
“Down the hall, in Talbott’s room.”
“Is Talbott there?”
“No, he hasn’t been in today.”
I glanced at my wrist and saw twenty minutes past one. I stood up. “Rye with mustard?”
“No. White bread and nothing on it — no butter.”
“Okay. On one condition, that you promise not to phone Mr. Wolfe. If you did you’d be sure to tell him that you got what he’s after, and I want to surprise him with it.”
He said he wouldn’t, and that he wanted two sandwiches and plenty of coffee, and I departed. Two men and a woman who were standing in the corridor, talking, inspected me head to foot as I passed but didn’t try to trip me, and I went on out to the elevators, descended, and got directed to a phone booth in the lobby.
Orrie Cather answered again, and I began to suspect that he and Saul were continuing the pinochle game with Wolfe.
“I’m on my way,” I told Wolfe when he was on, “to get corned-beef sandwiches for Pohl and me but I’ve got a plan. He promised not to phone you while I’m gone, and if I don’t go back he’s stuck. He has installed himself in Keyes’ room, which you ought to see, against Dorothy’s protests, and intends to stay. Been there all day. What shall I do, come home or go to a movie?”
“Has Mr. Pohl had lunch?”
“Certainly not. That’s what the sandwiches are for.”
“Then you’ll have to take them to him.”
I remained calm because I knew he meant it from his heart, or at least his stomach. He couldn’t bear the idea of even his bitterest enemy missing a meal.
“All right,” I conceded, “and I may get a tip. By the way, that trick you tried didn’t work. Right away he found a record of Talbott’s travels in Keyes’ desk and copied it off on a sheet from Keyes’ memo pad. I’ve got it in my pocket.”
“Read it to me.”
“Oh, you can’t wait.” I got the paper out and read the list of towns and dates to him. Twice he said I was going too fast, so apparently he was taking it down. When that farce was over I asked, “After I feed him, then what?”
“Call in again when you’ve had your lunch.”
I banged the thing on the hook.
X
They were good sandwiches. The beef was tender and full of hot salty sap, with just the right amount of fat, and the bread had some character. I was a little short on milk, having got only a pint, but stretched it out. In between bites we discussed matters, and I made a mistake. I should of course have told Pohl nothing whatever, especially since the more I saw of him the less I liked him, but the sandwiches were so good that I got careless and let it out that as far as I knew no attack had been made on the phone girl and the waiter at the Hotel Churchill. Pohl was determined to phone Wolfe immediately to utter a howl, and in order to stop him I had to tell him that Wolfe had other men on the case and I didn’t know who or what they were covering.
I was about to phone myself when the door opened and Dorothy Keyes and Victor Talbott walked in.
I stood up. Pohl didn’t.
“Hello hello,” I said cheerfully. “Nice place you have here.”
Neither of them even nodded to me. Dorothy dropped into a chair against a wall, crossed her legs, and turned her gaze on Pohl with her chin in the air.
Talbott marched over to us at the ebony desk, stopped at my elbow, and told Pohl, “You know damn well you’ve got no right here, going through things and trying to order the staff around. You have no right here at all. I’ll give you one minute to get out.”
“You’ll give me?” Pohl sounded nasty and looked nasty. “You’re a paid employee, and you won’t be that long, and I’m part owner, and you say you’ll give me! Trying to order the staff around, am I? I’m giving the staff a chance to tell the truth, and they’re doing it. Two of them have spent an hour in a lawyer’s office, getting it on paper. A complaint has been sworn against Broadyke for receiving stolen goods, and he’s been arrested by now.”
Talbott said, “Get out,” without raising his voice.
Pohl, not moving, said, “And I might also mention that a complaint has been sworn against you for stealing the goods. The designs you sold to Broadyke. Are you going to try to alibi that too?”
Talbott’s jaw worked a couple of seconds before it let his lips open for speech. His teeth stayed together as he said, “You can leave now.”
“Or I can stay. I’ll stay.” Pohl was sneering, and it made his network of face creases deeper. “You may have noticed I’m not alone.”
I didn’t care for that. “Just a minute,” I put in. “I’ll hold your coats, and that’s all. Don’t count on me, Mr. Pohl. I’m strictly a spectator, except for one thing, you haven’t paid me for your sandwiches and coffee. Ninety-five cents before you go, if you’re going.”
“I’m not going. It’s different here from what it was in the park that morning, Vic. There’s a witness.”
Talbott took two quick steps, used a foot to shove the big ebony chair back free of the desk, made a grab in the neighborhood of Pohl’s throat, got his necktie, and jerked him out of the chair. Pohl came forward and tried to come up at the same time, but Talbott, moving fast, kept going with him, dragging him around the corner of the desk.
I had got upright and backed off, not to be in the way.
Suddenly Talbott went down, flat on his back, an upflung hand gripping a piece of the necktie. Pohl was not very springy, even for his age, but he did his best. He scrambled to his feet, started yelling, “Help! Police! Help!” at the top of his voice, and seized the chair I had been sitting on and raised it high. His idea was to drop it on the prostrate enemy, and my leg muscles tightened for quick action, but Talbott leaped up and yanked the chair away from him. Pohl ran. He scooted around behind the desk, and Talbott went after him. Pohl, yelling for help again, slid around the other end, galloped across the room to a table which held a collection of various objects, picked up an electric iron, and threw it. Missing Talbott, who dodged, it crashed onto the ebony desk and knocked the telephone to the floor. Apparently having an iron thrown at him made Talbott mad, for when he reached Pohl, instead of trying to get a hold on something more substantial than a necktie, he hauled off and landed on his jaw, in spite of the warning I had given him the day before.
“Off of that, you!” a voice boomed.
Glancing to the right, I saw two things: first, that Dorothy, still in her chair, hadn’t even uncrossed her legs, and second, that the law who had entered was not a uniformed pavement man but a squad dick I knew by sight. Evidently he had been somewhere around the premises, but it was the first I had seen of him.
He crossed to the gladiators. “This is no way to act,” he declared.
Dorothy, moving swiftly, was beside him. “This man,” she said, indicating Pohl, “forced his way in here and was told to leave but wouldn’t. I am in charge of this place and he has no right here. I want a charge against him for trespassing or disturbing the peace or whatever it is. He tried to kill Mr. Talbott with a chair and then with that iron he threw at him.”
I, having put the phone back on the desk, had wandered near, and the law gave me a look.
“What were you doing, Goodwin, trimming your nails?”
“No, sir,” I said respectfully, “it was just that I didn’t want to get stepped on.”
Talbott and Pohl were both speaking at once.