They know me, Wolfe said.
Beat that if you can. I admit it was justified by the record. They did know him. What if they officially called it suicide, and then, in a day or a week or a month, Wolfe phoned WA9-824I to tell them to come and get the murderer and the evidence? Not that they were sure that would happen, but past experience had shown them that it was at least an even-money bet that it might happen. My point is not that it wasnt justified, but that it would have been more becoming just to describe the situation.
He saved his breath. He said, They know me, and picked up his book.
The next day, Saturday, we had words. The explosion came right after lunch. Saul had phoned at eight-thirty, as I was on my second cup of breakfast coffee, to report no progress. Marjorie Betz had stayed put in the apartment all evening, so the Wyatt lock had not been tackled. At noon he phoned again; more items of assorted information, but still no progress. But at two-thirty, as we returned to the office after lunch, the phone rang and he had news. They had found her. A man from a messenger service had gone to the apartment, and when he came out he had a suitcase with a tag on it. Of course that was pie. Saul and Orrie had entered a subway car right behind him. The tag read: Miss Edith Upson, Room 911, Hotel Christie, 523 Lexington Avenue . The initials E.U. were stamped on the suitcase.
Getting a look at someone who is holed up in a hotel room can be a little tricky, but that situation was made to order. Saul, not encumbered with luggage, had got to the hotel first and gone to the ninth floor, and had been strolling past the door of Room 911 at the moment it opened to admit the messenger with the suitcase; and if descriptions are any good at all, Edith Upson was Elaine Usher. Of course, Saul had been tempted to tackle her then and there, but also of course, since it was Saul, he had retired to think it over and to phone. He wanted to know, were there instructions or was he to roll his own?
You need a staff, I told him. Ill be there in twelve minutes. Where
No, Wolfe said, at his phone. Proceed, Saul, as you think best. You have Orrie. For this sort of juncture your talents are as good as mine. Get her here.
Yes, sir.
Preferably in a mood of compliance, but get her here.
Yes, sir.
That was when we had words. I cradled the receiver, not gently, and stood up. This is Saturday, I said, and Ive got my cheque for this week. I want a months severance pay.
Pfui.
No phooey. I am severing relations. It has been eighty-eight hours since I saw that girl die, and your one bright idea, granting that it was bright, was to collect her mother, and I refuse to camp here on my fanny while Saul collects her. Saul is not ten times as smart as I am; hes only twice as smart. A months severance pay will be
Shut up.
Gladly. I went to the safe for the chequebook and took it to my desk.
Archie.
I have shut up. I opened the chequebook.
This is natural. That is, it is in us, and we are alive, and whatever is in life is natural. You are headstrong and I am magisterial. Our tolerance of each other is a constantly recurring miracle. I did not have one idea, bright or not; I had two. We have neglected Austin Byne. It has been two days and nights since you saw him. Since he got you to that party, pretending an ailment he didnt have, and since he told Laidlaw he had seen Miss Usher at Grantham House, and since he chose Miss Usher as one of the dinner guests, he deserves better of us. I suggest that you attend to him.
I turned my head but kept the chequebook open. How? Tell him we dont like his explanations and we want new ones?
Nonsense. You are not so ingenuous. Survey him. Explore him.
I already have. You know what Laidlaw said. He has no visible means of support, but he has an apartment and a car and plays table-stakes poker and does not go naked. The apartment, by the way, hits my eye. If you hang this murder on him, and if our tolerance miracle runs out of gas, Ill probably take it over. Are you working yourself up to saying that you want to see him?
No. I have no lever to use on him. I only feel that he has been neglected. If you approach him again you too will be without a lever. Perhaps the best course would be to put him under surveillance.
If I postpone writing this cheque is that an instruction?
Yes.
At least I would get out in the air and away from the miracle for a while. I returned the chequebook to the safe, took twenty tens from the expense drawer, told Wolfe he would see me when he saw me, and went to the hall for my coat and hat.
When starting to tail a man it is desirable to know where he is, so I was a little handicapped. For all I knew, Byne might be in Jersey City or Brooklyn , or some other province, in a marathon poker game, or he might be at home in bed with a cold, or walking in the park. I got air by walking the two miles to Bowdoin Street , and at the corner of Bowdoin and Arbor I found a phone booth and dialled Bynes number. No answer. So at least I knew where he wasnt, and again I had to resist temptation. It is always a temptation to monkey with locks, and one of the best ways to test ears is to enter someones castle uninvited and, while you are looking here and there for something interesting, listen for footsteps on the stairs or the sound of an elevator. If you dont hear them in time your hearing is defective, and you should try some other line of work when you are out and around again.
Having swallowed the temptation, I moved down the block to a place of business I had noticed Thursday afternoon, with an artistic sign bordered with sweet peas, I think, that said AMYS NOOK. As I entered, my wristwatch said 4.12. Between then and a quarter past six, slightly over two hours, I ate five pieces of pie, two rhubarb and one each of apple, green tomato, and chocolate, and drank four glasses of milk and two cups of coffee, while seated at a table by the front window, from which I could see the entrance to 87, across the street and up a few doors. To keep from arousing curiosity by either my tenure or my diet, I had my notebook and pencil out and made sketches of a cat sleeping on a chair. In the Village that accounts for anything. The pie, incidentally, was more than satisfactory. I would have liked to take a piece home to Fritz. At six-fifteen the light outside was getting dim, and I asked for my check and was putting my notebook in a pocket when a taxi drew up in front of 87 and Dinky Byne piled out and headed for the entrance. When my change came I added a quarter to the tip, saying, For the cat, and vacated.
It was nothing like as comfortable in the doorway across from 87, the one I had patronized Thursday, but you have to be closer at night than in the daytime, no matter how good your eyes are. I could only hope that Dinky wasnt set to spend the evening curled up with a book, or even without one, but that didnt seem likely, since he would have to eat and I doubted if he did his own cooking. A light had shown at the fifth-floor windows, and that gave me something to do, bend my head back every half-minute or so to see if it had gone out. My neck was beginning to feel the strain when it finally did go out, at 7.02. In a couple of minutes the subject stepped out of the vestibule and turned right.
Tailing a man solo in Manhattan , even if he isnt wise, is a joke. If he suddenly decides to flag a taxiThere are a hundred ifs, and they are all on his side. But of course any game is more fun if the odds are against you, and if you win its good for the ego. Naturally its easier at night, especially if the subject knows you. On that occasion I claim no credit for keeping on Byne, for none of the ifs developed. It was merely a ten-minute walk. He turned left on Arbor, crossed Seventh Avenue , went three blocks west and one uptown, and entered a door where there was a sign on the window: TOMS JOINT.
Thats the sort of situation where being known to the subject cramps you; I couldnt go in. All I could do was hunt a post, and I found a perfect one: a narrow passage between two buildings almost directly across the street. I could go in a good ten feet from the building line, where no light came at all, and still see the front of Toms Joint. There was even an iron thing to sit on if my feet needed a rest.