At ten past one it was all over. Cramer had taken it and was gone. He had made a condition, that there would first be a check of the record and a staff talk, but that didn't matter, since the arrests were to be postponed until after judges had gone home. He accepted the proviso that the victims were not to know that Wolfe had a hand in it, so it could have been said that he was knuckling under, but actually he was merely using horse sense. No matter how much he discounted Wolfe's three words that were not to be eaten--and he knew from experience how risky it was to discount Wolfe just for the hell of it--they made it fairly probable that it wouldn't hurt to give Mion's death another look; and in that case a session with the couple who had found the body was as good a way to start as any. As a
Curtains for Three 45
alter of fact, the only detail that Cramer choked on Swas Wolfe's refusal to tell who his client was.
As I followed Wolfe into the dining room for lunch I Remarked to his outspread back, "There are already hi hundred and nine people in the metropolitan area |who would like to poison you. This will make it eight and eleven. Don't think they won't find out oner or later." "Of course they will," he conceded, pulling his chair
"But too late."
The rest of that day and evening nothing happened II, as far as we knew.
VI
s at my desk in the office at 10:40 the next morning i the phone rang. I got it and told the transmitter, lero Wolfe's office, Archie Goodwin speaking." "I want to talk to Mr. Wolfe." "He won't be available until eleven o'clock. Can I p?"
pThis is urgent. This is Weppler, Frederick Wepfc I'm in a booth in a drugstore on Ninth Avenue Twentieth Street. Mrs. Mion is with me. We've i arrested." imood God!" I was horrified. "What for?"
i ask us about Mion's death. They had material! warrants. They kept us all night, and we just at on bail. I had a lawyer arrange for the bail, but want him to know about--that we consulted , and he's not with us. We want to see Wolfe."
sure do," I agreed emphatically. "It's a damn e. Come on up here. He'll be down from the Mffooms by the time you arrive. Grab a taxi."
46 R
Stoat
"** ^-^^y^Phoaag. We're being followed b*J; *WO Octaves and we faft want them to know *r-^ � f6"1* Wo5e. How op, we shake ^^
Ifc w^t? S? saved time and energy to tell him to come alXrt, i^ff �f �ffidaltaas needn't worry ^W St^�***"*****.
"F^ ^ "ft.lMid'**��. "Cops give me
"For ., T*; ." --' "*�8u�ea. "uops < a pain ir*,the neck" Llsten- A^ yoa listening?" "Yes*
ug� ^ntl^/T t C�mpany' Five-thirty-five _^-enteenth Street. Tn tho ��*. , * "SI
con
Uov^ , rr~ -"*'~ ^��'pany i-ive-thirty West S^,n^nth Street- ^ the <, pounds ^ for ^ Feder. f^11,1111" your name � Montgomery. He'U conduct yotf .^.,a P388^ that 6^ on Eighteenth Street, ^f' thfre! ^ at the curb or double parked, <UJf a *""^ handkerchief on the door handle. ^J^V" D�n fc Iose f time climbing in.
TT__ _�* KOC It!
thfi r�pr�lr T.iotar, A_ ... .. r 6
handle.
Have yo* �" " pounds ,
"I thi^* "^ Jfd better repeat the address." I did *�' and told mm to wait ten minutes before starting, *� fve, ^^f J� &et there. Then, after hanging *# \*honed So1 Feder to instruct hhn, got Wolfe on ^ehh�USef Pjone to ^rm him, and beat it. 1 shotJ^J%! ^" to Wait ^^ � twenty minutes i^l5 ?"', ^^ I ** to "V Post on Eighteen^,f^ ^ � time. My taxi had just stopped, ^i ""?"� out to �e my handkerchief on the dff^f^ T " hf6 they ^e *�>� the sidewalk ^.ba. �J of WL I swung the door wide, and Fred I**4*"^ threw Peggy in ^d (fi?Bd m ^
.
viai*
her.
^'�ied and we ro�^
i we ro^ ** we^rS ^ Aw"� I asked if they had
11811 brea*22 nS6y,^ J68'D0t ^*-"V enthusiasm. The ** B' ^y lo<*�d � if they were entirely
"Okay ^Ver'" J Sajd 8ternly� "you know where," 1 *� rtjU^0-
Curtains for Three 47
tout of enthusiasm. Peggy's lightweight green jacket,
I which she had on over a tan cotton dress, was rumpled
{.and not very clean, and her face looked neglected.
* Fred's hair might not have been combed for a month,
|and his brown tropical worsted was anything but
fiiatty. They sat holding hands, and about once a minute
I Fred twisted around to look through the rear window.
"We're loose all right," I assured him. "I've been
saving Sol Feder just for an emergency like this."
It was only a five-minute ride. When I ushered them into the office Wolfe was there in his big custom made chair behind his desk. He arose to greet them, invited them to sit, asked if they had breakfasted properly, and said that the news of their arrest had been an f unpleasant shock.
"One thing," Fred blurted, still standing. "We came to see you and consult you in confidence, and forty eight hours later we were arrested. Was that pure coincidence?"
Wolfe finished getting himself re-established in his chair. "That won't help us any, Mr. Weppler," he said without resentment. "If that's your frame of mind you'd better go somewhere and cool off. You and Mrs. Mion are my clients. An insinuation that I am capable of acting against the interest of a client is too childish for discussion. What did the police ask you about?"
But Fred wasn't satisfied. "You're not a double crosser," he conceded. "I know that. But what about Goodwin here? He may not be a double-crosser either, but he might have got careless in conversation with someone."
Wolfe's eyes moved. "Archie. Did you?" "No, sir. But he can postpone asking my pardon. They've had a hard night." I looked at Fred. "Sit down
48 Rex Stout
and relax. If I had a careless tongue I wouldn't last at this job a week."
"It's damn funny," Fred persisted. He sat. "Mrs. Mion agrees with me. Don't you, Peggy?"
Peggy. m the red leather chair, gave him a glance and then looked back at Wolfe. "I did, I guess," she confessed. "Yes, I did. But now that I'm here, seeing you--" She made a gesture. "Oh, forget it! There's no one else to go to. We know lawyers, of course, but we don't want to tell a lawyer what we know--about the gun. We've already told you. But now the police suspect something, and we're out on bail, and you've got to do something!"
"What did you find out Monday evening?" Fred demanded. "You stalled when I phoned yesterday. What did they say?"
"They recited facts," Wolfe replied. "As I told you on the phone, I made some progress. I have nothing to add to that--now. But I want to know, I must know, what line the police took with you. Did they know what you told me about the gun?"
They both said no.
Wolfe grunted. "Then I might reasonably ask that you withdraw your insinuation that I or Mr. Goodwin betrayed you. What did they ask about?"
The answers to that took a good half an hour. The cops hadn't missed a thing that was included in the picture as they knew it, and, with instructions from Cramer to make it thorough, they hadn't left a scrap. Far from limiting it to the day of Mion's death, they had been particularly curious about Peggy's and Fred's feelings and actions during the months both prior and subsequent thereto. Several times I had to take the tip of my tongue between my teeth to keep from asking the clients why they hadn't told the cops
Curtains for Three 49
to go soak their heads, but I really knew why: they had been scared. A scared man is only half a man. By the time they finished reporting on their ordeal I was feeling sympathetic, and even guilty on behalf of Wolfe, when suddenly he snapped me out of it.
He sat a while tapping the arm of his chair with a fingertip, and then looked at me and said abruptly, "Archie. Draw a check to the order of Mrs. Mion for five thousand dollars."
They gawked at him. I got up and headed for the safe. They demanded to know what the idea was. I stood at the safe door to listen.