166 Rex Stout
scientists were through. But Cramer, like a sap, gave the order to seal it up until further notice, in Wolfe's hearing. He knew damn well that Wolfe spent as least three hundred evenings a year in there, in the only chair and under the only light that he really liked, and that was why he did it. It was a mistake. If he hadn't made it, Wolfe might have called his attention to a certain fact as soon as Wolfe saw it himself, and Cramer would have been saved a lot of trouble.
The two of them got the fact at the same time, from me. We were in the dining room-^his was shortly after the scientists had got busy in the office, and the guests, under guard, had been shunted to the front room--and I was relating my conversation with Cynthia Brown. They wanted all of it, or Cramer did rather, and they got it. Whatever else my years as Wolfe's assistant may have done for me or to me, they have practically turned me into a tape recorder, and Wolfe and Cramer didn't get a rewrite of that conversation, they got the real thing, word for word. They also got the rest of my afternoon, complete. When I finished, Cramer had a slew of questions, but Wolfe not a one. Maybe he had already focused on the fact above referred to, but neither Cramer nor I had. The short- hand dick seated at one end of the dining table had the fact too, in his notebook along with the rest of it, but he j wasn't supposed to focus.
.Cramer called a recess on the questions to take steps. He called men in and gave orders. Colonel Brown was to be photographed and fingerprinted and headquarters records were to be checked for him and Cynthia. The file on the murder of Doris Hatten was to | be brought to him at once. The lab reports were to be j rushed. Saul Panzer and Fritz Brenner were to be] brought in.
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came. Fritz stood like a soldier at attention, nd grave. Saul, only five feet seven, with the ; eyes and one of the biggest noses I have ever in his impressed brown suit, and his necktie -he stood like Saul, not slouching and not ie would stand like that if he were being I the Medal of Honor or if he were in front of a Hf^uad. - " .
s Cramer knew both of them. He picked on ift>u and Fritz were in the hall aU afternoon?" 1 nodded. The hall and the front room, yes." f did you see enter or leave the office?"
Archie go in about four o'clock--I was just fout of the front room with someone's hat and saw Mrs. Carlisle come out just after she In between those two I saw no one either cleave. We were busy most of the time, either or the front room." 1 grunted. "How about you, Fritz?" no one." Fritz spoke louder than usual. "I ren see Archie go in." He took a step forward, , soldier. "I would like to say something." ad." : a great deal of all this disturbance is un. My duties here are of the household and not but I cannot help hearing what reaches , and I am aware of the many times that Mr. i found the answer to problems that were too This happened here in his own house, it should be left entirely to him." i, "Fritz, I didn't know you had it in you!" i disturbance,'' he insisted firmly, goddamned." Cramer was goggling at him. you to say that, huh?"
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"Bah." Wolfe was contemptuous. "It can't be helped, Fritz. Have we plenty of ham?"
"Yes,sir."
"Sturgeon?"
"Yes, sir."
"Lateiy probably. For the guests in the front room, but not the police. Are you through with them, Mr Cramer?"
^o.'VCramer went back to �auL "You checked the guestsin?"
"Yes." ' .-' "- .. . ' .. - : '.''. ' "How?r '...;,. ;' ' / ';. ...' ,. "'.
"I had a list of the members of the Manhattan Flower Club. They had to show their membership cards. I checked on the list those who came. If they brought a wife or husband, or any other guest, I took
'^Mil*f$?"~,: '
:^NnNfe� you have a record of everybody?"
^^*5BB*&,.:/.r;-- . . : "How cdnpete is it?" "It^seo^lete and it's accurate."
**About how many names?" "Two hundred and nineteen." "This place wouldn't hold that many." Saul nodded. They came arid went. There wasn't . marexthan a hundred or so at any one time."
That's a help." Cramer was getting more and more disgusted, and I didn't blame him. "Goodwin says he was there at the door with you when that woman screamed and came running out of the office, but that you hadn't seen her enter the office. Why not?"
*We had our backs turned. We were watching a man who had just left go down the steps. Archie had asked him for his name and he had said that was ridiculous. If you want it, his name is Malcolm Vedder."
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s ten it i& How do you know?" 1 checked him in along with the rest"
stared. "Are you telling me that you could many names to that many faces after seeing ;onee?"
shoulders went slightly up and down, i more to people than faces. I might go wrong , but not many. I was at that door to do a job lit" ' -..-.. .< ". should know by this time," Wolfe rumbled, r. Panzer is an exceptional man."
spoke to a dick standing by the door. "You name, Levy-*-Malcomi Vedder. 3teflSteb ; it on that list and send a man to bring him
-dick went. Crsmer returned to Saul. Tut ft y. Say I sit you here with that list, and a man or l is brought in, and I point to a name on the list you if that person came this afternoon under Could you tell me positively?" 1 tell you positively whether the person had I or not, especially if he was wearing the same land hadn't been disguised. On fitting him to his t might go wrong in a few cases, but I doubt it." i*'t believe you." Wolfe does," Saul said complacently. "Archie | have developed my faculties." tsure have. All right, that's all for now. Stick
' - . : : '>' -. .. :- .; -;- "
I and Fritz went. Wolfe, in his own chair at the sdining table, where ordinarily, at this hour,
for a quite different purpose than the one at (red a deep sigh and closed his eyes. I, seated t Cramer at the side of the table that put us fac
; door to the hall, was beginning to appreciate
;-Iflfc-: Rex Stout ...'....'
the kind of problem we were up against. The look on drainer's face indicated that he was appreciating it too. The look was crossing my bow, direct at Wolfe.
"Goodwin's story," Gramer growled. "I mean her story. What do you think?"
Wolfe's eyes cane open a little. "What followed seems to support it. I doubt if she would have arranged for that"--he flipped a hand in the direction of the office across the hall--"just to corroborate a tale. I accept it. I credit it."
"Yeah. I don't heed to remind you that I know you well and I know Goodwin well. So I wonder how much chance there is that in a day or so you'll suddenly remember that she had been here before today, or one or more of the others had, and you've got a client, and there was something leading up to this."
*�osto^ IToJfe said dryly. "Even if it were like that, and it isn't, yon would be wasting tame. Since you know us, you know we wouldn't remember until we got *eady:to."''' /,. :. - "-. : .
CJramer glowered. Two scientists came in from across the hall to report. Stebbins came to announce the arrival of an .assistant district attorney. A dick came to relay a phone call from a deputy commissioner. Another dick came hi to say that Homer Carlisle was raising hell in the front room. Meanwhile Wolfe sat with his eyes shut, but I got an idea of his state of mind from the fact that intermittently his forefinger was making little circles on the polished top of the table.
Cramer looked at him* "What da youknow," he asked abruptly, "about the killing of that Doris Hat ten?".- : <: :-. . -- ' '.;. . . ; ,
"Newspaper accounts," Wolfe muttered. "And what Mr. Stebbins has told Mr. Goodwin, casually." "Casual is right." Cramer got out a cigar, conveyed
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mouth, and sank his teeth in it. He never Et hose damn houses with self-service elevators than walk-ups for a checking job. No one '.sees anyone coming or going. If you're not inter, I'm talking to hear mysetfi" Nm interested." Wolfe's eyes stayed shut.
1.1 appreciate it. Even so, self-service eleva not, the man who paid the rent for that apart, was lucky. He may have been clever and careful, i he was lucky. Never to have anybody see him i to give a description of him--that took hick."