with the fingers straight out. I said, "Yes," and added conversationally, "When saw her go in the office why didn't you follow her ' Why did you wait?" "That isn't--" he said, and stopped. I waited politely. He spoke. "I had seen you leave, upstairs, and I
you were in there." "Why didn't she scream or fight?" | "I talked to her. I talked a little first." His head s a quick jerk, as if a fly were bothering him and his i were too occupied to attend to it. "What did she | you?"
"About that day at Doris Hatten's apartment--you in and her going out. And of course her recogttg you there yesterday." She is dead. There is no evidence. You can't prove
212 Rex Stout
I grinned. "Then you're wasting a lot of time and energy and the best disguise I ever saw. Why didn't you just toss my note in the wastebasket? Let me answer. You didn't dare. In getting evidence, knowing exactly what and who to look for makes all the difference. And you knew I knew."
"And you haven't told the police?"
"No."
"Nor Nero Wolfe?"
"No."
"Why not?"
I shrugged--not much of a shrug, on account of my status quo. "I may not put it very well," I said, "because this is the first time I have ever talked with my hands and feet tied and I And it cramps my style. But it strikes me as the kind of coincidence that doesn't happen very often. I'm fed up with the detective business and I'd like to quit. I have something that's worth a good deal to you--say fifty thousand dollars. It can be arranged so that you get what you pay for. I'll go the limit on that, but it has to be closed damn quick. If you don't buy I'm going to have a tough time explaining why I didn't remember sooner what she told me. Twenty-four hours from now is the absolute limit."
"It couldn't be arranged so 1 would get what I paid for."
"Sure it could. If you don't want me on your neck the rest of your life, believe me, I don't want you on mine either."
"I suppose you don't." He smiled, or at least he apparently thought he was smiling. "I suppose I'll have to pay."
There Was a sudden noise in his throat as if he had started to choke. He stood up. "You're working your hand loose," he said huskily and moved toward me.
Curtains for Three 213
It might have been guessed from his voice, thick
husky from the blood rushing to his head, but it i plain as day in his eyes, suddenly fixed and glassy
a blind man's eyes. Evidently he had come there intending to kill me and had now worked himself
o it. I felt a crazy impulse to laugh. Kill me with at?
"Hold it!" I snapped at him. He halted, muttered, "You're getting your hand
a," and moved again, passing me to get behind. With what purchase I could get on the floor with
bound feet, I jerked my body and the chair viofttly aside and around and had him in front of me
good," I told him. "They only went down one fit. I heard 'em. It's no good anyway. I've got an note for you--from Nero Wolfe--here in my , pocket. Help yourself, but stay in front of me." i eyes stayed glassy on me. "Don't you want to know what it says?" I de aded. "Get it!"
was only two steps from me, but it took him 1 small slow ones. His gloved hand went inside my to the breast pocket, and came out with a folded * of yellow paper--a sheet from one of Wolfe's memo From the way his eyes looked, I doubted if he be able to read, but apparently he was. I tied his face as he took it in, in Wolfe's straight rise handwriting:
pf Mr. Goodwin is not home by midnight the |information given him by Cynthia Brown will be
ommunicated to the police and I shall see that
bey act immediately.
Nero Wolfe
214 Rex Stout
He looked at me, and slowly his eyes changed. No longer glassy, they began to let light in. Before he had just been going to kill me. Now he hated me.
I got voluble. "So it's no good, see? He did it this way because if you had known I had told him you would have sat tight. He figured that you would think you could handle me, and I admit you tried your best. He wants fifty thousand dollars by tomorrow at six o'clock, no later. You say it can't be arranged so you'll get what you pay for, but we say it can and it's up to you. You say we have no evidence, but we can get it-- don't you think we can't. As for me, I wouldn't advise you even to pull my hair. It would make him sore at you, and he's not sore now, he just wants fifty thousand bucks."
He had started to tremble and knew it, and was trying to stop.
"Maybe," I conceded, "you can't get that much that quick. In that case he'll take your IOU. You can write it on the back of that note he sent you. My pen's here in my vest pocket. He'll be reasonable about it."
"I'm not such a fool," he said harshly. He had stopped trembling.
"Who said you were?" I was sharp and urgent and thought I had loosened him. "Use your head, that's all. We've either got you cornered or we haven't. If we haven't, what are you doing here? If we have, a little thing like your name signed to an IOU won't make it any worse. He won't press you too hard. Here, get my pen, right here."
I still think I had loosened him. It was in his eyes and the way he stood, sagging a little. If my hands had been free, so I could have got the pen myself and uncapped it and put it between his fingers, I would have had him. I had him to the point of writing and signing,
Curtains for Three 215
but not to the point of taking my pen out of my pocket. But of course if my hands had been free I wouldn't have been bothering about an IOU and a pen.
So he slipped from under. He shook his head, and his shoulders stiffened. The hate that filled his eyes was in his voice too. "You said twenty-four hours. That ^ gives me tomorrow. I'll have to decide. Tell Nero Wolfe 1111 decide."
He crossed to the door and pulled it open. He went t, closing the door, and I heard his steps descending tie stairs; but he hadn't taken his hat and coat, and I rly cracked my temples trying to use my brain. I in't got far when there were steps on the stairs i, coming up, and in they came, all three of them. iT-J was blinking again; apparently there was a bed Inhere they had been waiting. My host ignored him and oke to Skinny. "What time does your watch say?" -Skinny glanced at his wrist. "Nine-thirty-two." "At half-past ten, not before that, untie his left ad. If he has a knife where he can get at it with his ; hand, take it and--no, keep it. Leave him like that I go. It will take him five minutes or more to get his er hand and his feet free. Have you any objection to t?"
; "Hell no. He's got nothing on us." | "Will you do it that way?" | "Right. Ten-thirty on the nose." | The strangler took a roll of bills from his pocket, ag a little difficulty on account of his gloves, peeled twenties, went to the table with them, and i them a good rub on both sides with his handker
�
fee held the bills out to Skinny. "I've paid the
216 Rex Stout
agreed amount, as you know. This extra is so you won't get impatient and leave before half-past ten."
"Don't take it!" I called sharply.
Skinny, the bills in his hand, turned. "What's the matter, they got germs?"
"No, but they're peanuts, you sap! He's worth ten grand to you! As is! Ten grand!"
"Nonsense," the strangler said scornfully and started for the bed to get his hat and coat.
"Gimme my twenty," W-J demanded.
Skinny stood with his head cocked, regarding me. He looked faintly interested but skeptical, and I saw it would take more than words. As the strangler picked up his hat and coat and turned, I jerked my body violently to the left and over I went, chair and all. I have no idea how I got across the floor to the door. I couldn't simply roll on-account of the chair, I couldn't crawl without hands, and I didn't even try to jump. But I made it, and not slow, and was there, down on my right side, the chair against the door and me against the chair, before any of them snapped out of it enough to reach me.