"When you speak of using it to your profit, of course you mean get paid by somebody."
"Certainly."
"All right." Aiken shifted in the chair. "You want to compare my explanation with Miss McGee's. Of course you know that Yeager was the executive vice-president of my corporation, Continental Plastic Products. Miss McGee was his secretary. Some two months ago she came to me and told me about that room, that Yeager had had her go there several times in the evening to work with him on various matters. She had no complaint of his conduct, but she thought I should know about that room and what it indicated of Yeager's character and habits. From her description of the room I thought she was fully justified. Obviously it was a difficult problem. I asked her to mention it to no one, and not to refuse to go there again; I would have to take time to consider how to deal with it."
''Did you mention it to him?"
"No. I don't know how much you know of the administrative complexities of a large corporation, but the main question was whether the best procedure would be to discuss it with him first or take it up with my board of directors. I still hadn't decided yesterday when the news came that he was dead, that his body had been found in a hole in the street in front of that house. Naturally that was a shock, that he had been murdered, that was - well, very unpleasant - but it would be worse than unpleasant, it would be disastrous, if the existence of that room became known. Since his body had been found in front of that house, it would be assumed that someone involved in his activities in that room had killed him, and the investigation, the publicity, the inevitable scandal would be terrible. I was going to call an emergency meeting of my board, but decided instead to consult three of my directors in confidence. It was possible that Yeager had kept the existence of that room so secret that his connection with it would not become known. I suggested asking Miss McGee to go there and get any articles that might identify Yeager, and the suggestion was approved. And your man was there." His head turned. "Exactly what happened, Miss McGee?"
"When I got out of the elevator, there he was," she said. "I guess I lost my head. I supposed he was a detective, a police detective. I tried to get back in the elevator, and he grabbed me, and I tried to get loose but couldn't. He folded a bed cover around me and strapped it tight, and made a phone call, and after a while this man came, Archie Goodwin. He found out who I was from things in my bag and told me they were working for Nero Wolfe and they knew it was Mr. Yeager's room, and since they knew that I thought I had better come here when he asked me to. He wouldn't let me phone until I got here. I'm sorry, Mr. Aiken, but what could I do?"
"Nothing.'' Aiken went back to Wolfe. "So that's why I am concerned. You won't deny that it's a legitimate concern?"
"No indeed. Legitimate and exigent. But also desperate; you can't possibly hope that Mr. Yeager's connection with that room will never be divulged."
"I don't hope. I act. Will you tell me how you learned about it?"
"No."
"I'll pay you for it. I'll pay well."
"I don't sell information, Mr. Aiken, I sell services."
"I'm buying them. You said you weren't engaged; you are now. I'm hiring you."
"To do what?"
"Whatever may be necessary to protect the reputation and interests of my corporation, Continental Plastic Products. I am acting for the corporation."
Wolfe shook his head. "I doubt if it would work. I couldn't undertake not to disclose Mr. Yeager's connection with that room; events might take charge. The alternative would be for me to take charge of events."
"How?"
"By guiding them. It would be futile for you to pay me not to reveal what I have learned about that room, even if I were ass enough to accept it; sooner or later the police will inevitably discover it, given time. The only feasible way to protect the reputation and interests of your corporation with any hope of success would be to stop the police investigation of the murder by reaching an acceptable solution of it without involving that room."
Aiken was frowning. "But that may be impossible."
"Also it may not be. It is highly probable that whoever killed him knew of that room and its character and function; but suppose, for instance, that it was an outraged husband or father or brother or paramour. That might conceivably be established without disclosing some of the particulars, including the place where the misconduct had occurred. It would be difficult, but it might be done. It would be pointless even to conjecture until more is known."
"And if it proved to be impossible?"
Wolfe's shoulders went up an eighth of an inch and down. "You will have wasted your money. My self-esteem is not up to tackling the impossible. I remark that you are coerced not by me but by the situation. You are threatened not by me but by my possession of a fact. So you want to hire me, and I am willing to be hired, but I will perform only those services that are proper to my calling and my probity. I can't exclude any possibility, even that you killed Yeager yourself."
Aiken smiled, again not with amusement, "I can."
"Naturally." Wolfe turned. "Archie, the typewriter. Two carbons."
I whirled my chair, pulled the machine around, arranged the paper with carbons, and inserted them. "Yes, sir."
"Single-spaced, wide margins. The date. On behalf of my corporation, Continental Plastic Products, I hereby engage Nero Wolfe to investigate the circumstances of the death of Thomas G. Yeager. It is understood that Wolfe will make every effort to protect the reputation and interests of the corporation, comma, and will disclose no facts or information that will harm the corporation's repute or prestige, comma, unless he is compelled to do so by his legal obligation as a citizen and a licensed private detective, semicolon; and if he fails to observe this provision he is to receive no pay for his services or reimbursement for his expenses. The purpose of this engagement of Nero Wolfe is to prevent, comma, as far as possible, comma, any damage to the corporation as a result of the special circumstances of Yeager's death. Below a space for signature put 'President, Continental Plastic Products.' "
I had typed it as he spoke. After taking it out and running over it, I handed the original to Aiken and the carbons to Wolfe. Aiken read it twice and looked up. "Your fee isn't specified."
"No, sir. It can't be. It will depend on what and how much I do."
"Who decides if you have faithfully observed the provision?"
"Reason and good faith, applied jointly. If that failed, it would be decided by a court, but that contingency is remote."
Aiken glanced over it again, put it on the stand at his elbow, took a pen from his pocket, and signed it. I took it and gave it to Wolfe and handed one of the carbons to Aiken. He folded it and stuck it in his pocket, and spoke.
"How and when did you learn about that room?"
Wolfe shook his head. "I don't start a difficult job by babbling, even to you." He glanced at the wall clock, pushed his chair back, and arose. "It's past midnight. I'll report to you, of course, but when and what is solely in my discretion."
"That's absurd. You're working for me."
"Yes, sir. But the only test of my performance is its result. It may be that the less you know of its particulars the better." He picked up the signed original. "Do you want this back?"
"No. I want to know how you're going to proceed."
"I don't know myself."
"You know this. Did one of my directors tell you about that room?"
"No."
"Did Mrs. Yeager tell you?"
"No."
"Then who did?"
Wolfe glared at him. "Confound it, sir, shall I drop this thing in the wastebasket? Do you want this job done or not?"
"It's not what I want, it's what I'm stuck with. You have the handle." He got up. "Come, Miss McGee."
8
At half past ten Wednesday morning I stood by the big globe in the office, twirling it, trying to find a good spot to spend my vacation in the fall. Having spent a couple of hours trying to decide what I would tell me to do if I were Wolfe, and coming to the conclusion that the most sensible would be to go out and sweep the sidewalk, it had seemed advisable to put my mind on something else for a while. When Wolfe has instructions for me in the morning he sends word by Fritz that I am to come up to his room. That morning there had been no word, and at a quarter to nine I had buzzed him on the house phone. Getting nothing but a prolonged growl, I had started to make a list of the things he might have put on my program for the day and came up with that one item: sweeping the sidewalk.