Rex Stout

Bitter End

In the old brownstone house which was the dwelling, and also contained the office, of Nero Wolfe on West 35th Street near the Hudson River, in New York, heavy gloom had penetrated into every corner of every room, so that there was no escaping from it.

Fritz Brenner was in bed with the grippe.

If it had been Theodore Horstmann, who nursed the 3,000 orchids on the top floor, it would have been merely an inconvenience. If it had been me, Archie Goodwin, secretary, bodyguard, goad, and goat, Wolfe would have been no worse than peevish. But Fritz was the cook; and such a cook that Marko Vukcic of Rusterman’s famous restaurant, had once offered a fantastic sum for his release to the major leagues, and met with scornful refusal from Wolfe and Fritz both. On that Tuesday in November the kitchen had not seen him for three days, and the resulting situation was not funny. I’ll skip the awful details — for instance, the desperate and disastrous struggle that took place Sunday afternoon between Wolfe and a couple of ducklings — and go on with the climax.

It was lunchtime Tuesday. Wolfe and I were at the dining table. I was doing all right with a can of beans I had got at the delicatessen. Wolfe, his broad face dour and dismal, took a spoonful of stuff from a little glass jar that had just been opened, dabbed it onto the end of a roll, bit it off, and chewed. All of a sudden, with nothing to warn me, there was an explosion like the bursting of a ten-inch shell. Instinctively I dropped my sandwich and put up my hands to protect my face, but too late. Little gobs of the stuff, and particles of masticated roll, peppered me like shrapnel.

I glared at him. “Well,” I said witheringly. I removed something from my eyelid with the corner of my napkin. “If you think for one moment you can get away—”

I left it hanging. With as black a fury on his face as any I had ever seen there, he was on his feet and heading for the kitchen. I stayed in my chair. After I had done what I could with the napkin, hearing meanwhile the garglings and splashings of Wolfe at the kitchen sink, I reached for the jar, took a look at the contents, and sniffed it. I inspected the label. It was small and to the point:

TINGLEY’S TIDBITS — Since 1881 — The Best Liver Pâté No. 3

I was sniffing at it again when Wolfe marched in with a tray containing three bottles of beer, a chunk of cheese, and a roll of salami. He sat down without a word and started slicing salami.

“The last man who spat at me,” I said casually, “got three bullets in his heart before he hit the floor.”

“Pfui,” Wolfe said coldly.

“And at least,” I continued, “he really meant it. Whereas you were merely being childish and trying to show what a supersensitive gourmet you are—”

“Shut up. Did you taste it?”

“No.”

“Do so. It’s full of poison.”

I regarded him suspiciously. It was ten to one he was stringing me, but, after all, there were a good many people who would have regarded the death of Nero Wolfe as a ray of sunshine in a dark world, and a few of them had made efforts to bring it about. I picked up the jar and a spoon, procured a morsel about the size of a pea, and put it in my mouth. A moment later I discreetly but hastily ejected it into my napkin, went to the kitchen and did some rinsing, returned to the dining-room and took a good large bite from a dill pickle. After the pickle’s pungency had to some extent quieted the turmoil in my taste buds, I reached for the jar and smelled it again.

“That’s funny,” I said.

Wolfe made a growling noise.

“I mean,” I continued hastily, “that I don’t understand it. How could it be some fiend trying to poison you? I bought it at Bruegel’s and brought it home myself, and I opened it, and I’d swear the lid hadn’t been tampered with. But I don’t blame you for spitting, even though I happened to be in the line of fire. If that’s Tingley’s idea of a rare, exotic flavor to tempt the jaded appetite—”

“That will do, Archie.” Wolfe put down his empty glass. I had never heard his tone more menacing. “I am not impressed by your failure to understand this abominable outrage. I might bring myself to tolerate it if some frightened or vindictive person shot me to death, but this is insupportable.” He made the growling noise again. “My food. You know my attitude toward food.” He aimed a rigid finger at the jar, and his voice trembled with ferocity. “Whoever put that in there is going to regret it.”

He said no more, and I concentrated on the beans and pickles and milk. When he had finished the cheese he got up and left the room, taking the third bottle of beer along, and when I was through I cleared the table and went to the kitchen and washed up. Then I proceeded to the office. He had his mass deposited in the oversized chair behind his desk, and was leaning back with his eyes closed and a twist to his lips which showed that the beer descending his gullet had washed no wrath down with it. Without opening his eyes he muttered at me, “Where’s that jar?”

“Right here.” I put it on his desk.

“Get Mr. Whipple, at the laboratory.”

I sat at my desk, and looked up the number and dialed it. When I told Wolfe I had Whipple he got himself upright and reached for his phone and spoke to it:

“Mr. Whipple?... This is Nero Wolfe. Good afternoon, sir. Can you do an analysis for me right away?... I don’t know. It’s a glass jar containing a substance which I foolishly presumed to be edible... I have no idea. Mr. Goodwin will take it down to you immediately.”

I was glad to have an errand that would take me away from that den of dejection for an hour or so, but something more immediate intervened. The doorbell rang and, since Fritz was out of commission, I went to answer it. Swinging the front door open, I found myself confronted by something pleasant. While she didn’t reach the spectacular and I’m not saying that I caught my breath, one comprehensive glance at her gave me the feeling that it was foolish to regard the world as an abode of affliction merely because Fritz had the grippe. Her cheeks had soft in-curves and her eyes were a kind of chartreuse, something the color of my bathroom walls upstairs. They looked worried.

“Hello,” I said enthusiastically.

“Mr. Nero Wolfe?” she asked in a nice voice from west of Pittsburgh. “My name is Amy Duncan.”

I knew it was hopeless. With Wolfe in a state of mingled rage and despondency, and with the bank balance in a flourishing condition, if I had gone and told him that a good-looking girl named Duncan wanted to see him, no matter what about, he would only have been churlish. Whereas there was a chance... I invited her in, escorted her down the hall and into the office, and pulled up a chair for her.

“Miss Duncan, Mr. Wolfe,” I said, and sat down. “She wants to ask you something.”

Wolfe, not even glancing at her, glared at me. “Confound you!” he muttered. “I’m engaged. I’m busy.” He transferred it to the visitor: “Miss Duncan, you are the victim of my assistant’s crack-brained impudence. So am I. I see people only by appointment.”

She smiled at him. “I’m sorry, but now that I’m here it won’t take long—”

“No.” His eyes came back to me. “Archie, when you have shown Miss Duncan out, come back here.”

He was obviously completely out of control. As for that, I was somewhat edgy myself, after the three days I had just gone through and it looked to me as if a little cooling off might be advisable before any further interchange of sentiments. So I arose and told him firmly, “I’ll run along down to the laboratory. Maybe I can give Miss Duncan a lift.” I picked up the jar. “Do you want me to wait—?”

“Where did you get that?” Amy Duncan said.

I looked at her in astonishment. “Get it? This jar?”

“Yes. Where did you get it?”

“Bought it. Sixty-five cents.”

“And you’re taking it to a laboratory? Why? Does it taste funny? Oh, I’ll bet it does! Bitter?”

I gawked at her in amazement. Wolfe, upright, his eyes narrowed at her, snapped, “Why do you ask that?”

“Because,” she said, “I recognized the label. And taking it to a laboratory — that’s what I came to see you about! Isn’t that odd? A jar of it right here—”

On any other man Wolfe’s expression would have indicated a state of speechlessness, but I have never yet seen him flabbergasted to a point where he was unable to articulate. “Do you mean to say,” he demanded, “that you were actually aware of this infamous plot? That you knew of this unspeakable insult to my palate and my digestion?”

“Oh, no! But I know it has quinine in it.”

“Quinine!” he roared.

She nodded. “I suppose so.” She stretched a hand toward me. “May I look at it?” I handed her the jar. She removed the lid, took a tiny dab of the contents on the tip of her little finger, licked it off with her tongue, and waited for the effect. It didn’t take long. “Br-r-uh!” she said, and swallowed twice. “It sure is bitter. That’s it, all right.” She put the jar on the desk. “How very odd—”

“Not odd,” Wolfe said grimly. “Odd is not the word. You say it has quinine in it. You knew that as soon as you saw it. Who put it in?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I came to see you for, to ask you to find out. You see, it’s my uncle— May I tell you about it?”

“You may.”

She started to wriggle out of her coat, and I helped her with it and got it out of her way so she could settle back in her chair. She thanked me with a friendly little smile containing no trace of quinine, and I returned to my desk and got out a notebook and flipped to a blank page.

“Arthur Tingley,” she said, “is my uncle. My mother’s brother. He owns Tingley’s Tidbits. And he’s such a pigheaded—” She flushed. “Well, he is pigheaded. He actually suspects me of having something to do with that quinine, just because — for no reason at all!”

“Are you saying,” Wolfe demanded incredulously, “that the scoundrel, knowing that his confounded tidbits contain quinine, continues to distribute them?”

“No,” she shook her head, “he’s not a scoundrel. That’s not it. It was only a few weeks ago that they learned about the quinine. Complaints began to come in, and thousands of jars were returned from all over the country. He had them analyzed, and lots of them contained quinine. Of course, it was only a small proportion of the whole output — it’s a pretty big business. He tried to investigate it, and Miss Yates — she’s in charge of production — took all possible precautions, but it’s happened again in recent shipments.”

“Where’s the factory?”

“Not far from here. On West Twenty-sixth Street near the river.”

“Do you work there?”

“No, I did once, when I first came to New York, but I... I quit.”

“Do you know what the investigation has disclosed?”

“Nothing. Not really. My uncle suspects — I guess he suspects everybody, even his son Philip, his adopted son. And me! It’s simply ridiculous! But chiefly he suspects a man — a vice-president of P. & B., the Provisions & Beverages Corporation. Tingley’s Tidbits is an old-established business — my great-grandfather founded it seventy years ago — and P. & B. has been trying to buy it, but my uncle wouldn’t sell. He thinks they bribed someone in the factory to put in the quinine to scare him into letting go. He thinks that Mr. — the vice-president I spoke of — did it.”

“Mr. — ?”

“Mr. Cliff. Leonard Cliff.”

I glanced up from my notebook on account of a slight change in the key of her voice.

Wolfe inquired, “Do you know Mr. Cliff?”

“Oh, yes.” She shifted in her chair. “That is, I... I’m his secretary.”

“Indeed.” Wolfe’s eyes went shut and then opened again halfway. “When you left your uncle’s employ you came to terms with the enemy?”

She flared up. “Of course not!” she said indignantly. “You sound like my uncle! I had to have a job, didn’t I? I was born and brought up in Nebraska. Three years ago my mother died, and I came to New York and started to work in my uncle’s office. I stuck it out for two years, but it got — unpleasant, and either I quit or he fired me, it would be hard to say which. I got a job as a stenographer with P. & B., and six weeks ago I was promoted and I’m now Mr. Cliff’s secretary. If you want to know why it got so unpleasant in my uncle’s office—”

“I don’t. Unless it has a bearing on this quinine business.”

“It hasn’t. None whatever.”

“But you are sufficiently concerned about the quinine to come to me about it. Why?”

“Because my uncle is such a—” She stopped, biting her lip. “You don’t know him. He writes to my father, things about me that aren’t so, and my father writes and threatens to come to New York — it’s such a mess! I certainly didn’t put quinine in his darned Tidbits! I suppose I’m prejudiced, but I don’t believe any investigating he does will ever get anywhere, and the only way to stop it is for someone to investigate who knows how.” She flashed a smile at him. “Which brings me to the embarrassing part of it. I haven’t got much money—”

“You have something better,” Wolfe grunted.

“Better?”

“Yes. Luck. The thing you want to know is the thing I had determined to find out before I knew you existed. I had already told Mr. Goodwin that the blackguard who poisoned that pâté is going to regret it.” He grimaced. “I can still taste it. Can you go now with Mr. Goodwin to your uncle’s factory and introduce him?”

“I—” She glanced at her watch and hesitated. “I’ll be awfully late getting back to the office. I only asked for an hour—”

“Very well. Archie, show Miss Duncan out and return for instructions.”...

It was barely three o’clock when I reached the base of operations, and the jar in my pocket was only half full, for I had first gone downtown to the laboratory and left a sample for analysis.

The three-story brick building on West 26th Street was old and grimy-looking, with a cobbled driveway for trucks tunneled through its middle. Next to the driveway were three stone steps leading up to a door with an inscription in cracked and faded paint:

TINGLEY’S TIDBITS OFFICE

As I parked the roadster and got out, I cocked an admiring eye at a Crosby town car, battleship gray, with license GJ88, standing at the curb. “Comes the revolution,” I thought, “I’ll take that first.” I had my foot on the first stone step leading up to the office when the door opened and a man emerged. I had the way blocked. At a glance, it was hard to imagine anyone calling him Uncle Arthur, with his hard, clamped jaw and his thin, hard mouth, but, not wanting to miss my quarry, I held the path and addressed him: “Mr. Arthur Tingley?”

“No,” he said in a totalitarian tone, shooting a haughty glance at me as he brushed by, with cold, keen eyes of the same battleship gray as his car. I remembered, just in time, that I had in my pocket a piece of yellow chalk which I had been marking orchid pots with that morning. Circling around him, I beat him to the car door which the liveried chauffeur was holding open and with two swift swipes chalked a big X on the elegant enamel.

“Don’t monkey with that,” I said sternly, and, before either of them could produce words or actions, beat it up the stone steps and entered the building.

It sure was a ramshackle joint. From a dingy hall a dilapidated stair went up. I mounted to the floor above, heard noises, including machinery humming, off somewhere, and through a rickety door penetrated a partition and was in an anteroom. From behind a grilled window somebody’s grandpa peered out at me, and by shouting I managed to convey to him that I wanted to see Mr. Arthur Tingley. After a wait I was told that Mr. Tingley was busy, and would be indefinitely. On a leaf of my notebook I wrote, “Quinine urgent,” and sent it in. That did it. After another wait a cross-eyed young man came and guided me through a labyrinth of partitions and down a hall into a room.

Seated at an old, battered rolltop desk was a man talking into a phone, and in a chair facing him was a woman older than him with the physique and facial equipment of a top sergeant. Since the phone conversation was none of my business, I stood and listened to it, and gathered that someone named Philip had better put in an appearance by five o’clock or else. Meanwhile I surveyed the room, which had apparently been thrown in by the Indians when they sold the island. By the door, partly concealed by a screen, was an old, veteran marble-topped washstand. A massive, old-fashioned safe was against the wall across from Tingley’s desk. Wooden cupboards, and shelves loaded down with the accumulation of centuries, occupied most of the remaining wall space.

“Who the hell are you?”

I whirled and advanced. “A man by the name of Goodwin. Archie. The question is, do you want the Gazette to run a feature article about quinine in Tidbits, or do you want to discuss it first?”

His mouth fell open. “The Gazette?”

“Right. Circulation over a million.”

“Good God!” he said in a hollow and helpless tone. The woman glared at me.

I was stirred by compassion. He may have merited his niece’s opinion of him, expressed and implied, but he was certainly a pathetic object at that moment.

I sat down. “Be of good cheer,” I said encouragingly. “The Gazette hasn’t got it yet. That’s merely one of the possibilities I offer in case you start shoving. I represent Nero Wolfe.”

“Nero Wolfe, the detective?”

“Yes. He started to eat—”

The woman snorted. “I’ve been expecting this. Didn’t I warn you, Arthur? Blackmail.” She squared her jaw at me. “Who are you working for? P. & B.? Consolidated Cereals?”

“Neither one. Are you Miss Yates?”

“I am. And you can take—”

“Pardon me.” I grinned at her. “Pleased to meet you. I’m working for Nero Wolfe. He took a mouthful of Liver Pâté Number Three, with painful consequences. He’s very fussy about his food. He wants to speak to the person who put in the quinine.”

“So do I,” Tingley said grimly.

“You don’t know. Do you?”

“No.”

“But you’d like to know?”

“You’re damn’ right I would.”

“Okay. I come bearing gifts. If you hired Wolfe for this job, granting he’d take it, it would cost you a fortune. But he’s vindictive. He wishes to do things to this quinine jobber. I was sent here to look around and ask questions.”

Tingley wearily shook his head. He looked at Miss Yates. She looked at him. “Do you believe him?” Tingley asked her.

“No,” she declared curtly. “Is it likely—?”

“Of course not,” I cut her off. “Nothing about Nero Wolfe is likely, which is why I tolerate him. It’s not likely, but that’s how it is. You folks are comical. You’re having the services of the best detective in the country offered to you gratis, and listen to you. I’m telling you, Wolfe’s going to get this quinine peddler. With your cooperation, fine. Without it, we’ll have to start by opening things up with a little publicity, which is why I mentioned the Gazette.”

Tingley groaned. Miss Yates’s shrewd eyes met mine. “What questions do you want to ask?”

“All I can think of. Preferably starting with you two.”

“I’m busy. I ought to be out in the factory right now. Did you say you had an appointment, Arthur?”

“Yes.” Tingley shoved back his chair and got up. “I have — I have to go somewhere.” He got his hat from a hook on the wall beside his desk, and his coat from another one. “I’ll be back by four-thirty.” He struggled into his coat and confronted me. His hat was on crooked. “If Miss Yates wants to talk to you, she can tell you as much as I could. I’m about half out of my senses. If this is an infernal trick of that P. & B. outfit—” He darted to his desk, turned a key in a bottom drawer, pocketed the key, and made for the door. On the threshold he turned: “You handle it, Gwen.”

So her name was Gwendolyn, or maybe Guinevere. It certainly must have been given to her when she was quite young — say sixty years ago. She was imperturbably and efficiently collecting an assortment of papers Tingley had left scattered on his desk and anchoring them under a cylindrical chunk of metal with a figure 2 on it, a weight from an old-fashioned balance scale. She straightened and met my gaze:

“I’ve been after him to get a detective, and he wouldn’t do it. This thing has got to be stopped. It’s awful. I’ve been here all my life — been in charge of the factory for twenty years — and now—” She squared her jaw. “Come along.”

I followed her. We left by another door than the one I had entered by, traversed a hall, passed through a door at the end, and there we were, in the Tidbits maternity ward. Two hundred women and girls, maybe more, in white smocks, were working at tables and benches and various kinds of vats and machines. Miss Yates led me down an aisle and she stopped beside a large vat. A woman about my age who had been peering into the vat turned to face us.

“This is Miss Murphy, my assistant,” Miss Yates said brusquely. “Carrie, this is Mr. Goodwin, a detective. Answer any questions he wants to ask, except about our formulas, and show him anything he wants to see.” She turned to me. “I’ll talk with you later, after I get some mixes through.”

I caught a flicker of something, hesitation or maybe apprehension, in Miss Murphy’s eyes, but it went as fast as it came, and she said quietly, “Very well, Miss Yates.”...

Wolfe was sticking to his accustomed daily schedule, in a sort of stubborn desperation in spite of the catastrophe of Fritz’s grippe. Mornings from 9 to 11 and afternoons from 4 to 6 he spent up in the plant rooms. When he came down at six that afternoon I was in the office waiting for him.

He stopped in the middle of the room, glanced around, frowned at me, and said, “Dr. Vollmer states that Fritz can get up in the morning. Not today. Not for dinner. Where is Mr. Tingley?”

“I don’t know.”

“I told you to bring him here.”

He was using his most provocative tone. I could have put quinine in his food. I said, “It’s a good thing Fritz will be up tomorrow. This couldn’t go on much longer. Tingley is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He went out soon after I got there. Miss Yates, whose name is Gwendolyn, the factory superintendent, and her assistant, Miss Carrie Murphy, showed me around. I have just finished typing a detailed report, but there’s nothing in it but facts. Tingley returned about four-thirty, but when I tried to see him he was having a talk with his son and I was thrown out on my ear. I’m going back in the morning if I’m still working for you. Those in favor of my resigning, raise their hand.” I stuck my hand up high.

“Pfui!” Wolfe said. “A man sells poisoned food—”

“Quinine is not poison.”

“A man sells poisoned food and you leave him sitting comfortably in conversation with his son. Now I’m going to the kitchen and try to prepare something to eat. If you care to join—”

“No, thanks. I’ve got a date. Don’t wait up for me.”

I went to the hall and got my hat and coat and beat it. From the garage on Tenth Avenue I took the sedan instead of the roadster, drove to Pietro’s on 39th Street, and operated on a dish of spaghetti and half a bushel of salad. That made me feel better. When I reached the sidewalk again it was raining, with cold November gusts whipping it around, so I skedaddled around the corner into a newsreel theater. But I was not at peace. There had been enough justification for Wolfe’s crack — say one percent — to make it rankle.

My watch said a quarter to eight. I went to the lobby and got out my memo book and turned to the page where, following habit, I had entered the names and addresses of persons connected with the current proceeding. Tingley lived at 691 Sullivan Street. There was no point in phoning, since the idea was to get him and deliver him. I went to the sedan and headed downtown in the rain.

It was an old brick house, painted blue, probably the residence of his father and grandfather before him. A colored maid told me that he wasn’t home, hadn’t shown up for dinner, and might be at his office. It began to look like no soap, but it was only a little out of the way, so when I got to 26th Street I turned west. Rolling to the curb directly in front of the Tingley Building, it looked promising; lights showed at a couple of the upstairs windows. I dived through the rain across the sidewalk, found the door unlocked, and entered.

A light was on there in the hall, and I started for the stairs. But with my foot on the first step I stopped; for I had glanced up, and saw something so unexpected that I goggled like a fish. Standing there halfway up, facing me, was Amy Duncan. Her face was white, her eyes were glassy, and she was clinging to the rail with both hands and swaying from side to side.

“Hold it!” I said sharply, and started up. Before I could reach her she lost it. Down she came, rolling right into me. I gathered her up and went back down and stretched her out on the floor. She was out cold, but when I felt her pulse it was pretty good. Routine faint, I thought, and then took it back when I saw a large lump on the side of her head above her right ear.

That made it different. I straightened up. She had unquestionably been conked.

I ascended the steps one at a time, looking for the birdie. There was a light in the upper hall, also in the anteroom. I called out, and got no reply. The door leading within was standing open, and I marched through and kept going through more open doors and down the inside hall to the entrance to Tingley’s office. That door too stood open and the room was lit, but from the threshold no one was in sight. It occurred to me that the screen, at right angles to the wall, would do nicely for an ambush, so I entered sideways, facing it, and circled around the end of it for a survey just in case.

A mouse ran up my backbone. Tingley was there on the floor alongside the screen, his head toward the marble washstand, and if the head was still connected with the body it must have been at the back, which I couldn’t see. There was certainly no connection left in front.

I took a couple of breaths and swallowed saliva, as a sort of priming for my internal processes, which had momentarily stopped.

The blood from the gash in his throat had spread over the floor, running in red tongues along the depressions in the old warped boards, and I stepped wide of it to get around to the other end of him. Squatting beside him for an inspection, I ascertained two facts: He had a lump at the back of his skull and the skin had been broken there, and he was good and dead. I straightened up and collected a few more items with my eyes:

1. A bloody towel on the floor by the washstand, sixteen inches from the wall.

2. Another bloody towel on the rim of the basin, to the right.

3. A knife with a long, thin blade and a black composition handle on the floor between the body and the screen. In the factory that afternoon I had seen girls slicing meat loaves with knives like it.

4. On the floor between the two front legs of the washstand, a cylinder of metal with a “2” on it. It was Tingley’s paperweight.

5. Farther away, out beyond the edge of the screen, a woman’s snakeskin handbag. I had seen that before, too, when Amy Duncan called at Wolfe’s office.

Circling around the mess again, I picked up the handbag and stuffed it in my pocket, and took a look at the rest of the room. I didn’t touch anything, but someone else had. A drawer of the rolltop desk had been jerked out onto the floor. The door of the enormous old safe was standing wide open. Things on the shelves had been pulled off and scattered. Tingley’s felt hat was on the wall hook at the left of his desk, but his overcoat was in a heap on the floor.

I looked at my watch. It was 8:22. I would have liked to do a little more inspecting, but if Amy Duncan should come to and beat it...

She hadn’t. When I got back downstairs she was still there stretched out. I felt her pulse again, buttoned up her coat, made sure her hat was fastened on, and picked her up. I opened the door and got through without bumping her, navigated the steps, and crossed the sidewalk to the car, and stood there with her in my arms a moment, thinking the rain on her face might revive her. The next thing I knew I damn’ near needed reviving myself. Something socked me on the side of the jaw from behind.

I went down, not from compulsion but from choice, to get rid of my burden. When I bobbed up again I left Amy on the sidewalk and leaped aside as a figure hurled itself at me. When I side-stepped he lost balance, but recovered and tore at me again. I feinted with my left and he grabbed for it, and my right took him on the button.

He went down and didn’t bounce. I dashed back to the stone steps and closed the door, returned, and opened the rear door of the car and lifted Amy in, and wheeled as he regained his feet, started for me, and yelled for help and police, all at once. He obviously knew as much about physical combat as I did about pearl diving, so I turned him around and from behind locked his arms with my left one and choked his throat with my right, and barked into his ear, “One more squawk and out go the lights! You have one chance to live. Behave yourself and do what I tell you to.” I made sure he had no gun before I loosened the hook on his neck. He didn’t vocalize, so I released him. “Open that car door—”

I meant the front door, but before I could stop him he had the rear one open and most of himself inside and was bleating like a goat, “Amy! Good God, she’s — Amy—”

I reached in for a shoulder and yanked him out and banged the door and opened the front one. “She’s alive,” I said, “but you won’t be in five seconds. Get in there and fold yourself under the dash. I’m taking her to a doctor and you’re going along.”

He got in. I pushed him down and forward, disregarding his sputtering, wriggled back of him to the driver’s seat, pulled the door to, and started the car. In two minutes we were at 35th Street, and in another two we rolled to the curb in front of Wolfe’s house. I let him come up for air.

“The program,” I said, “is as follows: I’ll carry her, and you precede me up those steps to that door. If you cut and run I’ll drop her—”

He glared at me. His spirit was ’way ahead of his flesh. “I’m not going to cut and run—”

“Okay. Me out first.”

He helped me get her out and he wanted to carry her, but I shooed him on ahead through the rain and told him to push the button. When the door opened Wolfe, himself, stood there. At sight of the stranger his colossal frame blocked the way, but when he saw me he fell back and made room for us to enter.

The stranger began, “Are you a doc—?”

“Shut up!” I told him. I faced Wolfe, and observed that he was sustaining his reputation for being impervious to startlement. “I suppose you recognize Miss Duncan. She’s been hit on the head. If you will please phone Doc Vollmer? I’ll take her up to the south room.” I made for the elevator, and when the stranger tagged along I let him. In the south room, two flights up, we got her onto the bed and covered up.

The stranger was still standing by the bed staring down at her when Doc Vollmer arrived. After feeling her pulse and glancing under her eyelid, Doc said he thought it would be a long time till the funeral and we wouldn’t be needed for a while, so I told the stranger to come on. He left the room with me and kindly permitted me to close the door, but then announced that he was going to stay right there outside the door until the doctor had brought her to.

“You,” I said, “might as well learn to face facts. You know damn’ well I could throw you downstairs. If I do you’ll have to go to bed, too. March!”

He marched, but he sure hated it. I followed him down, and into the office. Wolfe was there at his desk, looking imperturbable, but when he saw us he started rubbing his chin, which meant he was boiling inside.

“Sit down,” I told the stranger. “This is Mr. Nero Wolfe. What’s your name?”

“None of your damned business!” he informed me. “This is the most outrageous—!”

“You bet it is. When you rushed me from behind, you must have come from inside the building. Didn’t you?”

“That’s none of your business, either!”

“You’re wrong, brother. But I’ll try again. Why did you kill Arthur Tingley?”

He gawked at me. “Are you crazy?”

“Not a bit. Stop me if you’ve heard it before. I went there to get Tingley and bring him here to see Mr. Wolfe. Amy Duncan was there on the stairs looking doubtful. She fell and I caught her, and left her on the hall floor while I went up to investigate. Tingley was on the floor of his office with his throat cut. After a brief inspection I returned to Amy and carried her out, and was putting her in the car when you attacked me from behind. You must have come from somewhere. Why not from inside the building? The idea appeals to me.”

The stranger had decided he could use a chair, and sank into one. “You say—” He swallowed. “Are you telling the truth?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tingley — with his throat cut? Dead?”

“Very dead.” I turned to Wolfe: “He pretended to be going on the theory that I was kidnapping Amy. He’s all for Amy. I brought him along because I thought you might need him.”

Wolfe was glaring at me. “And why should I need him?”

“Well, he was there. He must have come out of that building. He probably murdered Tingley—”

“And what if he did?”

“Oh. So that’s how you feel about it.”

“It is. I am under no obligation to catch murderers indiscriminately. Phone the police. Tell them Miss Duncan and this gentleman are here and they can—”

“No!” the stranger blurted.

“No?” Wolfe lifted a brow at him. “Why not?”

“Because it’s — Good God! And Amy— You can’t—”

“Hold it,” I commanded him. “I’m doing this.” I grinned at Wolfe. “Okay, boss; I’ll call the cops. I merely thought you might like to chat with this bird first, since it seemed likely that whoever killed Tingley also put quinine in your food.”

“Ah,” Wolfe murmured. “That abominable—” He wiggled a finger at the victim. “Did you poison that liver pâté?”

“I did not.”

“Who are you? What’s your name?”

“Cliff. Leonard Cliff.”

“Indeed. You’re a vice-president of the Provisions & Beverages Corporation. Mr. Tingley, himself, suspected you of adulterating his product.”

“I know he did. He was wrong. So is this man wrong when he says I must have come out of that building. I wasn’t inside the building at all.”

“Where were you?”

“I was in the driveway. There’s a driveway tunnel near the door. I was in there.”

“What were you doing there?”

“Keeping out of the rain. Look here,” Cliff said appealingly. “I can’t think straight. This is terrible! If Tingley has been murdered the police have to be notified, I know that, but for God’s sake don’t get them here now! With Miss Duncan — Let me get her to a hospital! And get a lawyer—”

Wolfe cut him off: “What were you doing in the driveway?”

He shook his head. “It had no connection—”

“Pfui! Don’t be a fool. If you adulterated Mr. Tingley’s product, or cut his throat, either or both, I advise you to get out of here at once. If you didn’t, I advise you to answer my questions promptly and fully. Not to mention truthfully. Well, sir?... Archie, call police headquarters. I’ll talk.”

I dialed the number, and when I had it, Wolfe took it at his instrument. “Hello... This is Nero Wolfe. Write this down: Arthur Tingley. His office at his place—”

“Wait!” Cliff blurted. “I’ll answer your questions—” He started from his chair, but I got in between him and the desk and he subsided.

Wolfe continued: “—his place of business at Twenty-sixth Street and Tenth Avenue. He’s there dead. Murdered... Let me finish, please. My assistant, Archie Goodwin, was there and saw him. Mr. Goodwin had to leave, but he will be here at my home later... No. I have no idea.”

He pushed the phone away, and regarded Cliff with his eyes half closed. “You had better make it as succinct as possible. What were you doing in the driveway?”

Cliff was on the edge of his chair, straight, rigid, meeting his gaze. “I was waiting for Miss Duncan to come out. I had followed her there.”

“Followed? Without her knowledge?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Cliff’s jaw worked. “I had a dinner engagement with her, and she phoned me at six o’clock and broke it. The reason she gave sounded phony, and I was — damn it, I was jealous! I went to where she lives, on Grove Street, and waited across the street. When she came out it had started to rain, and she took a taxi, and I managed to grab one and follow her. She went straight to Tingley’s and dismissed her cab and went in. I did the same, but I went in the tunnel entrance and waited there. I couldn’t imagine what she was doing there.”

“What time did she arrive?”

“A few minutes after seven. It was one minute to seven when she left her place on Grove Street. When I saw a man drive up and go in, and a little later come out carrying her and start to put her in his car, naturally I went for him.”

“Naturally,” Wolfe said. “Were you in the tunnel while Miss Duncan was inside?”

“Yes. And I saw three men come and go in and leave again. Goodwin was the last one. There were two others before that.”

Wolfe shook his head. “I doubt if that’s a good idea. If you invent a constant stream of visitors, and it develops—”

“I’m not inventing, damn it! I saw them!”

“Tell me about them.”

“The first one was at seven-thirty. A big, gray town car stopped at the curb, and the driver got out and held an umbrella over another man as he crossed the sidewalk to the entrance. In five minutes the man came out again and ran to the car and got in, and the car drove off. The license was GJ88.”

I grunted. They looked at me. “Nothing,” I said, “go ahead.”

“I nearly missed seeing the second one go in, because he was walking. He had on a raincoat. It was seven-forty when he entered, and he was inside seven or eight minutes. When he came out I got a pretty good view of his face by a street light. He walked off to the east.”

“Did you recognize either of the men?”

“No. But that license number—”

“Do you know it?”

“No, but I can guess, on account of the GJ. I think it belongs to Guthrie Judd. It can be checked.”

“Guthrie Judd, the banker?”

“He calls himself a banker, yes. He’s more of a promoter. He’s been boosting an outfit he calls Consolidated Cereals. Recently he’s been after the Tingley business. He’s shrewd and unscrupulous — and tough.”

“Was it Judd who entered the building at seven-thirty?”

“I couldn’t tell. The driver was holding an umbrella over him.”

Wolfe grunted. “That’s prudent. Should you claim to have recognized Judd, and he is able to prove—”

“I’m telling the truth!” Cliff got spirited again. “I’m telling you exactly what happened! Do you think I’m a damned idiot?” He stood up. “I’m going upstairs.”

A voice behind him asked, “May I come in?”

It was Doc Vollmer. At Wolfe’s nod he entered, his bag in his hand, and spoke professionally: “She’ll do all right. She got a bad knock on the head, but there’s no fracture. It seems to be nervous shock more than anything. After a night’s rest—”

“Is she conscious?” Cliff demanded.

“Oh, yes.” Cliff was darting off, but the doctor grabbed his arm. “Now, wait a minute — just take it easy—”

“Can she be moved?” Wolfe inquired.

“I wouldn’t advise it. Not tonight.”

“I want to ask her some questions.”

“Now? Is it urgent?”

“Fairly urgent. The police will be here pretty soon.”

“I see. All right, I’d better go up with you. You’ll have to go easy with her.”

We moved. Wolfe headed for the elevator and the rest of us walked up the two flights. We got there first. Amy, lying on her side, opened her eyes at us, with no indication of interest for Doc or me, but when they lit on Cliff they opened wide and she made a noise.

“Amy!” Cliff squawked. “Thank God! Amy—”

Vollmer held him back.

“You—” she said weakly. “Where — you — I don’t—”

“Take her hand,” Vollmer said judiciously. “Hold her hand. Don’t talk.”

Wolfe came in, and Amy moved her head enough to get him in view. “Hello, there,” she squeaked.

“Good evening, Miss Duncan,” he said politely. “Does it hurt much?”

“Not — well — it aches.”

“I suppose so. Can you understand words?”

“Yes — but I don’t understand—”

“Please listen. You said nothing this afternoon of any intention to go to your uncle’s place this evening. But at seven o’clock you went. Why?”

“He phoned — and asked me to come. Soon after I got home from work.”

“What for? Did he say?”

“He said it was something about Phil. My cousin.” She went to move her head, and a little moan came out of her. “He wouldn’t say what it was on the phone.”

“But when you got there? What did he say then?”

“He didn’t — oh—”

“Take it easy now,” Doc Vollmer warned.

“I’m all right,” Amy declared. “I’m not going to faint again. But when I shut my eyes I see it. The door of his office was open and the light was on, but he wasn’t there. I mean — I didn’t see him. I went right on in.”

“Go ahead.”

“That’s all I remember. The next thing I remember was my head. I thought something was on it holding it down. I tried to lift myself up and then I saw him. Oh!” Her brow creased. “I thought I saw him — my uncle — there with the blood—”

“That’s all right. Don’t worry about that. What happened next?”

“Nothing happened. I don’t remember anything.”

“Didn’t you see anyone at all when you went in? Or hear anyone?”

“No. I don’t think — I’m sure I didn’t—”

“Excuse me,” I said. “The doorbell’s ringing. If it’s city employees do I ask to see a warrant?”

“No.” Wolfe scowled at me. “Take them to the office... Wait a minute. Dr. Vollmer, if this young woman is in no condition to leave my house it would be cruel and dangerous for her to undergo a police grilling. Do you agree?”

“I do.”

“Good... Miss Duncan, when a policeman comes up here to look at you, keep your eyes closed and moan. Will you do that?”

“Yes. But—”

“No buts. Don’t overdo it, and don’t speak.” He moved. “Come, gentlemen.”

When we got downstairs I waited until they were in the office before opening the front door. There I was greeted by a surprise. It was no squad lieutenant, but Inspector Cramer himself, who shoved in rudely over the sill, with a pair of dicks on his heels. All he had for me was a discourteous remark about answering doorbells as he made for the office. Having to shut the door, I brought up the rear.

Cramer appeared to be having an attack of gout. Not bothering to pass the time of day, he barked at me like a howitzer, “What were you doing down at Twenty-sixth Street?”

I looked at the boss. He murmured, “He’s upset, Archie. Humor him.”

“Humor hell! What time did you get there?”

I looked thoughtful. “Well, let’s see...”

“Quit clowning! You know damn well you’ve always got a timetable!”

“Yes, sir,” I said abjectly. “Arrived at 8:08. Left at 8:24.”

“You admit it!”

“Admit it? I’m proud of it. It was quick work.”

“Yeah.” If glares could kill, I would have been awful sick. “And Wolfe phoned from here at five after nine! You didn’t see the phone right there on Tingley’s desk? I’ve warned you about that. Now, talk! Fast!”

Having received no flag from Wolfe to retain any items for our personal use, I gave Cramer the crop, as far as my activities and observations were concerned, omitting the crumbs that had been gathered in conversation with Cliff and Amy. My candor didn’t seem to make him any more friendly.

When I finished he grunted vulgarly. “So you stood there in that room with a man lying there murdered; and a phone right there and you didn’t use it... Where’s the woman?”

“Upstairs in bed.”

“You can check her out. Doyle, stay here with Mr. Cliff. Foster, come with me — well?”

Doc Vollmer blocked the way. He said firmly, “Miss Duncan should not be disturbed. I speak as her physician.”

“You do.” Cramer eyed him. “I’ll take a look at her. Come, Foster.”

Doc Vollmer, leading the way, went with the forces of law and order. Wolfe heaved a sigh, leaned back, and closed his eyes. Pretty soon steps were heard descending the stairs, and Cramer and Vollmer entered. Wolfe opened his eyes.

“She’s faking,” Cramer declared. “Sure as hell. I’ll send a police doctor.”

“Dr. Vollmer,” Wolfe murmured, “is a competent and reputable physician.”

“Yeah, I know. And a friend of yours. I’ll send a police doctor. And I’m taking Goodwin and Cliff downtown.”

“Where’s that man you had with you?”

“Upstairs. On a chair outside Miss Duncan’s door. He’s going to stay there. And no one but the doctor is going either in or out.”

Wolfe’s bulk became upright. “This is my house, Mr. Cramer,” he said icily, “and you can’t use it for the persecution of innocent and battered females. That man can’t stay here.”

“Try and put him out,” Cramer said grimly. “Next time Goodwin stumbles on a man with his head cut off, maybe he’ll let us know the same day... Come on, you two.”...

At ten o’clock the following morning we didn’t have a guest any more, but we had a client. Having been kept at headquarters until three A.M., I was peevish from lack of sleep. Fritz was on his feet again, but unstable from his grippe. Wolfe was a seething volcano from a sense of outrage. He had had the minor satisfaction of refusing admission to the police doctor the night before, but at eight in the morning they had come with a warrant for Amy Duncan as a material witness and carted her off, and all he could do was grind his teeth. So when I told him, as he sat propped up in bed sipping chocolate and glowering like a thunderhead, that down at headquarters Leonard Cliff had hired him, through me, to go to work, he didn’t even blink an eye. His method of starting the job was customary and characteristic:

“Have Mr. Guthrie Judd here at eleven.”

Before leaving the office I typed what seemed to me to be a nifty visiting card:

Mr. Judd: I respectfully submit the following schedule of events last evening at the Tingley Building:

7:05: Amy Duncan arrives; is knocked on head.

7:30: Guthrie Judd arrives.

7:35: Guthrie Judd leaves.

8:08: I arrive, find Tingley dead.

May I discuss it with you?

Archie Goodwin.

I phoned his office in the financial district a little after nine, but was unable to extract any information from anyone even about the weather, which was fine, so I got out the roadster and drove down there.

After a supercilious receptionist condescended to phone someone, and a sap with slick hair made sure I wasn’t Jesse James, I got the envelope dispatched. Then I waited, until finally a retired prize fighter appeared and conducted me through doors and down corridors, and ushered me into a room about the size of a tennis court; and he stayed right at my elbow for the trip across a couple of acres of rugs to where a man sat at an enormous flat-topped desk with nothing on it but a newspaper. On the man’s face was the same totalitarian expression that had goaded me into chalking an X on the door of his car the day before. The corner of the card I had typed was held between the tips of a finger and thumb to avoid germs.

“This impertinence,” he said, in a tone he must have been practicing from boyhood, in case he had ever been a boy. “I wanted to look at you. Take him out, Aiken.”

I grinned at him. “I forgot to bring my chalk. But you’re already down. You’ll discuss it either with me or the police—”

“Bah. The police have already informed me of Mr. Cliff’s false and ridiculous statement. Also, they have just told me on the phone who you are. If you annoy me further I’ll have you jailed. Take him out, Aiken.”

The ex-pug actually put his hand on my arm. It was all I could do to keep from measuring one of the rugs with him. But I merely set my jaw and walked back across the carpet department to the door. He accompanied me all the way to the elevators. As the elevator door opened I said in a kindly tone, “Here, boy,” and flipped a nickel at his face. It got him on the tip of the nose, but luckily his reflex was too slow for him to thank me properly before the door closed.

For the second time in twenty-four hours I had failed to fill an order, and as I went back to where I had parked the roadster and started uptown I was in no mood to keep to the right and stop for lights. It was more than likely that Judd would get away with it. If a man in his position maintained that Cliff had either misread the license number of the car or was lying, there wasn’t much the cops could or would do about it. They might have a try at the chauffeur, but of course Judd would have attended to that.

It was with the idea in mind of a substitute for Judd that I turned west on 26th Street and drove to the Tingley Building. Not something just as good, but anyhow something. But that was a dud, too. The place was silent and deserted, which I suppose was natural in view of what had happened.

I thought I might as well proceed with my search for a substitute, and, after consulting my memo book, drove to 23rd Street and turned east and stopped in front of an old brownstone. The vestibule was clean, with the brass fronts of the mailboxes polished and shining, including the one which bore the name of Yates, where I pressed the button. I entered on the click, mounted one flight, and had my finger on a button at a door in the rear when the door was opened by Gwendolyn herself.

“Oh,” she said. “You.”

Her face was moderately haggard, and her lids were so swollen that her eyes didn’t seem anything like as keen and shrewd as they had the day before.

I asked if I could come in, and she made room for me and then led the way into a large living-room. Sitting there was Carrie Murphy. She looked as if she had been either crying or fighting; with an Irish girl you can’t tell.

“You folks look kind of all in,” I said sympathetically.

Miss Yates grunted. “We didn’t get much sleep. They kept us up most of the night, and who could sleep, anyway?” She gazed at me curiously. “It was you that found him.”

“It was,” I agreed.

“What did you go there for?”

“Just to invite him to call on Nero Wolfe to discuss quinine.”

“Oh. I was going to phone you. I want to see Amy Duncan. Do you know where she is?”

That made her a pushover. “Well,” I said, “she spent the night up at our place under the care of a doctor. I left early this morning, so I can’t guarantee that she’s still there, but I suppose she is.”

“The paper says,” Carrie Murphy put in, “that she’s going to be detained for questioning. Does that mean that she’s suspected of killing her uncle?”

“Certainly.”

“Then—”

“We want to see her,” Miss Yates interposed.

“Okay, come along. I’ve got a car.”

It still lacked a couple of minutes till eleven when we got there, so Wolfe hadn’t come down from the plant rooms, and the office was empty. I got the visitors arranged in chairs and then beat it to the roof. Wolfe was at the sink in the potting room washing his hands.

“The baboon named Judd,” I reported, “is going to have me jailed for annoying him. Probably you, too. He’s the kind you read about, made of silk reinforced with steel, very tough. He has informed the police that Cliff is a liar. I went to Tingley’s and found no one there. I found Miss Yates at her apartment, and Carrie Murphy there making a call, and they said they wanted to see Amy Duncan, so I told them she was here and brought them along.”

I made myself scarce before he could make what he would have regarded as a fitting comment on my failure to get Judd. On my way down I stopped at my room to powder my nose, and heard the elevator start its descent, so I hurried along.

He acted fairly human when I introduced the two callers. After ringing for beer and heaving a sigh of pleasure when Fritz brought it in, he leaned back and slanted his eyes at Gwendolyn.

“Mr. Goodwin tells me you wish to see Miss Duncan. She’s not here. The police came with a warrant and took her.”

“A warrant?” Carrie Murphy demanded. “Do you mean she’s arrested?”

“Yes. As a material witness. They took her from my house. I don’t like people being taken from my house with warrants. Her bond is being arranged for. Are you ladies friends of hers?”

“We know her,” said Miss Yates. “We’re not enemies. We don’t want to see her unjustly accused.”

“Neither do I. I think it very unlikely that she had anything to do with that quinine. What do you think?”

“The same as you do. Will they let us see her?”

“I doubt it.”

“You see,” Carrie blurted, “there’s something we didn’t tell the police! We didn’t want them to know about the quinine!”

Wolfe shrugged. “That’s absurd. They already know. Not only from Mr. Goodwin, from Mr. Cliff, too. What was it that you didn’t tell them?”

“We didn’t—” Carrie checked herself and looked at her boss. Miss Yates compressed her lips and said nothing. Carrie transferred back to Wolfe. “We don’t know,” she said, “whether it’s important or not. From what it says in the paper we can’t tell. That’s what we want to ask Amy. Can we ask you?”

“Try.”

“Well — Amy was there, wasn’t she?”

“At the Tingley Building last evening? Yes.”

“What time did she get there?”

“Five minutes past seven.”

“And what happened?”

“As she entered the office someone who was hiding behind the screen hit her on the head with an iron weight and knocked her unconscious. She remained unconscious for an hour. When Mr. Goodwin arrived, at eight minutes past eight, she was trying to descend the stairs, but collapsed again. He brought her here, after investigating upstairs and finding Tingley’s body. She says that when she entered the office her uncle was not in sight, so it is supposed that he was already dead.”

Carrie shook her head. “He wasn’t.”

Wolfe’s brows went up. “He wasn’t?”

“No. And Amy didn’t kill him.”

“Indeed. Were you there?”

“Of course I wasn’t there. But if she had been knocked unconscious, could she have murdered a man? Even if she would?”

“Probably not. But you are postulating that she is telling the truth. The police aren’t so gallant. What if she’s lying? What if someone hit her after she had killed her uncle? What if she killed him soon after her arrival?”

“Oh, no,” Carrie declared triumphantly, “she couldn’t! That’s just it! Because we know he was alive at eight o’clock!”

Wolfe gazed at her, with his lips pushed out. Then he poured beer, drank, used his handkerchief, leaned back, and leveled his eyes at her again. “That’s interesting,” he murmured. “How do you know that?”

“He was talking on the telephone.”

“At eight o’clock?”

“Yes.”

“To you?”

“No,” Miss Yates interposed. “To me. At my home. Miss Murphy was there and heard it.”

“Are you sure it was Mr. Tingley?”

“Certainly. I’ve known him all my life.”

“What were you talking about?”

Gwendolyn answered, “A private matter.”

Wolfe shook his head. “The police will soon pull you off that perch, madam. It’s murder. I, of course, have no authority, but, since we’ve gone this far...”

“It’s about the quinine. One of the girls reported to me that she had seen Miss Murphy doing something suspicious. Yesterday afternoon, just before closing time. Sneaking some of a mix into a little jar and concealing it. I asked Miss Murphy for an explanation and she refused to give any. Told me that she had nothing to say—”

“I couldn’t—”

“Let me finish, Carrie. After she had gone home I went to Mr. Tingley’s office and was going to tell him about it, but I don’t think he even heard what I said. I had never seen him so upset. Philip, his adopted son, had just been there, and I suppose that was it, but he didn’t say anything about Philip. I left at a quarter after six and went home to my flat on Twenty-third Street. I always walk; it’s only a seven minutes’ walk. I took off my hat and coat and rubbers and put my umbrella in the bathtub to drain, and ate some sardines and cheese—”

She stopped, and grunted. “The police asking me questions all night seems to have got me into a habit. I don’t suppose you care what I ate. About half past seven Miss Murphy came. She said she had been thinking it over and had decided she ought to tell me about it. What she told me made me madder than I’ve ever been in my life. Mr. Tingley suspected me of putting that quinine in! Me!”

“That isn’t fair, Miss Yates,” Carrie protested. “It was only—”

“Rubbish!” Gwen snapped. “He had you spying on me, didn’t he?”

“But he—”

“I say he had you spying on me!” Miss Yates turned to Wolfe. “Since this trouble started, we’ve kept a sharp eye on the mixers and filling benches, and I’ve sent a sample of every mix in to Mr. Tingley, including even Carrie’s. And, behind my back, she was sending him samples of my mixes!”

“I was obeying orders,” Carrie said defensively. “Could I help it?”

“No. But he could. If he were alive I’d never forgive him for that — but now — I’ll try to. I’ve given my whole life to that factory. That’s the only life I’ve got or ever have had, and he knew it. He knew how proud I was of every jar that left that place, and yet he could set a spy on me—”

“So,” Wolfe said, “you phoned Mr. Tingley to give him the devil.”

She nodded.

“How do you know it was eight o’clock?”

“Because I looked at my watch. I called his home first, but he wasn’t there, so I tried the office.”

“Did he corroborate Miss Murphy’s story?”

“Yes. He admitted it. He didn’t even apologize. He said he was the head of the business, and no one, not even me, was above suspicion. He told me that to my face!”

“Not precisely to your face.”

“Well, he said it!” She blew her nose again. “I hung up. I had a notion to go and have it out with him, but I decided to wait till morning. Anyway, I was played out — I had been under a strain for a month. Carrie stayed and I made some tea. I couldn’t blame her, since she had only done what he told her to. We were still there talking at ten o’clock when a policeman came.”

“With the news of the murder.”

“Yes.”

“But you didn’t tell about the phone call.”

“No,” Miss Yates said. “I didn’t want them to know about the quinine.”

“But we’ll have to tell them now,” Carrie said. She was sitting on the edge of her chair with her fingers twisted into knots. “Since they’ve arrested Amy. Won’t we?”

Wolfe grimaced. “Not for that reason,” he said grumpily. “It would do Miss Duncan more harm than good. They think she’s lying, anyhow. Do as you please. For myself, I shall tell them nothing.”

They discussed it. Wolfe drank more beer. I covered a yawn, feeling that my substitute for Guthrie Judd had turned pretty sour on us. If Tingley had been alive at eight o’clock, Judd couldn’t very well have killed him between 7:30 and 7:35, nor could the other man, the one in the raincoat, between 7:40 and 7:47. Of course, either of them could have returned just after eight, but, since I arrived at 8:08, that would have been cutting it fine, and besides, Cliff would have seen them unless they entered by another way. Unless Cliff was lying, or Amy was, or these two tidbit mixers were...

When they finally left, their intentions still appeared to be in a state of heads or tails. I offered to take them back to 23rd Street, which seemed only fair under the circumstances, and they accepted. That is, Gwendolyn did; Carrie said she was bound for the subway, so with her I went on to 34th and unloaded her at the express station.

When I got back I found that company had arrived. Leonard Cliff and Amy Duncan were there in the office with Wolfe. Cliff looked so grim and harassed. Amy was worse, if anything. She was puffy under the eyes and saggy at the jaws. The soft in-curves I had liked in her cheeks weren’t there. Wolfe, himself, turned a black scowl on me.

I sat down. “My God,” I said, “it could be worse, couldn’t it? What if they charged you and tossed you in the coop?”

“Miss Duncan,” Wolfe growled, “is under bond. The thing has become ridiculous. Mr. Cramer states that the knife handle bears her fingerprints.”

“No!” I raised the brows. “Really? How about the chunk of iron? The weight.”

“None. Clean.”

“Ha. I thought so. She forgot to remove her prints from the knife, but after banging herself on the bean with the weight she carefully wiped it off—”

“That will do, Archie! If you insist on being whimsical—”

“I am not being whimsical. I’m merely agreeing with you that it’s ridiculous.” I sent him back his glare. “I know what you’re doing, and so do you! You’re letting it slide! Your performance with those two women I brought here was pitiful! I’ve got legs and I’m using them. You’ve got a brain and where is it? You’re sore at Tingley because he got killed before you could shake your finger at him and tell him to keep quinine out of his liver pâté. You’re sore at Cramer because he offended your dignity. You’re sore at me because I didn’t get Judd. Now you’re sore at Miss Duncan because while she was lying there unconscious she let someone put her prints on that knife.”

I turned to Amy: “You shouldn’t permit things like that to happen. They annoy Mr. Wolfe.”

Wolfe shut his eyes. There was a long silence. The tip of his forefinger was making little circles on the arm of his chair. Finally his lids went up halfway, and I was relieved to see that the focus was not me but Amy. He leaned back and clasped his fingers above his breadbasket. “Miss Duncan,” he said, “it looks as if we’ll have to go all over it. Are you up to answering some questions?”

“Oh, yes,” she declared. “Anything that will — I feel pretty good. I’m all right.”

“You don’t look it. I’m going on the assumption that you and Mr. Cliff are telling the truth. I shall abandon it only under necessity. I assume, for instance, that when you left your uncle’s employ and later became Mr. Cliff’s secretary you were not coming to terms with the enemy.”

“You certainly may,” Cliff put in. “We knew she had worked in Tingley’s office, but we didn’t know she was his niece. That’s why I was so surprised when I saw she was going there last evening. I couldn’t imagine what she was doing there.”

“Very well. I’ll take all that.” Wolfe went on with Amy: “What would you say if I told you that Miss Murphy was responsible for the quinine?”

“Why—” Amy looked astonished. “I wouldn’t know what to say. I’d ask you how you knew. I couldn’t believe that Carrie would do a thing like that.”

“Did she have a grudge against your uncle?”

“Not that I know of. No special grudge. Of course, nobody really liked him.”

“What about Miss Yates?”

“Oh, she’s all right. She’s a kind of a holy terror with the girls in the factory, but she’s certainly competent.”

“Did you and she get along?”

“Well enough. We didn’t have much to do with each other. I was my uncle’s stenographer.”

“How were her relations with Tingley?”

“As good as could be expected. Of course, she was a privileged character; he couldn’t possibly have got along without her. He inherited her from my grandfather along with the business.”

Wolfe grunted. “Speaking of inheritance. Do you know anything about your uncle’s will? Who will get the business?”

“I don’t know, but I suppose my cousin Philip.”

“His adopted son?”

“Yes.” Amy hesitated, then offered an amendment by a change of inflection: “I suppose he will. The business has always been handed down from father to son. But, of course, Philip—” She stopped.

“Is he active in the business?”

“No. That’s just it. He isn’t active in anything. Except—” She stopped.

“Except—?” Wolfe prodded her.

“I was going to say, except spending money, only for the past year or so he hasn’t had any to spend. Since Uncle Arthur kicked him out. I suppose he’s been giving him enough to keep him from starving. I thought — I had an idea, when my uncle phoned and asked me to come to his office yesterday, and he was so urgent about it, that it was something about Philip.”

“Why did you think that?”

“Well — because the only other time he ever sent for me it was about Philip. He thought that I could — that I had an influence over him.”

“Did you?”

“Maybe — a little.”

“When was the other time?”

“Nearly a year ago.”

“What did he want you to influence Philip to do?”

“To... well, to settle down. To take an interest in the business. He knew that Philip was — had wanted to marry me. Of course, Philip isn’t really my first cousin, since he was adopted. He isn’t any relation at all, but I didn’t want to marry him. I wasn’t in love with him.”

“And your uncle tried to persuade you to marry him?”

“Oh, no. He was dead against our marrying — I thought that was odd — but anyway he thought I had enough influence with Philip to reform him.”

“Had Philip, himself, abandoned the idea of marrying you?”

“Well, he... he had quit trying.”

Leonard Cliff was scowling. “Look here,” he blurted at her suddenly, “what does he look like?”

“Philip?”

“Yes.”

“Why — he’s tall. Tall and broad, with a bony face and deep-set eyes. He’s cynical. I mean he looks cynical—”

Cliff hit the arm of his chair with his palm. “It was him! I saw him at police headquarters this morning. It was him!”

“What if it was?” Wolfe demanded impatiently.

“Because that’s what I came to tell you about! He’s the man I saw last night! The one in the raincoat!”

“Indeed,” Wolfe said. “The one who arrived at seven-forty? After Mr. Judd left?”

“Yes!”

“How sure are you?”

“Damned sure. I was sure when I saw him there at headquarters, and I started to try to find out who he was, but they hustled me out. And now, from the description Amy gives—”

Wolfe snapped at Amy, “Do you know where he lives?”

She shook her head. “No, I don’t. But, oh — I can’t believe — you don’t think—”

“I haven’t begun to think. First I have to get something to think about.” He turned to me: “Archie, do you know of anyone we might hire to find Philip Tingley and bring—”

That was all I heard. I was on my way out.

This was the third man I had been sent for in less than twenty-four hours. The first one had been dead when I got to him. The second one had threatened to have me jailed. I intended to get this one.

But first I had to find him, and that turned into a job. From the colored maid at Tingley’s house I got the address easily enough, east of Second Avenue on 29th Street, but he wasn’t there. It was a dump, a dingy, dirty, five-story walk-up. I pushed the button labeled “Philip Tingley,” but got no answering click. The button’s position showed that he was four flights up, and since the door was unlatched, I entered and climbed the dark and smelly stairs. There were no buttons on the inside doors, so at the fifth floor rear I knocked half a dozen times, but without result.

I sat down at the top of the stairs and tried not to stew for nearly two hours.

Up to five o’clock that was one of the most unsatisfactory afternoons I remember. The sensible thing would have been to get Fred Durkin, who works for Wolfe on occasion, and leave him on post while I explored, but I wanted to make the delivery without any help. After a dish of beans and a couple of glasses of milk at a joint on Second Avenue I tried again, with the same result. Inquiries of the janitor in the basement and some of the other tenants were a good language lesson, but that was all. At half past four I went out again and did some research from a phone booth and drew nothing but blanks. It was during that expedition that he flew back to the nest. When I returned, a little after five o’clock, and, just to be doing something, pressed the button in the vestibule, the click sounded immediately. I popped in and bounced up the four flights.

The door to the rear flat was standing open and he was there on the sill when I reached his level. My first glance at him showed me not only that Amy’s description had been accurate, but that I was an unwelcome surprise. He didn’t like me at all.

“What do you want?” he demanded as I appeared.

I grinned at him. “You, brother. I’ve been around here wanting you for five hours.”

“Are you from the police?”

“Nope. My name’s Goodwin. I—”

The ape was shutting the door. I got against it and slid inside.

“Get out!” he snarled. “Get out of here!”

“My goodness,” I protested, “you haven’t even asked me what I want! How do you know I’m not Santa Claus?” I kicked the door shut behind me. There was no hurry, since Wolfe wouldn’t be available until six o’clock. “Let’s go in and talk it over—”

I suppose I was careless but what he did was so unexpected that he had me before I knew it. Not only did he get his long, bony fingers around my throat, but the strength of his grip indicated that they weren’t all bone. I grabbed his wrists, but that was no good; he had the leverage. I ducked and twisted, and broke his hold, but he pressed on in, clutching at me, scratching me on the cheek. I don’t like to plug a guy who never learned what fists are for, but I don’t like to be scratched, either, so I pushed him back with my left and hooked with my right. He staggered, but the wall kept him from going down.

“Cut it out,” I said curtly. “I don’t want to—”

He hauled off and kicked me! What with my throat hurting when I talked, and the scratch on my cheek, and now this, I hit him harder, the second time, than I intended to. He didn’t topple over, he folded up. As if he had melted. Then he didn’t move.

I stooped over for a look at him, and then slid past for an inspection of the premises. The only way I could account for his violent lack of hospitality before he ever knew what I came for was that there was someone else there who wasn’t supposed to be. But the place was empty. All there was of it was a bedroom and kitchen and bath. I gave them a glimpse, including the closet and under the bed, and went back to the tenant. He was still out.

In view of his disinclination even to let me state my intentions, it didn’t seem likely that I would get any kind of co-operation from him in my desire to escort him to Wolfe’s house, so I decided to wrap him up. He was too big to do anything with in the narrow little hall, and I dragged him into the kitchen. With a length of old clothesline from a kitchen drawer and a roll of adhesive tape from the bathroom cabinet, I soon had him arranged so that he would at least listen to me without kicking and scratching. I was putting the third strip of tape crosswise on his mouth when a bell rang right behind me.

I jerked up. The bell rang again.

So that was it. Not that someone was there, but someone was expected. I found the button on the wall that released the door latch downstairs, pushed it several times, took a swift look at the job I had just completed, stepped out and closed the kitchen door, and opened the door to the public hall.

I heard faint and hesitating footsteps from below on the uncarpeted stairs. Before a head appeared above the landing I had decided it was a woman; and it was. When she got to my level she stopped again, glanced the other way, and then saw me. She was a new one on me. Fifty or maybe a little more, slim and slick, in a mink coat.

I said politely, “Good evening.”

She asked, with a sort of gasp, “Are you — Philip Tingley?”

I nodded. “Don’t you recognize me?”

That seemed to hit some mark. “How would I recognize you?” she demanded sharply.

“I don’t know. From my statue in the park, maybe.” I stood aside from her passage to the door. “Come in.”

She hesitated a second; then pulled her shoulders up as if bracing herself against peril and swept by me. I followed her in and motioned her to the living-bedroom and shut the door. All was dark before me, figuratively speaking, but anyway I could try some fancy groping and stumbling.

I went up to her. “Let me take your coat. This isn’t the sort of chair you’re used to, but it’ll have to do.”

She shuddered away from me and glanced nervously around. When she sat she let just enough of her come in contact with the shabby, soiled upholstery to call it sitting. Then she looked at me. I have never regarded myself as a feast for the eye, my attractions run more to the spiritual, but on the other hand I am not a toad, and I resented her expression.

“It seems,” I ventured, “that something about me falls short of expectations.”

She made a contemptuous noise. “I told you on the phone that there can be nothing sentimental about me and never has been.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’m not sentimental, either.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be.” If the breath of her voice had dribbled off the edge of a roof it would have made icicles. “It’s not in you from either side. Neither from your father nor from me. My brother says you’re a blackguard. He also says you’re a coward and a bluffer, but considering where your blood came from, I don’t believe that. I tell you frankly, I think my brother is making a mistake.” She was biting the words off. “That’s why I came. He thinks you’ll take what he has offered, but I don’t. I know I wouldn’t, and half of you came from me.”

I was loping along behind trying to keep up. The best bet seemed to be that I was a blackguard, so I did as well as I could with a sneer. “He thinks I’m a coward, does he?” I emitted an ugly little laugh. “And he thinks I’ll take his offer? I won’t!”

“What will you take?”

“What I said! That’s final!”

“It is not final,” she said sharply. “You’re making a mistake, too. You’re a fool if you think my brother will give you a million dollars.”

“He will, or else.”

“No. He won’t.” She moved on the chair, and I thought she was going to slide off, but she didn’t. “All men are fools,” she said bitterly. “I thought I had a cool head and knew how to take care of myself, but I was doomed to be ruined by men. When I was a pretty little thing in that factory — that finished me with men, I thought — but there are more ways than one. I don’t deny that you have some right to — something; but what you demand is ridiculous. What my brother offers is also ridiculous, I admit that. If I had money of my own but I haven’t. You’re obdurate fools, both of you. He has never learned to compromise, and apparently you haven’t, either. But you’ll have to on this; you both will.”

I kept the sneer working. “He’s a pigheaded blubber-lip.” I asserted. “It takes two to compromise. How about him?”

She opened her mouth and closed it again.

“So,” I said sarcastically. “It strikes me that you’re not any too bright yourself. What good did you expect to do by coming here and reading me the riot act? Do you think I’m boob enough to say, okay, split the difference, and then you run back to him? Now, that would be smart, wouldn’t it?”

“It would at least make—”

“No!” I stood up. “You want this settled. So do I. So does he, and I know it. All right, let’s go see him together. Then you can tell both of us to compromise. Then we’ll find out who’s being ridiculous. Come on.”

She looked startled. “You mean now?”

“I mean now.”

She balked. She had objections. I overruled them. I had the advantage, and I used it. When I put on my coat she just sat and chewed on her lip. Then she got up and came along.

When we got downstairs and out to the sidewalk there was no car there but mine; apparently she had come in a cab. I doubted if Philip Tingley ought to own a car, so I snubbed it and we walked to the corner and flagged a taxi. She shoved clear into her corner and I returned the compliment, after hearing her give an address in the 70’s just east of Fifth Avenue. During the ride she showed no desire for conversation.

She allowed Philip to pay the fare, which seemed to me a little scrubby, under the circumstances. Before the massive ornamental door to the vestibule she stood aside, and I depressed the lever and pushed it open. The inner door swung open without any summons, and she passed through, with me on her heels. A man in uniform closed the door.

She seemed to have shrunk, and she looked pale and peaked. She was scared stiff. She asked the man, “Is Mr. Judd upstairs?”

“Yes, Miss Judd.”

She led me upstairs to a large room with a thousand books and a fireplace and exactly the kind of chairs I like. In one of them was a guy I didn’t like. He turned his head at our entrance.

Her voice came from a constricted throat: “Guthrie, I thought—”

What stopped her was the blaze from his eyes. It was enough to stop anyone.

I walked over and asked him, “Is Aiken around?”

He ignored me. He spoke to his sister as if she had been a spot of grease: “Where did this man come from?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, “but I’ll make it short. She went to Philip Tingley’s flat and I was there and she thought I was him.” I waved a hand. “Mistaken identity.”

“She thought—” He was speechless. That alone was worth the price of admission. His sister was staring at me frozenly.

He picked on her. “Get out!” he said in cold fury. “You incomparable fool!”

She was licked. She went.

I waited till the door had closed behind her and then said, “We had a good, long talk. It’s an interesting situation. Now I can give you an invitation I was going to extend yesterday when you interrupted me. You’re going down to Thirty-fifth Street to call on Nero Wolfe.”

“I’ll talk with you,” he said between his teeth. “Sit down.”

“Oh, no. I invited you first. And I don’t like you. If you do any wriggling and squirming, I swear I’ll sell it to a tabloid and retire on the proceeds.” I pointed to the door. “This way to the egress.”...

Wolfe sat at his desk. I sat at mine, with my notebook open. Guthrie Judd was in the witness box, near Wolfe’s desk.

Wolfe emptied his beer glass, wiped his lips, and leaned back. “You don’t,” he said, “seem to realize that the thing is now completely beyond your control. All you can do is save us a little time, which we would be inclined to appreciate. I make no commitment. We can collect the details without you if we have to, or the police can. The police are clumsy and sometimes not too discreet, but when they’re shown where to dig they do a pretty good job. We know that Philip Tingley is your sister’s son, and that’s the main thing. That’s what you were struggling to conceal. The rest is only to fill in. Who, for instance, is Philip’s father?”

Judd, his eyes narrowed, and his jaw clamped, gazed at him in silence.

“Who is Philip’s father?” Wolfe repeated patiently.

Judd held the pose.

Wolfe shrugged. “Very well.” He turned to me. “Call Inspector Cramer. With the men he has, a thing like this — Did you make a noise, sir?”

“Yes,” Judd snapped. “Damn you. Philip’s father is dead. He was Thomas Tingley. Arthur’s father.”

“I see. Then Arthur was Philip’s brother.”

“Half-brother.” Judd looked as if he would rather say it with bullets than words. “Thomas was married and had two children, a son and a daughter, by his wife. The son was Arthur.”

“Was the wife still alive when—?”

“Yes. My sister went to work in the Tingley factory in 1909. I was then twenty-five years old, just getting a start in life. She was nineteen. Arthur was a year or two younger than me. His father, Thomas, was approaching fifty. In 1911 my sister told me she was pregnant and who was responsible for it. I was making a little more money then, and I sent her to a place in the country. In September of that year the boy was born. My sister hated him without ever seeing him. She refused to look at him. He was placed in a charity home, and was forgotten by her and me. At that time I was occupied with my own affairs to the exclusion of considerations that should have received my attention. Many years later it occurred to me that there might be records at that place which would be better destroyed, and I had inquiries made.”

“When was that?”

“Only three years ago. I learned then what had happened. Thomas Tingley had died in 1913, and his wife a year later. His son Arthur had married in 1912, and Arthur’s wife had died in an accident. And in 1915 Arthur had legally adopted the four-year-old boy from the charity home.”

“How did you know it was that boy?”

“I went to see Arthur. He knew the boy was his half-brother. His father, on his deathbed, had told him all about it and charged him with the child’s welfare — secretly, since at that time Thomas’s wife was still alive. Two years later, after Arthur’s wife had died, leaving him childless, he had decided on the adoption.”

“You said you had a search made for records. Did Arthur have them?”

“Yes, but he wouldn’t give them up. I tried to persuade him. I offered — an extravagant sum. He was stubborn, he didn’t like me, and he was disappointed in the boy, who had turned out a blithering fool.”

Wolfe grunted. “So you made efforts to get the records by other methods.”

“No. I didn’t.” A corner of Judd’s mouth twisted up. “You can’t work me into a melodrama. I don’t fit. Not even a murder. I knew Arthur’s character and had no fear of any molestation during his life-time, and he conceded me a point. He put the papers in a locked box in his safe and willed the box and its contents to me. Not that he told me where they were. I found that out later.”

“When?”

“Two days ago.”

Wolfe’s brows went up. “Two days?”

“Yes. Monday morning Philip called at my office. I had never seen him since he was a month old, but he established his identity, and he had copies with him of those records. He demanded a million dollars.” Judd’s voice rose. “A million!”

“What was the screw, a threat to publish?”

“Oh, no. He was smoother than that. He said he came to me only because his adopted father would allow him nothing but a pittance — he said ‘pittance’ — and had disinherited him in his will. Arthur had been fool enough to let him read the will, rubbing it in, I suppose, and the bequest of the locked box to me had made him smell a rat. He had stolen the box from the safe and got it open, and there it was. His threat was not to publish, but to sue me and my sister for damages, for abandoning him as an infant, which of course amounted to the same thing, but that put a face on it. And was something we could not allow to happen under any circumstances, and he knew it.”

Wolfe said, “So why didn’t you pay him?”

“Because it was outrageous. You don’t just hand out a million dollars.”

“I don’t, but you could.”

“I didn’t. And I wanted a guaranty that that would end it. For one thing I had to be sure I was getting all the original records, and Arthur was the only one who could satisfy me on that, and he would see me Monday. I put Philip off for a day. The next morning, yesterday, Arthur phoned me that the box was gone from the safe, but even then he wouldn’t come to my office or meet me somewhere, so I had to go to him.”

I looked up from the notebook with a grin. “Yeah, and I met you coming out. When I put that chalk—”

He rudely went on without even glancing at me. “I went to his office and told him of Philip’s demand and threat. He was enraged. He thought Philip could be brow-beaten into surrendering the box, and I didn’t. What I proposed — but I couldn’t do anything with him. He would have it his way. It was left that he would talk with Philip that afternoon, and the three of us would have it out the next morning, Wednesday — that would have been today — in his office. I had to accept—”

“That won’t do,” Wolfe said bluntly. “Don’t try any dodging now.”

“I’m not. I am telling you—”

“A lie, Mr. Judd. It’s no good. You three were to meet at Tingley’s office Tuesday evening, not Wednesday morning. And you went there—”

I missed the rest. The doorbell rang, and I went to attend to it, because Fritz wasn’t being permitted to exert himself. A peep through the glass showed me a phiz only too well known, so I slipped the chain on before I opened the door to the extent of the six inches which the chain permitted.

“We don’t need any,” I said offensively.

“Go to hell,” I was told gruffly. “I want to see Guthrie Judd. He’s here.”

“How do you know?”

“So informed at his home. Take off that damn’ chain—”

“He might have got run over on the way. Be seated while I find out.”

I went to the office and told Wolfe, “Inspector Cramer wants to see Judd. Was told at his home that he had come here.”

Judd, quick on the trigger, spoke up: “I want your assurance.”

“You won’t get it,” Wolfe snapped. “Bring Mr. Cramer in.”

I went back out and slipped the chain and swung the door open, and Cramer made for the office with me following.

After using grunts for greetings he stood and spoke down to Judd: “This is a confidential matter. Very confidential. If you want to come—”

Judd glanced at Wolfe from the corner of his eye. Wolfe cleared his throat.

Judd said, “Sit down. Go ahead.”

“But I warn you, Mr. Judd, it is extremely—”

“He has answered you,” Wolfe said. “Please make it as brief as possible.”

“I see.” Cramer looked from one to the other. “Like that, huh? Suits me.” He sat down and placed the leather bag on the floor in front of him, and hunched over and released the catches and opened it. He straightened up to look at Judd. “A special-delivery parcel-post package addressed to me by name was delivered at police headquarters about an hour ago.” He bent and got an object from the bag. “This was in it. May I ask, have you ever seen it before?”

Judd said, “No.”

Cramer’s eyes moved. “Have you, Wolfe? You, Goodwin?”

Wolfe shook his head. I said, “Not guilty.”

Cramer shrugged. “As you see, it’s a metal box with a lock. On the top the letters ‘GJ’ have been roughly engraved, probably with the point of a knife. The first thing about it is this: A box of this description, including the ‘GJ’ on its top, was left to you by Arthur Tingley in his will. The police commissioner asked you about it this afternoon, and you stated you knew nothing of such a box and had no idea what it might contain. Is that correct, Mr. Judd?”

“It is,” Judd acknowledged. “Hombert told me the will said the box would be found in the safe in Tingley’s office, and it wasn’t there.”

“That’s right. The second thing is the lock has been forced. It was like that when the package was opened. The third thing is the contents.” Cramer regarded Judd. “Do you want me to keep right on?”

“Go ahead.”

“Very well.” Cramer lifted the lid.

“Item one, a pair of baby shoes.” He held them up for inspection.

“Item two, a printed statement of condition of your banking firm. As of June 30, 1939. A circle has been made, with pen and ink, around your name, and a similar circle around the sum of the total resources, $230,000,000 and something.”

He returned the folder to the box and produced the next exhibit. “Item three, a large manila envelope. It was sealed, but the wax has been broken and the flap slit open. On the outside, in Arthur Tingley’s handwriting, is this inscription: ‘Confidential. In case of my decease, to be delivered intact to Mr. Guthrie Judd. Arthur Tingley.’ ”

Judd had a hand extended. “Then it’s mine.” His tone was sharp and peremptory. “And you opened it—”

“No, sir; I didn’t.” Cramer hung onto the envelope. “It had already been opened. It is unquestionably your property, and eventually no doubt it will be surrendered to you, but we’ll keep it for the present. Under the circumstances. It contains the birth certificate of ‘Baby Philip,’ dated September 18, 1911, four pages from the records of the Ellen James Home regarding the sojourn in that institution of a young woman named Martha Judd, and a written statement, holograph, dated July 9, 1936, signed by Arthur Tingley. Also, a certificate of the legal adoption of Philip Tingley by Arthur Tingley, dated May 11, 1915. If you wish to inspect these documents now, in my presence—”

“No,” Judd snapped. “I demand the immediate surrender of the box and its contents to me.”

Cramer shook his head. “For the present, sir—”

“I’ll replevy.”

“I doubt if you can. Evidence in a murder case—”

“That has nothing to do with Tingley’s murder.”

“I hope it hasn’t.” Cramer sounded as if he meant it. “I’m only a cop and you know what you are. A man in your position and a thing like this. It was too hot for the district attorney and he wished it onto me. So it’s a job, and that’s that. You have a sister named Martha. Was she at the Ellen James Home in the year 1911?”

“It would have been sensible of you,” Judd said icily, “to follow the district attorney’s example.” He aimed a finger at the box. “I want that, and demand it.”

“Yeah, I heard you before. I can get tough, you know, even with you. Let’s try this. You said it wasn’t you that entered the Tingley Building at seven-thirty yesterday evening. Do you still say that?”

“Yes.”

“We’re taking your chauffeur down to headquarters.”

Judd made a contemptuous noise.

“Also Philip Tingley. You might as well come down off your horse. Somebody’s going to talk; don’t think they won’t. If you expect—”

The phone rang. I answered it, and learned that Sergeant Foster wished to speak to Inspector Cramer. Cramer came to my desk to take it. About all he did for two minutes was listen and grunt. At the end he said, “Bring him here to Nero Wolfe’s place,” and hung up.

“If you don’t object,” he said to Wolfe.

“To what?” Wolfe demanded.

“A little talk with Philip Tingley. They found him over in his kitchen tied up and gagged.”...

I have got, and always will have, a soft spot in my heart for Philip Tingley. Consider the situation from his standpoint when he entered Nero Wolfe’s office at seven o’clock that Wednesday evening. Two burly detectives were right behind him. He was surrounded by the enemy. His jaw was swollen, his head must have been fuzzy, and he was wobbly on his pins. He knew I was stronger than he was. And yet, by gum, the minute he caught sight of me he power-dived at me as if all he asked was to plant one bomb! That’s the spirit that wins ball games.

The dicks jumped for him. I hastily arose, but they got him and held him.

“What the hell?” Cramer inquired.

“It’s a private matter,” I explained, sitting down. “It was me that fixed his jaw and tied him up. That has no bearing—”

I got on my feet again. With one mighty, spasmodic heave of his bony frame Philip had busted loose and was on the move. But not toward me; he had changed his objective. What he was after was the metal box on Cramer’s knees. He not only grabbed for it, but he got it. The dicks went for him again, this time with more fervor. One of them retrieved the box and the other one slammed him down. I went to help, and we picked him up and shoved him into a chair. Panting like a polar bear on a hot day, he glared at us, but quit trying.

“Whistle for help,” Cramer said sarcastically. He looked at me. “You say you fixed his jaw? Let’s take that first.”

I started to explain, but Philip took the floor again, this time verbally. He had seen Judd. “You!” he yelled. “You got it! You killed him and took it! And you framed me! You had her say she was coming to see me, and you sent that man—”

“Shut up!” I told him. “Judd never sent me anywhere and never will. She did come to see you, but she saw me instead.”

“He got the box!”

“You damned idiot,” Judd said bitterly. “You’ll cook your goose—”

“That’ll do,” Cramer growled. “If—”

“You can’t bully me, Inspector—”

“The hell I can’t. If you don’t like it, go hire a lawyer. Hang onto that box, Foster.” Cramer regarded Philip. “You recognize it?”

“Yes! It’s mine!”

“You don’t say so. When and where did you see it before?”

“I saw it when I—”

“Don’t be a fool,” Judd snapped. He stood up. “Come with me. I’ll see you through this. Keep your mouth shut.”

“You’re too late, Mr. Judd.” It was Nero Wolfe taking a hand. “Either keep still or go home. You’re licked.”

“I have never been licked.”

“Pfui! You are now. And this is my house you’re in. If you try interrupting me, Mr. Goodwin will throw you out with enthusiasm.” Wolfe turned to Philip: “Mr. Tingley, I’m afraid you’re holding the short end of the stick. The police have got the box. Its contents are known, so you have no lever to use on Mr. Judd. And you’re deep in another hole, too. Mr. Judd, who advises you to keep your mouth shut, has himself been talking. We know of your call on him Monday and the demands you made; and of the copies you showed him of the contents of that box; and of your talk with Arthur Tingley yesterday afternoon; and of the arrangement he made for you and Mr. Judd to come to his office last evening—”

Philip snarled at Judd. “You dirty rat—”

Wolfe sailed over it. “Also, we know that you went there. You walked to the building in the rain, wearing a raincoat, entered at twenty minutes to eight, and came out again seven minutes later. What did you see inside? What did you do?”

“Don’t answer him,” Judd commanded sharply. “He’s only—”

“Save it,” Philip told him in harsh contempt. He looked sullenly at Wolfe. “Yes, I went there, and I went in, and I saw him there dead on the floor.”

“What—?” Cramer began blurting, but Wolfe stopped him: “I’ll do this... Mr. Tingley, I beg you to reflect. I may know more than you think I do. You got there at seven-forty — is that right?”

“About that, yes.”

“And Tingley was dead?”

“Yes.”

“What if I have evidence that he was alive at eight o’clock?”

“You couldn’t have. He was dead when I got there.”

“Was Amy Duncan there?”

“Yes. She was on the floor unconscious.”

“Did you see anyone else anywhere in the building?”

“No.”

“Where did you go besides Tingley’s office?”

“Nowhere. I went straight there and straight out.”

“You were there seven minutes. What did you do?”

“I—” Philip halted and shifted in his chair. “I felt Amy’s pulse. I wanted to get her out of there — but I didn’t dare — and she was breathing all right and her pulse was pretty good. Then I—” He stopped.

“Yes? You what?”

“I looked for the box. The safe door was standing open, but it wasn’t in there. I looked a few other places, and then I heard Amy move, or thought I did, and I left. Anyway, I thought Judd had been there and killed him and taken the box, so I didn’t hope to find it. So I left.”

Wolfe was scowling at him. “Are you aware,” he demanded, “of what you’re saying? Are your wits working?”

“You’re damned right they are.”

“Nonsense. You had previously stolen the box from the safe and had it in your possession. How could you have been looking for it in that office last evening?”

“I didn’t have it in my possession.”

“Oh, come. Don’t be ass enough—”

“I say I didn’t have it. I had had it. I didn’t have it then. He went to my place and found it and took it.”

“Who did? When?”

“My half-brother. Arthur Tingley. He went to my flat yesterday afternoon — I don’t know how he got in — and found it.”

So that, I thought, turning a page of my notebook, was the errand that had called Tingley away from his office when I had gone there to interview him about quinine.

Wolfe asked, “How do you know that?”

“Because he told me. He had the box there in the safe yesterday afternoon.”

“Are you telling me that at five o’clock yesterday afternoon that box was in Tingley’s safe in his office?”

“I am.”

“And when you returned two hours later, at seven-forty, it was gone?”

“It was. Judd had been there. Judd had taken it. And if the lousy ape thinks he can—”

“Be quiet, please,” Wolfe said testily. He closed his eyes.

We sat. Wolfe’s lips were moving, pushing out and then drawing in again. Judd started to say something, and Cramer shushed him. The inspector knew the signs as well as I did.

Wolfe’s eyes opened, but they were directed, not at Judd or Philip, but at me. “What time,” he asked, “did it begin raining yesterday?”

“I said, “Seven P.M.”

“Seven precisely?”

“Maybe a little after. Not much.”

“Not even a drizzle before that?”

“No.”

“Good.” He wiggled a finger at Sergeant Foster. “Let me have that box.”

Foster handed him the box.

Wolfe looked at Philip Tingley: “When you stole this from the safe you had no key for it. So you had to pry it open?”

“No,” Philip denied, “I didn’t pry it open.”

“The metal is gouged and twisted—”

“I can’t help that. I didn’t do it. I suppose Judd did. I took it to a locksmith and told him I had lost my key, and had him make one that would open it.”

“Then it was locked yesterday afternoon?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Wolfe looked pleased with himself. “That settles it, I think. Let’s see.” Whereupon he grasped the box firmly in both hands and shook it violently from side to side. His attitude suggested that he was listening for something, but the banging of the shoes against the metal sides of the box was all there was to hear. He nodded with satisfaction. “That’s fine,” he declared.

“Nuts,” Cramer said.

“By no means. Some day, Mr. Cramer — but no, I suppose never. I would like a few words with you and Archie. If your men will take these gentlemen to the front room?”

When they were shut off by the sound-proofed door Cramer advanced on Wolfe with his jaw leading the way. “Look here—”

“No,” Wolfe said decisively. “I tolerate your presence here and that’s all. Take a guest from my house with a warrant, will you? I want to know what has been removed from Mr. Tingley’s office.”

“But if Judd—”

“No. Take them if you want to, get them out of here, and I’ll proceed alone.”

“Do you know who killed Tingley?”

“Certainly. I know all about it. But I need something. What has been removed from that office?”

Cramer heaved a sigh. “Damn you, anyway. The corpse. Two bloody towels. The knife and the weight. Five small jars with some stuff in them which we found in a drawer of Tingley’s desk. We had the stuff analyzed and it contained no quinine. We were told they were routine samples.”

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

“No other sample jars were found?”

“No.”

“Then it’s still there. It ought to be. It must be... Archie, go and get it. Find it and bring it here. Mr. Cramer will telephone his men there to help you.”

“Huh,” Cramer grunted. “I will?”

“Certainly you will.”

“As for me,” I put in, “I’m a wonder at finding things, but I get better results when I know what I’m looking for.”

“Pfui! What was it I spit out yesterday at lunch?”

“Oh, is that it? Okay.” I beat it, then.

It was only a three-minute ride to Tingley’s, and I figured it might take longer than that for Wolfe to get Cramer to make the phone call, so I took a taxi to East 29th Street and picked up the roadster and drove it on from there. The entrance door at the top of the stone steps was locked, but just as I was lifting my fist to beat a tattoo I heard the clatter of feet inside, and in a moment the door opened and a towering specimen looked down at me.

“You Goodwin?” he demanded.

“I am Mr. Goodwin. Old Lady Cramer—”

“Yeah. You sound like what I’ve heard of you. Enter.”

I did so, and preceded him up the stairs. In Tingley’s office an affair with a thin little mouth in a big face was awaiting us, seated at a table littered with newspapers.

“You fellows are to help me,” I stated.

“Okay,” the one at the table said superciliously. “We’d just as soon have the exercise. But Bowen did this room. If you think you can find a button after Bowen—”

“That will do, my man,” I said graciously. “Bowen’s all right as far as he goes, but he lacks subtlety. He’s too scientific. He uses rules and calipers, whereas I use my brain. For instance, since he did that desk, it’s a hundred to one that there’s not an inch of it unaccounted for, but what if he neglected to look in that hat?” I pointed to Tingley’s hat still there on the hook. “He might have, because there’s nothing scientific about searching a hat; you just take it down and look at it.”

“That’s wonderful,” Thin Mouth said. “Explain some more.”

“Sure; glad to.” I walked across. “Do you ask why Tingley would put an object in his hat? It was the logical place for it. He wanted to take it home with him, and meanwhile he wanted to keep it hidden from someone who might have gone snooping around his desk and other obvious places. He was not an obvious man. Neither am I.” I reached up and took the hat from the hook.

And it was in the hat!

That made up for all the bad breaks that had come my way over a period of years. Nothing like that will ever happen again. It was so utterly unexpected that I nearly dropped it when it rolled out of the hat, but I grabbed and caught it and had it — a midget-sized jar, the kind they used for samples in the factory. It was about two-thirds full with a label on it marked in pencil, “11-14-Y.”

“You see,” I said, trying my damnedest not to let my voice tremble with excitement, “it’s a question of brains.”

They were gawking at me, absolutely speechless. I got out my penknife and, with a tip of a blade, dug out a bit of the stuff in the jar and conveyed it to my mouth. My God, it tasted sweet — I mean bitter!

I spat it out. “I’m going to promote you boys,” I said indulgently. “And raise your pay. And give you a month’s vacation.”

I departed. I hadn’t even taken off my coat and hat...

It was too bad dinner had to be delayed the first day that Fritz was back on the job after his grippe, but it couldn’t be helped. While we were waiting for Carrie Murphy to come, I went to the kitchen and had a glass of milk and tried to cheer Fritz up by telling him that grippe often leaves people so that they can’t taste anything.

At half past seven Wolfe was at his desk and I was at mine with my notebook. Seated near me, with a dick behind his chair, was Philip Tingley. Beyond him were Carrie Murphy, Miss Yates, and another dick. Inspector Cramer was at the other end of Wolfe’s desk, next to Guthrie Judd. None of them looked very happy, Carrie in particular. It was her Wolfe started on, after Cramer had turned the meeting over to him.

“There shouldn’t be much in this,” Wolfe said bluntly. What he meant was he hoped there wouldn’t be, that close to dinnertime. “Miss Murphy, did you go to Miss Yates’s apartment yesterday evening to discuss something with her?”

Carrie nodded.

“Did she make a telephone call?”

“Yes.”

“Whom did she call and at what time?”

“Mr. Arthur Tingley. It was eight o’clock.”

“At his home or his office?”

“His office.” She stopped to swallow. “She tried his home first, but he wasn’t there, so she called the office and got him.”

“She talked with him?”

“Yes.”

“Did you?”

“No.”

Wolfe’s eyes moved: “Miss Yates. Is Miss Murphy’s statement correct?”

“It is,” said Gwendolyn firmly.

“You recognized Tingley’s voice?”

“Certainly. I’ve been hearing it all my life—”

“Of course you have. Thanks.” Wolfe shifted again. “Mr. Philip Tingley. Yesterday afternoon your father — your brother asked you to be at his office at seven-thirty in the evening. Is that right?”

“Yes!” Philip said aggressively.

“Did you go?”

“Yes, but not at seven-thirty. I was ten minutes late.”

“Did you see him?”

“I saw him dead. On the floor behind the screen. I saw Amy Duncan there, too, unconscious, and I felt her pulse and—”

“Naturally. Being human, you displayed humanity.” Wolfe made a face. “Are you sure Arthur Tingley was dead?”

Philip grunted. “If you had seen him—”

“His throat had been cut?”

“Yes, and the blood had spread—”

“Thank you,” Wolfe said curtly. “Mr. Guthrie Judd.”

The two pairs of eyes met in midair.

Wolfe wiggled a finger at him. “Well, sir, it looks as if you’ll have to referee this. Miss Yates says Tingley was alive at eight o’clock and Philip says he was dead at seven-forty. We’d like to hear from you what shape he was in at seven-thirty. Will you tell us?”

“No.”

“If you don’t you’re an ass. The screws are all loose now. There is still a chance this business will be censored for the press if I feel like being discreet. But I’m not bound, as law officers are, to protect the embarrassing secrets of prominent people from the public curiosity. I’m doing a job and you can help me out a little. If you don’t—” Wolfe shrugged.

Judd breathed through his nose.

“Well?” Wolfe asked impatiently.

“Tingley was dead.” Judd bit it off.

“Then you did enter that building and go to that office? At half past seven?”

“Yes. That was the time of the appointment. Tingley was on the floor with his throat cut. Near him was a young woman I had never seen, unconscious. I was in the room less than a minute.”

Wolfe nodded. “I’m not a policeman, and I’m certainly not the district attorney, but I think it is quite likely that you will never be under the necessity of telling this story in a courtroom. They won’t want to inconvenience you. However, in the event that a subpoena takes you to the witness stand, are you prepared to swear to the truth of what you have just said?”

“I am.”

“Good.” Wolfe’s gaze swept to Miss Yates. “Are you still positive it was Tingley you talked to, Miss Yates?”

She met his eyes squarely. “I am.” Her voice was perfectly controlled. “I don’t say they’re lying. I don’t know. I only know if it was someone imitating Arthur Tingley’s voice, I’ve never heard anything to equal it.”

“You still think it was he?”

“I do.”

“Why did you tell me this morning that when you got home yesterday you stood your umbrella in the bathtub to drain?”

“Because I—”

She stopped, and it was easy to tell from her face what had happened. An alarm had sounded inside her. Something had yelled at her, “Look out!”

“Why,” she asked, her voice a shade thinner than it had been, but quite composed, “did I say that? I don’t remember it.”

“I do,” Wolfe declared. “The reason I bring it up, you also told me you went home at a quarter past six. It didn’t start raining until seven, so why did your umbrella need draining at six-fifteen?”

Miss Yates snorted. “What you remember,” she said sarcastically. “What you say I said, that I didn’t say—”

“Very well. We won’t argue it. There are two possible explanations. One, that your umbrella got wet without any rain. Two, that you went home, not at six-fifteen, as you said you did, but considerably later. I like the second one best because it fits so well into the only satisfactory theory of the murder of Arthur Tingley. If you had gone home at six-fifteen, as you said, you wouldn’t very well have been at the office to knock Miss Duncan on the head when she arrived at ten minutes past seven. Of course, you could have gone and returned to the office, but that wouldn’t change things any.”

Miss Yates smiled. That was a mistake, because the muscles around her mouth weren’t under control, so they twitched. The result was that instead of looking confident and contemptuous she merely looked sick.

“The theory starts back a few weeks,” Wolfe resumed. “As you remarked this morning, that business and that place were everything to you; you had no life except there. When the Provisions & Beverages Corporation made an offer to buy the business, you became alarmed, and upon reflection you were convinced that sooner or later Tingley would sell. That old factory would of course be abandoned, and probably you with it. That was intolerable to you. You considered ways of preventing it, and what you hit on was adulterating the product, damaging its reputation sufficiently so that the Provisions & Beverages Corporation wouldn’t want it. You chose what seemed to you the lesser of two evils. Doubtless you thought that the reputation could be gradually re-established.”

Carrie was staring at her boss in amazement.

“It seemed probable,” Wolfe conceded, “that it would work. The only trouble was, you were overconfident. You were, in your own mind, so completely identified with the success and very existence of that place and what went on there, that you never dreamed that Tingley would arrange to check on you secretly. Yesterday afternoon you learned about it when you caught Miss Murphy with a sample of a mix you had made. And you had no time to consider the situation, to do anything about it, for a sample had already reached Tingley. He kept you waiting in the factory until after Philip had gone and he phoned his niece — for obviously you didn’t know he had done that — and then called you into his office and accused you.”

“It’s a lie,” Miss Yates said harshly. “It’s a lie! He didn’t accuse me! He didn’t—!”

“Pfui! He not only accused you, he told you that he had proof. A jar that Miss Murphy had previously delivered to him that afternoon, from a mix you had made. I suppose he fired you. He may have told you he intended to prosecute. And I suppose you implored him, pleaded with him, and were still pleading with him, from behind, while he was stooping over the washbasin. He didn’t know you had got the paperweight from his desk, and never did know it. It knocked him out. You went and got a knife and finished the job, there where he lay on the floor, and you were searching the room, looking for the sample jar which he had got from Miss Murphy, when you heard footsteps.”

A choking noise came from her throat.

“Naturally, that alarmed you,” Wolfe continued. “But the steps were of only one person, and that a woman. So you stood behind the screen with the weight in your hand, hoping that, whoever it was, she would come straight to that room and enter it, and she did. As she passed the edge of the screen, you struck. Then you got an idea upon which you immediately acted by pressing her fingers around the knife handle, from which, of course, your own prints had been wiped—”

A stifled gasp of horror from Carrie Murphy interrupted him. He answered it without moving his eyes from Miss Yates: “I doubt if you had a notion of incriminating Miss Duncan. You probably calculated — and for an impromptu and rapid calculation under stress is was a good one — that when it was found that the weight had been wiped and the knife handle had not, the inference would be, not that Miss Duncan had killed Tingley, but that the murderer had clumsily tried to pin it on her. That would tend to divert suspicions from you, for you had been on friendly terms with her and bore her no grudge. It was a very pretty finesse for a hasty one. Hasty, because you were now in a panic and had not found the jar. I suppose you had previously found that the safe door was open and had looked in there, but now you tried it again. No jar was visible, but a locked metal box was there on the shelf. You picked it up and shook it, and it sounded as if the jar were in it.”

Cramer growled, “I’ll be damned.”

“Or,” Wolfe went on, “it sounded enough like it to satisfy you. The box was locked. To go to the factory again and get something to pry it open with — no. Enough. Besides, the jar was in no other likely place, so that must be it. You fled. You took the box and went, leaving by a rear exit, for there might be someone in front — a car, waiting for Miss Duncan. You hurried home through the rain, for it was certainly raining then, and had just got your umbrella stood in the tub and your things off when Miss Murphy arrived.”

“No!” Carrie Murphy blurted.

Wolfe frowned at her. “Why not?”

“Because she — she was—”

“Dry and composed and herself? I suppose so. An exceptionally cool and competent head has for thirty years been content to busy itself with tidbits.” Wolfe’s gaze was still on Miss Yates. “While you were talking with Miss Murphy you had an idea. You would lead the conversation to a point where a phone call to Tingley would be appropriate, and you did so; and you called his home first and then his office, and faked conversation with him. The idea itself was fairly clever, but your follow-up was brilliant. You didn’t mention it to the police and advised Miss Murphy not to, realizing it would backfire if someone entered the office or Miss Duncan regained consciousness before eight o’clock. If it turned out that someone had, and Miss Murphy blabbed about the phone call, you could say that you had been deceived by someone imitating Tingley’s voice, or even that you had faked the phone call for its effect on Miss Murphy; if it turned out that someone hadn’t, the phone call would stick, with Miss Murphy to corroborate it.”

A grunt of impatience came from Cramer.

“Not much more,” Wolfe said. “But you couldn’t open the box with Miss Murphy there. And then the police came. That must have been a bad time for you. As soon as you got a chance you forced the lid open, and I can imagine your disappointment and dismay when you saw no jar. Only a pair of child’s shoes and an envelope! You were in a hole, and in your desperation you did something extremely stupid. Of course, you didn’t want the box in your flat, you wanted to get rid of it, but why the devil did you mail it to Mr. Cramer? Why didn’t you put something heavy in it and throw it in the river? I suppose you examined the contents of the envelope, and figured that if the police got hold of it their attention would be directed to Guthrie Judd and Philip. You must have been out of your mind. Instead of directing suspicions against Philip or Judd, the result was just the opposite, for it was obvious that neither of them would have mailed the box to the police, and therefore some other person had somehow got it.”

Gwendolyn Yates was sitting straight and stiff. She was getting a hold on herself, and doing a fairly good job of it. There were no more inarticulate noises from her throat, and she wasn’t shouting about lies and wasn’t going to. She was a tough baby and she was tightening up.

“But you’re not out of your mind now,” Wolfe said, with a note of admiration in his tone. “You’re adding it up, aren’t you? You are realizing that I can prove little or nothing of what I’ve said. I can’t prove what Tingley said to you yesterday, or what time you left there, or that you got the box from the safe and took it with you, or that it was you who mailed it to Mr. Cramer. I can’t even prove that there wasn’t someone there at eight o’clock who imitated Tingley’s voice over the telephone. I can’t prove anything.”

“Except this.” He shoved his chair back, opened a drawer of his desk, and got something, arose, walked around the end of the desk, and displayed the object in front of Carrie Murphy’s eyes.

“Please look at this carefully, Miss Murphy. As you see, it is a small jar two-thirds full of something. Pasted on it is a plain white label bearing the notation in pencil, ‘Eleven dash fourteen dash Y.’ Does that mean anything to you? Does that ‘Y’ stand for Yates? Look at it—”

But Carrie had no chance to give it a thorough inspection, let alone pronounce a verdict. The figure of Miss Yates, from eight feet away, came hurtling through the air. She uttered no sound, but flung herself with such unexpected speed and force that the fingers of her outstretched hand, missing what they were after, nearly poked Wolfe’s eye out. He grabbed for her wrist but missed it, and then the dick was out of his chair and had her. He got her from behind by her upper arms and had her locked.

She stood, not trying to struggle, looked at Wolfe, who had backed away, and squeaked at him, “Where was it?”

He told her...

We were sitting down to a dinner that was worthy of the name when the doorbell rang. I went to answer it.

The pair that entered certainly needed a tonic. Leonard Cliff looked like something peeking out at you from a dark cave. Amy Duncan was pale and puffy, with bloodshot eyes.

“We’ve got to see Mr. Wolfe,” Cliff stated. “We’ve just been talking with a lawyer, and he says—”

“Not interested,” I said brusquely. “Wolfe’s out of the case. Through. Done.”

Amy gasped. Cliff grabbed my arm. “He can’t be! He can’t! Where is he?”

“Eating dinner. And, by the way. I’ve been trying to get you folks on the phone. Some news for you. Miss Yates is under arrest: they just took her away from here. Mr. Wolfe would like to have her prosecuted for feeding him quinine, but the cops prefer to try her for murder. She’s guilty of both.”

“What!”

“What!”

“Yep.” I waved airily. “I got the evidence. It’s all over. You won’t get your pictures in the paper anymore.”

“You mean — she — they — it — we—”

“That’s one way of putting it. I mean, the operation has been brought to a successful conclusion. You’re just ordinary citizens again.”

They stared at me, and then at each other, and then went into a clinch. The condition they were both in, it certainly couldn’t have been merely physical attraction. I stood and regarded them patiently. Pretty soon I cleared my throat. They didn’t pay any attention.

“When you get tired standing up,” I said, “there’s a chair in the office that will hold two. We’ll join you after dinner.”

I returned to help Wolfe with the snipe fired with brandy.

Content

Rex Stout
Bitter End