Before Midnight

"Right. Since expenses are on the house it wouldn't cost you anything to get Saul and Fred and Orrie and Johnny and Bill and hang tails on them, but with four of them living at the Churchill it would be a hell of a job-"

"Useless. If anything is to be learned by that kind of routine the police will get it long before we can. They probably--"

The phone rang. I got it at my desk, heard a deep gruff voice that needed filing, an old familiar voice, asked it to hold on, and told Wolfe that Sergeant Purley Stebbins wished to speak to him. He reached for his instrument, and since I am supposed to stay on unless I am told not to, I did so.

"This is Nero Wolfe, Mr. Stebbins. How do you do."

"So-so. I'd like to drop in to see you-say three o'clock?"

"I'm sorry, I'll be engaged."

"Three-thirty?"

"I'll still be engaged."

"Well… I guess it can wait until six. Make it six o'clock?"

Purley knew that Wolfe's schedule, four to six up in the plant rooms, might be changed for an H-bomb, but nothing much short of that.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stebbins, but I'll have no time today or this evening. Perhaps you can tell me--"

"Sure, I can tell you. Just a little friendly talk, that's all. I want to get your slant on a murder case."

"I have no slant on any murder case."

"No? Then why the hell--" He bit it off. He went on, "Look, I know you and you know me. I'm no fancy dancer. But how about this, at half-past twelve a woman named Gertrude Frazee entered your premises and as far as I know she's still there. And you have no slant on the murder of a man named Louis Dahlmann? Tell it to Goodwin. I'm not trying to get a piece of hide, I just want to come and ask you some questions. Six o'clock?"

"Mr. Stebbins." Wolfe was controlling himself. "I have no commission to investigate the murder of Louis Dahlmann, or any other. On past occasions you and your associates have resented my presumption in undertaking to invesitgate a homicide. You have bullied me and harried me. When I offend again I shall expect you upon me again, but this time I am not invading your territory, so for heaven's sake let me alone."

He hung up and so did I, synchronizing with him. I spoke. "I admit that was neat and a chance not to be passed up, but wait till he tells Cramer."

"I know." He sounded better. "Is the chain bolt on?"

I went to the hall to make sure, and then to the kitchen to tell Fritz we were under siege.

Chapter 5