Before Midnight

"He's engaged," I said, "and if I disengage him for a phone call it would have to be good. Can't you use me for a relay?"

"I want to ask him if he's made any progress."

"If he has it's in his head. He told you he would report later this evening. He has seen Miss Frazee and Mrs. Wheelock. How about the others?"

"That's why I'm calling. Susan Tescher will be there at six, and Harold Rollins at seven, but Younger can't come. He's in bed at the hotel with heart flutters. They sent him up from the District Attorney's office in an ambulance. He wouldn't go to a hospital. My doctor saw him and says it's not serious, but he's staying in bed until the doctor sees him tomorrow."

I said I'd tell Wolfe and got the number of Younger's room. After I hung up I got at the house phone and buzzed the plant rooms, and in a minute Wolfe's voice blurted at me, "Well?"

"O'Garro just phoned. One's coming at six and one at seven, but at the DA's office Philip Younger's heart began to flutter and he's at the hotel in bed. Shall I go up and sit with him?"

"You must be back by six o'clock."

I said I would and the connection went.

There was a slight problem. Years before, after a certain episode, I had made myself promise that I would never go on any errand connected with a murder case without a gun, but this wasn't a murder case by the terms agreed upon. The job was to nail a thief. I decided that was quibbling, got my shoulder holster from the drawer and put it on, got the Marley.32 and loaded it and slipped it into the holster, went to the hall, and called to Fritz to come and bolt the door after me.

Chapter 6

It was safe to assume that the floor clerk on the eighteenth floor of the Churchill would be stubborn about it, since journalists were certainly stalking the quintet, so I anticipated her by first finding Tim Evarts, the hotel's first assistant security officer, not to be called a house dick, who owed me a little courtesy from past events. He obliged by phoning her, after I promised to set no fires and find no corpses, and all she did was look at both sides of my card and one side of me and wave me on.