Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

I stayed put. It would have been a shame to spoil such a good exit line. When I heard the front door open and close I went to the hall for a look, to see that he had been outside when he shut it, then stepped back into the office and considered a matter. Should Jill Hardy be there in the red leather chair when Wolfe came down? If I left her in the front room and reported, almost certainly he would refuse to see her, and of course he should. It would be eleven o'clock in three minutes. I decided to bring her in, went and opened the door and crossed the sill, and looked around at an empty room. She had exited without a line, by the door to the hall. I went and looked at the rack; her coat was gone. The house phone buzzed in the office, and I went and got it. It was Wolfe, in the plant rooms, wanting to know if she had gone, and I told him yes, and in a minute the sound came of the elevator grumbling its way down. He entered, in his hand the daily orchids for his desk – a panicle of Odonto-glossum hellemense, which, according to the records I keep, is a cross of harvengtense and crispum. A stunner if you feel like orchids, which I didn't just then. I sat and simmered as he put them in the vase, got settled in his chair, and glanced through the mail. When he finished with a letter from a man upstate who sends deer meat, the only important item, I said, rather loud, "Miss Kerr kept a diary."

He put the letter down, looked up, regarded me for half a minute, and asked, "How did you pry it out of him?"

"Out of who?"

"Mr. Cramer, of course."

I stared. "To see the street from up there you have to stick your head way out."

"I never have. But he would certainly come, and soon, and who else could supply such a particular? How did you pry it out of him?"

"All right, I'll report." I did so, starting with Jill Hardy. Sometimes, reporting a conversation, it's essential to give it verbatim, but even when it isn't I do it anyway because that's how I have trained and it's easier. As usual, he leaned back with his eyes closed. I went right on through, from Jill Hardy on to Cramer, since there had been no break, just a change of cast. When I finished he opened his eyes halfway, closed them again, and muttered, "Nothing."