In the Best Families

“He likes to time things right, damn him, I complained. “He likes to make things dramatic. He had someone within range of this house to see the package being delivered, and when I left the front door open and then went and stood on the stoop that showed that the package had been opened, and as soon as he got the word he phoned. Hell, he might even-

I stopped because I saw that I was talking to myself. Wolfe wasn't hearing me.

He still sat gazing at the corner of the blotter. I shut my trap and sat and gazed at him. It was a good five minutes before he spoke.

“Archie, he said, looking at me.

“Yes, sir.

“How many cases have we handled since last July?

“All kinds? Everything? Oh, forty.

“I would have thought more. Very well, say forty. We crossed this man's path inadvertently two years ago, and again last year. He and I both deal with crime, and his net is spread wide, so that may be taken as a reasonable expectation for the future: once a year, or, in one out of every forty cases that come to us, we will run into him. This episode will be repeated. He aimed a thumb at the phone. “That thing will ring, and that confounded voice will presume to dictate to us. If we obey the dictate we will be maintaining this office and our means of livelihood only by his sufferance. If we defy it we shall be constantly in a state of trepidant vigilance, and one or both of us will probably get killed.

Well?

I shook my head. “It couldn't be made plainer. I don't care much for either one.

“Neither do I.

“If you got killed I'd be out of a job, and if I got killed you might as well retire. I glanced at my wrist-watch. “The hell of it is we haven't got a week to decide. It's twelve-twenty, and I'm expected at the Hillside Kennels at three o'clock, and I have to eat lunch and shave and change my clothes. That is, if I go. If I go?

“Precisely. Wolfe sighed. “That's the point. Two years ago, in the Orchard case, I took to myself the responsibility of ignoring this man's threat. Last year, in the Kane case, I did the same. This time I don't want to and I won't.

Basic policy is my affair, I know that, but I am not going to tell you that in order to earn your pay you must go up there today and look at Mr Rackham. If you prefer, you may phone and postpone it, and we'll consider the matter at greater length.

I had my brows raised at him. “I'll be damned. Put it on me, huh?

“Yes. My nerve is gone. If public servants and other respected citizens take orders from this man, why shouldn't I?