In the Best Families

“I told him what had happened. I reported, as fully as I could in the time I had, everything from my arrival here up to then. If the operator listened in you can check with her. I asked if I should limit my talk with the cops to events here and leave the rest for him to tell, and he said no, I should withhold nothing, including all details of Mrs Rackham's talk with him. That was all. As you know, I followed instructions.

“Geez, Dykes said. “Son, it looks like your turn to sweat has come.

Archer ignored him. “And after telling you to withhold nothing from the police,

Wolfe suddenly decides, in the middle of the night, that he has had enough of detective work, sends an ad to a newspaper announcing his retirement, calls on a friend to arrange for the care of his orchids-and what did he do then? I was so engrossed I may have missed something.

“I don't know what he did. He walked out. He disappeared.

I was aware, of course, of how it sounded. It was completely cuckoo. It was all rayon and a yard wide. I damn' near made it even worse by telling them about the sausage and the tear gas, of course without letting on that we knew who had sent it, but realised in time how that would go over in the circumstances. That wouldhave made a hit. But I had to say or do something, and decided to produce evidence, so I reached to my pocket for it.

“He left notes on the table in his bedroom, I said, “for Fritz and Theodore and me. Here's mine.

I handed it to Archer. He read it and passed it to Dykes. Dykes read it twice and returned it to Archer, who stuck it in his pocket.

“Geez, Dykes said again, looking at me in a way I didn't like. “This is really something. I've always thought Nero Wolfe had a lot on the ball, and you too in a way, but this is about the worst I ever saw. Really. He turned to Archer.

“It's plain what happened.

“It certainly is. Archer made a fist. “Goodwin, I don't ask you to tell me.

I'll tell you. When you found Mrs Rackham there dead, you and Leeds agreed on a tale about the visit to Nero Wolfe. Leeds came here to break the news. You went to his place to phone Wolfe and report, both the murder and the tale you and