In the Best Families

He made a noise that could have been a chuckle. “That's more like it, he said, not sarcastically. “You're beginning to sound natural. I'll tell you. I'm here at the request of Ben Dykes, who would give all his teeth and one ear to clear up the Rackham case ahead of the state boys. He thinks that Archer, the D.A., may have swallowed the idea that you and Leeds are lying too deep, and he came to me as an expert on Nero Wolfe, which God knows I am. He laid it all out for me and wanted my opinion.

He shifted the cigar to a new angle. “The way it looked to me, there were three possibilities. First, the one that Archer has sold himself on, that you and

Leeds are lying, and that what Mrs Rackham really told Wolfe when she came here, together with her getting murdered the next day, somehow put Wolfe on a spot that was too hot for him, and he scooted, after fixing with you to cover as well as you could. I told Dykes I would rule that out, for various reasons-chiefly because neither you nor Wolfe would risk that much on a set-up that depended on a stranger like Leeds sticking to a lie. Shall I analyse it more?

“No, thanks, that'll do.

“I thought so. Next, the possibility that when you phoned Wolfe right after the body was found you told him something that gave him a line on the murderer, but it's tricky and he had to go outdoors to get his evidence, preparing to grandstand it for the front page.I told Dykes I would rule that out too. Wolfe is quite capable of a play like that, sure he is, but if that's all it amounted to, why move the plants out and put Fritz to work in a restaurant and list the house for sale? He's colourful, but not that colourful. Mrs Rackham only paid him ten thousand, about what I make a year. Why should he spend it having his orchids carted around?

Cramer shook his head. “Not for my money. That leaves the third possibility: that something really did scare him. That there was something about Mrs Rackham's murder, or anyhow connected with it, that he knew he couldn't handle sitting there in that chair, but for some reason he had to handle it. So he scooted. As you say, you either don't know where he is or you know and won't tell-and that's no help either way. Now I've got a lot to say about this possibility. You got time to listen?

“I've got all day but Fritz isn't here to get our lunch.

“We'll go without. He clasped his hands behind his head and shifted his centre of gravity. “You know, Archie, sometimes I'm not as far behind as you think I am.