Might as Well Be Dead

From his perch on the stool Herold had him more in profile than full-face. He watched for four pots and then spoke. “I haven’t fired you. I didn’t know what the situation was. I don’t now, and I want to.”

Wolfe asked, not turning, “You want me to go on?”

“Yes. His mother is coming.”

“Very well. Archie, take Mr. Herold to the office and tell him about it. Omit our inference from the contents of Johnny’s pockets. We can’t risk Mr. Cramer’s meddling in that for the present.”

I asked, “Give him everything else?”

“You might as well.”

Getting down off the stool, Herold tripped on his own toe and nearly fell. To give him footwork practice I took him back down by way of the stairs.

He wasn’t much impressed by my outline of the situation, but he had probably had all the impressions he had room for in one day. The guy was in shock. However, when he left we were still hired. He gave me the name of his hotel, and I said we would report any developments. At the door I told him it wouldn’t be a good idea for his wife to come to see Wolfe, because when Wolfe was deep in a case he was apt to forget his manners. I didn’t add that he was apt to forget his manners when he wasn’t deep in a case.

Alone again, I had a notion to try a few phone calls. In discussing an assignment for Orrie we had considered my tail-the party in a tan raglan and a brown snap-brim who had started to stalk me Tuesday afternoon when I left the house to go to the courtroom for a look at Peter Hays. Since there had been no sign of him since, the assumption was that somebody’s curiosity had been aroused by the newspaper ad and he had lost interest after the jury had settled Hays’s hash. We had decided it would be useless to put Orrie on it, since there was nowhere to start, but it wouldn’t do any harm for me to phone a few of the agencies I was acquainted with and chat a little. The chance was slim that one of them had been hired to put a man on me, and slimmer still that they would spill it to me, but things do sometimes slip out in a friendly conversation, and I might as well be trying it as merely sitting on my fanny. I considered it, and decided to hit Del Bascom first, and was just starting to dial when two interruptions came at once. Wolfe came down from the plant rooms and Saul Panzer arrived.