Might as Well Be Dead

At half-past four I went to answer the doorbell, and there was the predicament on the stoop. I didn’t know it was the predicament; I thought it was just our client, James R. Herold of Omaha, coming for a progress report; so I swung the door wide and welcomed him and took his things and ushered him to the office and moved a chair so he would be facing me. I told him on the way that Wolfe wouldn’t be available until six o’clock but I was at his service. I admit that with the light from the window on his face I should have guessed he hadn’t come merely for a report. He looked, as he hadn’t before, like a man in trouble. His thin straight mouth was now tight and drawn, and his eyes were more dead than alive. He spoke. “I’d rather see Wolfe but I guess you’ll do. I want to pay him to date, the expenses. I’d like to have an itemized account. Lieutenant Murphy has found my son, and I’ve seen him. I won’t object if you want to add a small fee to the expenses.”

At least I know a predicament when it pushes my nose in. When a man as pigheaded as Wolfe has ironclad rules he’s stuck with them. If I went upstairs to him and broke the news there wasn’t a chance. He would tell me to tell Herold that he would like to discuss the matter and would be down at six o’clock; and it was ten to one, and clear from the look on Herold’s face and the tone of his voice, that he wouldn’t wait. He would say we could mail him a bill and up and go.

So I stood up. “About the fee,” I said, “I wouldn’t want to decide that. That’s up to Mr. Wolfe. Come along and we’ll see what he says. This way.”

I used the elevator instead of the stairs because the noise it made would notify Wolfe that something drastic was happening. Pushing the button to bring it down, entering with the ex-client and pushing the button marked R for roof, my mind wasn’t on the predicament at all, it was on Murphy. If I had had him there I wouldn’t have said a word. I wouldn’t have bothered with words. As we stopped at the top and the door slid open I told Herold, “I’ll lead the way, if you don’t mind.”