Over My Dead Body

Driscoll nodded. Then he shook his head. "I don't know. Good God-she didn't tell me about Faber. She said…" He flung out his hands. "Damn it, she appealed to me! She swore she had nothing to do with-Ludlow-but she didn't need to! She has been damn fine with me down there-that fencing-greatest pleasure I ever had in my life-she has been damn fine and understanding! She is a very fine young woman! I would be proud to have her for a sister, and I've told her so! Or daughter! Daughter would be better! She came here and appealed to me to help her get away from trouble; and, by God, I was doing it; and I didn't consult any lawyer either! And, by God, I'll still do it! Do you realize that she appealed to me? I don't care if her apartment was as full of dead bodies as the morgue, that young woman is no damn murderess!"

"I understand," said the secretary with ice still in her voice-box, "that it is perfectly legal to help anyone go anywhere they want to, provided they have not commited a crime."

"I don't give a damn," Driscoll declared, "whether it's legal or not! To hell with legal!"

"Okay." I pushed a palm at him. "Don't yell so loud. The point-"

"I want you to understand-"

"Pipe down! I understand everything. You're a hero. Skip it. Here's the way it stands. You can't go ahead and send her on a world cruise, because to begin with you don't stand a chance of getting her out of here and away, and to end with I won't let you. Nero Wolfe wants to see her. Whatever Nero Wolfe wants he gets, or he has a tantrum and I get fired. I have no idea whether she's a very fine young woman or a murderess or what, but I do know that the next thing on her programme is a talk with Nero Wolfe, and I'm in charge of the programme."

"I suppose," said the secretary crushingly, "that you stand a chance of getting her out of here."

"Chance is right," I agreed grimly. "May I use your phone?"

She pushed it across the desk and I asked the ante-room employee to get me a number. In a moment I had the connexion.

"Hallo. Hotel Alexander? Let me talk to Ernie Flint, the house detective."

In two minutes I had him.