The Father Hunt

fingerprints didn't match we were left with a Grade A mess and no way on earth of making a neat package of it to deliver to the client; if they did match we could take our pick of three or four different ways to play it and they all looked good. So I expected, and although I opened the mail and gave it a look before putting it under the chunk of jade on Wolfe's desk, I had no clear idea what was in it. One thing, not in the mail, did get some real attention. Saul and I had decided that we almost certainly had enough without lifting the prints from the red leather chair. We had got bed sheets from the closet and draped them over it, and there it was, and it looked pretty silly. I removed the sheets, folded them, and put them back in the closet. What the hell, as Amy's father would say, I was there on guard. Returning to the office, I looked at my watch for about the tenth time since breakfast, saw that it was 10:38, and decided it was time to consider it calmly and realistically. To begin with, if the prints didn't match there was nothing to expect. Some detective second grade would phone in a day or two to tell me to come and get the junk I had left there. If they did match the best guess was that Lieutenant Rowcliff or Sergeant Steb-bins would phone around two or three o'clock and tell me they wanted me there quick. Or possibly-

The doorbell rang and I went to the hall and saw Cramer and Stebbins on the stoop.

Ordinarily the sight of a pair of cops wanting in doesn't scatter my wits, but as I started for the front I had room in my skull for only one item: the beautiful fact that the prints had matched and Floyd Vance had murdered Elinor Denovo. I should have realized that their coming twenty minutes before eleven o'clock, when they knew Wolfe wouldn't be available, showed that it would take handling. Before I opened up I should have put the chain bolt on, holding the door to a two-inch crack, since it would have taken a warrant to open it legally and they wouldn't have one, and we could discuss the situation. But I was so glad to see them that I swung the door wide, and I was probably showing my teeth in a big grin of welcome. If so, it soon went. They came in fast, Stebbins' shoulder jostling me as he passed, headed for the rear, and started up the stairs.