The Father Hunt

"That belongs to Miss Denovo," I said. "I assume that Mr. Hotchkiss told you that I work for Nero Wolfe. Miss Denovo has engaged Mr. Wolfe's services, and I'm here for her. That's two hundred and forty-four thousand dollars, all in centuries. Miss Denovo would like to have twelve bank checks for twenty grand each, payable to her, and the remaining four grand deposited in her account."

"Certainly," he said. He looked at her and back at me. "That's quite a… quite a… certainly. Do you want… it will take a while, a little while-counting it and making out the checks."

I nodded. "Sure. Certainly. Anyway, if you're not too busy, we'd like to discuss something with you."

"Cer-I'll be glad to, Mr. Goodwin." His hand started for the phone on the desk, but he changed his mind. He closed the lid of the box, tucked it under his arm, said he would be back soon, and went.

When the door was shut Amy asked, "What's he going to do?"

"His duty," I said. "The slogan of this bank is: the

bank you can bank on. You have crossed and uncrossed your ankles three times. Relax."

What "soon" means depends on the circumstances. For there and then I would have supposed about five minutes, but twelve had passed when the door opened and At-wood entered, closed the door, crossed to his desk, and sat. He looked at me, then at her, and back at me, trying to decide which one the bank wanted to bank on it "It will take a little while," he said. "You wanted to discuss something?"

"Right," I said. "Of course a bank is choosy about handing out information about its customers, but I am speaking for Miss Denovo. Her mother had an account here for nine years. Naturally, when you saw what was in that box you wondered where it came from. We think a lot of it came from your bank."

He gawked at me. A banker shouldn't gawk, but he did. He opened his mouth, shut it, and opened it again to say, "I'll ask you to explain that statement, Mr. Goodwin."