The Father Hunt

sixth, when I returned to Washington. If you had got

your notebook when I told you to you'd have those dates."

He turned his head and called, "Oscar!" "

The door, the big one, opened and Oscar entered and stood with a hand on the knob.

"Brainless idiots," Jarrett said. "Especially McCray; he

was born an idiot. If they didn't know how and where I

spent that summer they could have found out. Anyone

with a spoonful of brains would have. Oscar, this man's

going and he isn't coming back." He turned and left by

the door he had come in at.,

I was in no mood for another waiting match with Oscar. ^! I moved-out by the big door, down the hall and the corridor, and on out. I damn near forgot my raincoat, but the corner of my eye caught it as I was passing, and I got it. I didn't bother to use it crossing the gravel to the car because the downpour had thinned out to a drizzle.

It was just luck that I didn't get a ticket. I usually hold to sixty on the Taconic and the Saw Mill, but I must have hit at least seventy a dozen times and it was probably a personal record for that route. I suppose the idea was that I wanted to get the driving done so I could start thinking, but evidently one thing kept pushing, because at one point on the Saw Mill I braked down, eased off onto

the grass, got out my notebook, and jotted down the places and dates Jatrett had rattled off. As I bumped back over the curb to the lane I said out loud, "By God, if I can't even trust my memory I'd better quit."

It was exactly eight o'clock when I mounted the stoop of the old brownstone and used my key, and Wolfe was in the dining room. I stuck my head in at the door and said I'd get a bite in the kitchen, and continued to the rear. Fritz, who always eats his evening meal around nine o'clock, was on his stool at the big center table doing something with artichokes. When I entered he crinkled his eyes at me and said, "Ah. You're back on the feet. Have you eaten?"

"No."

"He was worried about you." He left the stool. "As you know, I never worry about you. There's a little mussel bisque-"

"No, thanks. No soup. I want to chew something. Don't tell me he ate a whole duck."

"Oh, no. I knew a man, a Swiss, who ate two ducks." He was at the range, putting on a plate to warm. "Was it a good trip?"

"It was a lousy trip." I was at a cupboard getting out a bottle. "No milk or coffee. I'm going to drink a quart of whisky."

"Not here, Archie. In your room is the place for that. Some carottes Flamande?"