The Rubber Band

I stood up. "Sorry, Mr. Horrocks. Do you really have to go? I hope you find Miss Fox. Tell the Marquis of Clivers-"

He sat tight, shook his head again, and frowned. "Damn it all. I dislike this, really. I've never set eyes on you before. What? I've never seen this Mr. Wolfe. Could Miss Fox have been under duress when she was telephoning? You see the possibility, of course. Setting my mind at rest and all that. If you put me out, it will really be necessary for me to tell those policemen outside that Miss Fox telephoned me from this address at nine o'clock this morning. Also I should have to take the precaution of finding a telephone at once to repeat the information to your police headquarters. What?"

I stared down at him, and I admit he was too much for me. Whether he was deep and desperate or dumb and determined I didn't know. I said, "Wait here. Mr. Wolfe will have to know about you. Kindly stay in this room."

I left him there and went to the kitchen and told Fritz to stand in the hall, and if an Englishman emerged from the office, yodel. Then I bounced up two Sights to the south room, called not too loud, and, when I heard the key rum, opened the door and entered. Clara Fox stood and brushed her hair back and looked at me half alarmed and half hopeful.

I said, "What time this morning did you phone that guy Francis Horrocks?"

She stared. It got her. She swallowed. "But I-he-he promised…"

"So you did phone him. Swell. You forgot to mention it when I asked you about it a while ago."

"But you didn't ask me if I had phoned."

"Oh, didn't I? Now that was careless." I threw up my hands. "To hell with it. Suppose you tell me what you phoned him about. I hope it wasn't a secret."

"No, it wasn't." She came a step to me. "Must you be so sarcastic? There was nothing… it was just personal."

"As for instance?"

"Why, it was really nothing. Of course, he sent those roses. Then… I had had an engagement to dine with him Monday evening, and when I made the appointment with Mr. Wolfe I had to cancel the one with Mr. Horrocks, and when he insisted I thought that three hours would be enough with Mr. Wolfe, so I told Mr. Horrocks I would go with him at ten o'clock to dance somewhere, and probably he went to the apartment and waited around there I don't know how long, and this morning I supposed he would keep phoning there and of course there would be no answer, and he couldn't get me at the office either, and besides, I hadn't thanked him for the roses-"