Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe 18

by Curtains for Three

  “I know the address. What part of him do I look at?”

  “Tell him to stop telephoning me. I want it stopped.”

  “Right. I’ll cut the wires. Then what do I do?”

  “Phone in again and we’ll see.”

  It clicked off. I wriggled off the stool and out of the booth and stood muttering to myself until I noticed that the line of girls on stools at the soda fountain, especially one of them with blue eyes and dimples, was rudely staring at me. I told her distinctly, “Meet me at Tiffany’s ring counter at two o’clock,” and strode out. Since I wouldn’t be able to park within a mile of Forty-seventh and Madison, I decided to leave my car where it was and snare a taxi.

  IX

  One quick look around the Keyes establishment on the twelfth floor was enough to show where a good slice of the profits had gone, unless that was what Pohl’s hundred grand had been used for. Panels of four kinds of blond wood made up both the walls and ceiling, and the furniture matched. The seats of the chairs for waiting callers were upholstered in blue and black super-burlap, and you had to watch yourself on the rugs not to twist an ankle. Everywhere, in glass cases against the walls, on pedestals scattered around, and on platforms and tables, were models of almost anything you could think of, from fountain pens to airplanes.

  When a woman with pink earrings learned that I sought Mr. Pohl she gave me a wary and reproachful look, but she functioned. After a little delay I was waved through a door and found myself at the end of a long wide corridor. There was no one in sight and I had been given no directions, so it was a case of hide and seek. The best opening move seemed to be to walk down the corridor, so I started, glancing into open doors on either side as I passed. The same scale of interior architecture seemed to prevail throughout, with wide variations in style and color. At the fourth door on the right I saw him, and he called to me, simultaneously.

  “Come in, Goodwin!”

  I entered. It was a big room with three wide windows, and at a quick glance appeared to be the spot where they had really decided to spread themselves. The rugs were white and the walls were black, and the enormous desk that took all of one end was either ebony or call in an expert. The chair behind the desk, in which Pohl was seated, was likewise.

  “Where’s Wolfe?” Pohl demanded.

  “Where he always is,” I replied, negotiating rugs. “At home, sitting down.”

  He was scowling at me. “I thought he was with you. When I phoned him a few minutes ago he intimated that he might be. He’s not coming?”

  “No. Never. I’m glad you phoned him again because, as he told you this morning in my hearing, he’ll need the cooperation of all of you.”

  “He’ll get mine,” Pohl stated grimly. “Since he’s not coming for it himself, I suppose I ought to give this to you.” He took papers from his breast pocket, looked through them, selected one and held it out. I stepped to the desk to take it.

  It was a single sheet, with “Memo from Sigmund Keyes” on it, printed fancy, and scrawled in ink was a list of towns:

  Dayton, Ohio Aug. 11 & 12

  Boston Aug. 21

  Los Angeles Aug. 27 to Sept. 5

  Meadville, Pa. Sept. 15

  Pittsburgh Sept. 16 & 17

  Chicago Sept. 24–26

  Philadelphia Oct. 1

  “Much obliged,” I thanked him, and stuck it in my pocket. “Covers a lot of country.”

  Pohl nodded. “Talbott gets around, and he’s a good salesman, I admit that. Tell Wolfe I did just as he said, and I got it out of a record right here in Keyes’ desk, so no one knows anything about it. Those are all the out-of-town trips Talbott has made since August first. I have no idea what Wolfe wants it for, but by God it shows he’s on the job, and whoever does know what a detective is after? I don’t give a damn how mysterious it is as long as I can help him get Talbott.”

  I had an eye cocked at him, trying to decide whether he was really as naïve as he sounded. It gave me one on Wolfe, knowing that he had tried to keep Pohl away from a phone by giving him work to do, and here Pohl had cleaned it up in no time at all and was ready to ask for more. But instead of asking Wolfe for more, he asked me. He shot it at me.

  “Go out and get me some sandwiches and coffee. There’s a place on Forty-sixth Street, Perrine’s.”

  I sat down. “That’s funny, I was about to ask you to get me some. I’m tired and hungry. Let’s go together.”

  “How the hell can I?” he demanded.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I might not be able to get in again. This is Keyes’ room, but Keyes is dead, and I own part of this business and I’ve got a right here! Dorothy has tried to chase me out—damn her, she used to sit on my lap! I want certain information, and she has ordered the staff not to give me any. She threatened to get the police to put me out, but she won’t do that. She’s had enough of the police this last week.” Pohl was scowling at me. “I prefer corned beef, and the coffee black, no sugar.”

  I grinned at his scowl. “So you’re squatting. Where’s Dorothy?”

  “Down the hall, in Talbott’s room.”

  “Is Talbott there?”

  “No, he hasn’t been in today.”

  I glanced at my wrist and saw twenty minutes past one. I stood up. “Rye with mustard?”

  “No. White bread and nothing on it—no butter.”

  “Okay. On one condition, that you promise not to phone Mr. Wolfe. If you did you’d be sure to tell him that you got what he’s after, and I want to surprise him with it.”

  He said he wouldn’t, and that he wanted two sandwiches and plenty of coffee, and I departed. Two men and a woman who were standing in the corridor, talking, inspected me head to foot as I passed but didn’t try to trip me, and I went on out to the elevators, descended, and got directed to a phone booth in the lobby.

  Orrie Cather answered again, and I began to suspect that he and Saul were continuing the pinochle game with Wolfe.

  “I’m on my way,” I told Wolfe when he was on, “to get corned-beef sandwiches for Pohl and me but I’ve got a plan. He promised not to phone you while I’m gone, and if I don’t go back he’s stuck. He has installed himself in Keyes’ room, which you ought to see, against Dorothy’s protests, and intends to stay. Been there all day. What shall I do, come home or go to a movie?”

  “Has Mr. Pohl had lunch?”

  “Certainly not. That’s what the sandwiches are for.”

  “Then you’ll have to take them to him.”

  I remained calm because I knew he meant it from his heart, or at least his stomach. He couldn’t bear the idea of even his bitterest enemy missing a meal.

  “All right,” I conceded, “and I may get a tip. By the way, that trick you tried didn’t work. Right away he found a record of Talbott’s travels in Keyes’ desk and copied it off on a sheet from Keyes’ memo pad. I’ve got it in my pocket.”

  “Read it to me.”

  “Oh, you can’t wait.” I got the paper out and read the list of towns and dates to him. Twice he said I was going too fast, so apparently he was taking it down. When that farce was over I asked, “After I feed him, then what?”

  “Call in again when you’ve had your lunch.”

  I banged the thing on the hook.

  X

  They were good sandwiches. The beef was tender and full of hot salty sap, with just the right amount of fat, and the bread had some character. I was a little short on milk, having got only a pint, but stretched it out. In between bites we discussed matters, and I made a mistake. I should of course have told Pohl nothing whatever, especially since the more I saw of him the less I liked him, but the sandwiches were so good that I got careless and let it out that as far as I knew no attack had been made on the phone girl and the waiter at the Hotel Churchill. Pohl was determined to phone Wolfe immediately to utter a howl, and in order to stop him I had to tell him that Wolfe had other men on the case and I didn’t know who or what they were covering.

  I was a
bout to phone myself when the door opened and Dorothy Keyes and Victor Talbott walked in.

  I stood up. Pohl didn’t.

  “Hello hello,” I said cheerfully. “Nice place you have here.”

  Neither of them even nodded to me. Dorothy dropped into a chair against a wall, crossed her legs, and turned her gaze on Pohl with her chin in the air.

  Talbott marched over to us at the ebony desk, stopped at my elbow, and told Pohl, “You know damn well you’ve got no right here, going through things and trying to order the staff around. You have no right here at all. I’ll give you one minute to get out.”

  “You’ll give me?” Pohl sounded nasty and looked nasty. “You’re a paid employee, and you won’t be that long, and I’m part owner, and you say you’ll give me! Trying to order the staff around, am I? I’m giving the staff a chance to tell the truth, and they’re doing it. Two of them have spent an hour in a lawyer’s office, getting it on paper. A complaint has been sworn against Broadyke for receiving stolen goods, and he’s been arrested by now.”

  Talbott said, “Get out,” without raising his voice.

  Pohl, not moving, said, “And I might also mention that a complaint has been sworn against you for stealing the goods. The designs you sold to Broadyke. Are you going to try to alibi that too?”

  Talbott’s jaw worked a couple of seconds before it let his lips open for speech. His teeth stayed together as he said, “You can leave now.”

  “Or I can stay. I’ll stay.” Pohl was sneering, and it made his network of face creases deeper. “You may have noticed I’m not alone.”

  I didn’t care for that. “Just a minute,” I put in. “I’ll hold your coats, and that’s all. Don’t count on me, Mr. Pohl. I’m strictly a spectator, except for one thing, you haven’t paid me for your sandwiches and coffee. Ninety-five cents before you go, if you’re going.”

  “I’m not going. It’s different here from what it was in the park that morning, Vic. There’s a witness.”

  Talbott took two quick steps, used a foot to shove the big ebony chair back free of the desk, made a grab in the neighborhood of Pohl’s throat, got his necktie, and jerked him out of the chair. Pohl came forward and tried to come up at the same time, but Talbott, moving fast, kept going with him, dragging him around the corner of the desk.

  I had got upright and backed off, not to be in the way.

  Suddenly Talbott went down, flat on his back, an upflung hand gripping a piece of the necktie. Pohl was not very springy, even for his age, but he did his best. He scrambled to his feet, started yelling, “Help! Police! Help!” at the top of his voice, and seized the chair I had been sitting on and raised it high. His idea was to drop it on the prostrate enemy, and my leg muscles tightened for quick action, but Talbott leaped up and yanked the chair away from him. Pohl ran. He scooted around behind the desk, and Talbott went after him. Pohl, yelling for help again, slid around the other end, galloped across the room to a table which held a collection of various objects, picked up an electric iron, and threw it. Missing Talbott, who dodged, it crashed onto the ebony desk and knocked the telephone to the floor. Apparently having an iron thrown at him made Talbott mad, for when he reached Pohl, instead of trying to get a hold on something more substantial than a necktie, he hauled off and landed on his jaw, in spite of the warning I had given him the day before.

  “Off of that, you!” a voice boomed.

  Glancing to the right, I saw two things: first, that Dorothy, still in her chair, hadn’t even uncrossed her legs, and second, that the law who had entered was not a uniformed pavement man but a squad dick I knew by sight. Evidently he had been somewhere around the premises, but it was the first I had seen of him.

  He crossed to the gladiators. “This is no way to act,” he declared.

  Dorothy, moving swiftly, was beside him. “This man,” she said, indicating Pohl, “forced his way in here and was told to leave but wouldn’t. I am in charge of this place and he has no right here. I want a charge against him for trespassing or disturbing the peace or whatever it is. He tried to kill Mr. Talbott with a chair and then with that iron he threw at him.”

  I, having put the phone back on the desk, had wandered near, and the law gave me a look.

  “What were you doing, Goodwin, trimming your nails?”

  “No, sir,” I said respectfully, “it was just that I didn’t want to get stepped on.”

  Talbott and Pohl were both speaking at once.

  “I know, I know,” the dick said, harassed. “Ordinarily, with people like you, I would feel that the thing to do was to sit down and discuss it, but with what happened to Keyes things are different from ordinary.” He appealed to Dorothy. “You say you’re making a charge, Miss Keyes?”

  “I certainly am.”

  “So am I,” Talbott stated.

  “Then that’s that. Come along with me, Mr. Pohl.”

  “I’m staying here.” Pohl was still panting. “I have a right here and I’m staying here.”

  “No, you’re not. You heard what the lady said.”

  “Yes, but you didn’t hear what I said. I was assaulted.

  She makes a charge. So do I. I was sitting quietly in a chair, not moving, and Talbott tried to strangle me, and he struck me. Didn’t you see him strike me?”

  “It was in self-defense,” Dorothy declared. “You threw an iron—”

  “To save my life! He assaulted—”

  “All I did—”

  “Hold it,” the law said curtly. “Under the circumstances you can’t talk yourselves into anything with me. You men will come along with me, both of you. Where’s your hats and coats?”

  They went. First they used up more breath on words and gestures, but they went, Pohl in the lead, with only half a necktie, Talbott next, and the law in the rear.

  Thinking I might as well tidy up a little, I went and righted the chair Pohl had tried to use, then retrieved the iron and put it back on the table, and then examined the beautiful surface of the desk to see how much damage had been done.

  “I suppose you’re a coward, aren’t you?” Dorothy inquired.

  She had sat down again, in the same chair, and crossed the same legs. They were all right; I had no kick coming there.

  “It’s controversial,” I told her, “It was on the Town Meeting of the Air last week. With a midget, if he’s unarmed, I’m as brave as a lion. Or with a woman. Try picking on me. But with—” A buzz sounded.

  “The phone,” Dorothy said.

  I pulled it to me and got the receiver to my ear.

  “Is Miss Keyes there?”

  “Yes,” I said, “she’s busy sitting down. Any message?”

  “Tell her Mr. Donaldson is here to see her.”

  I did so, and for the first time saw an expression that was unquestionably human on Dorothy’s face. At sound of the name Donaldson all trace of the brow-lifter vanished. Muscles tightened all over and color went. She may or may not have been what she had just called me, I didn’t know because I had never seen or heard of Donaldson, but she sure was scared stiff.

  I got tired waiting and repeated it. “Mr. Donaldson is here to see you.”

  “I—” She wet her lips. In a moment she swallowed. In another moment she stood up, said in a voice not soft at all, “Tell her to send him to Mr. Talbott’s room,” and went.

  I forwarded the command as instructed, asked for an outside line, and, when I heard the dial tone, fingered the number. My wrist watch said five past three, and it stopped my tongue for a second when once more I heard Orrie’s voice.

  “Archie,” I said shortly. “Let me speak to Saul.”

  “Saul? He’s not here. Been gone for hours.”

  “Oh, I thought it was a party. Then Wolfe.”

  Wolfe’s voice came. “Yes, Archie?”

  “I’m in Keyes’ office, sitting at his desk. I’m alone. I brought Pohl his lunch, and he owes me ninety-five cents. It just occurred to me that I’ve seen you go to great lengths to keep your cli
ents from being arrested. Remember the time you buried Clara Fox in a box of osmundine and turned the hose on her? Or the time—”

  “What about it?”

  “They’re scooping up all the clients, that’s all. Broadyke has been collared for receiving stolen goods—the designs he bought from Talbott. Pohl has been pulled in for disturbing the peace, and Talbott for assault and battery. Not to mention that Miss Keyes has just had the daylights scared out of her.”

  “What are you talking about? What happened?”

  I told him and, since he had nothing to do but sit and let Orrie answer the phone for him, I left nothing out. When I was through I offered the suggestion that it might be a good plan for me to stick around and find out what it was about Mr. Donaldson that made young women tremble and turn pale at sound of his name.

  “No, I think not,” Wolfe said, “unless he’s a tailor. Just find out if he’s a tailor, but discreetly. No disclosure. If so, get his address. Then find Miss Rooney—wait, I’ll give you her address—”

  “I know her address.”

  “Find her. Get her confidence. Get alone with her. Loosen up her tongue.”

  “What am I after—no, I know what I’m after. What are you after?”

  “I don’t know. Anything you can get. Confound it, you know what a case like this amounts to, there’s nothing for it but trial and error—”

  Movement over by the door had caught my eye, and I focused on it. Someone had entered and was approaching me.

  “Okay,” I told Wolfe. “There’s no telling where she is, but I’ll find her if it takes all day and all night.” I hung up and grinned at the newcomer and greeted her.

  “Hello, Miss Rooney. Looking for me?”

  XI

  Annie Audrey was all dressed up in a neat brown wool dress with red threads showing on it in little knots, but she didn’t look pleased with herself or with anyone else. You wouldn’t think a face with all that pink skin could look so sour. With no greeting, not even a nod, she demanded as she approached, “How do you get to see a man that’s been arrested?”

  “That depends,” I told her. “Don’t snap at me like that. I didn’t arrest him. Who do you want to see, Broadyke?”