Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe 19 by Murder by the Book Page A

ahead.”
    Wolfe nodded. “That’s why I needed to see you. This is February twenty-seventh. Dykes was fished out of the water on New Year’s Day. He had been murdered. The police rarely skimp on a murder, and the law office where Dykes worked assuredly saw a great deal of them. Mr. Goodwin has been permitted to see the file.People there were even asked then about Baird Archer, along with the other names on that list Dykes had written. Dykes had few intimacies or interests outside the office where he worked. Then, eight days ago, I showed the police that the name of Baird Archer connected Dykes’s death with that of your daughter, and of course they again went after the people in that law office and are still after them. All possible questions have probably been asked, not once but over and over, of those people. It would be useless for me to open an inquiry there in the conventional manner. They wouldn’t even listen to my questions, let alone answer them.”
    Wellman was concentrating. “You’re saying you can’t do it.”
    “No. I’m saying the approach must be oblique. Young women work in law offices. Mr. Goodwin may have his equal in making the acquaintance of a young woman and developing it into intimacy, but I doubt it. We can try that. However, it will be expensive, it will probably be protracted, and it may be futile—for your purpose and mine. If there were only one young woman and we knew she had information for us, it would be simple, but there may be a dozen or more. There’s no telling what it will cost, or how long it will take, or whether we’ll get anything. That’s why I had to ask you, shall we try it or do you want to quit?”
    Wellman’s reaction was peculiar. He had been concentrating on Wolfe, to be sure he got it clear, but now he had shifted to me, and his look was strange. He wasn’t exactly studying me, but you might have thought I had suddenly grown an extra nose or had snakes in my hair. I sent my brows up. He turned to Wolfe.
    “Do you mean—” He cleared his throat. “I guess it’s a good thing you asked me. After what I said here that day you have a right to think I would stand for anything,but that’s a little too—with my money—a dozen young women—first one and then another like that—”
    “What the devil are you suggesting?” Wolfe demanded.
    I not only kept my face straight, I stepped in, for three good reasons: we needed the business, I wanted to get a look at Baird Archer, and I did not want John R. Wellman to go back and tell Peoria that New York detectives debauched stenographers wholesale on order.
    “You misunderstand,” I told Wellman. “Much obliged for the compliment, but by intimacy Mr. Wolfe meant holding hands. He’s right that sometimes I seem to get along with young women, but it’s because I’m shy and they like that. I like what you said about its being your money. You’ll have to take my word for it. If things start developing beyond what I think you would approve, I’ll either remember it’s your money and back off or I’ll take off of the expense account all items connected with that subject.”
    “I’m not a prude,” Wellman protested.
    “This is farcical!” Wolfe bellowed.
    “I’m not a prude,” Wellman insisted manfully, “but I don’t know those young women. I know this is New York, but some of them may be virgins.”
    “Absolutely possible,” I agreed. I reproved Wolfe. “Mr. Wellman and I understand each other. His money is not to be used beyond a certain point, and he’ll take my word for it. That right, Mr. Wellman?”
    “I guess that’ll do,” he conceded. Meeting my eyes, he decided his glasses needed cleaning, removed them, and wiped them with his handkerchief. “Yes, that’ll do.”
    Wolfe snorted. “There is still my question. The expense, the time it will take, the slender prospect of success. Also it will be in effect an investigation of thedeath of Leonard Dykes, not of your daughter. The approach