transferred to Wolfe.
You called the turn, he said, when you told Goodwin to phone Miss Devlin. I should have foreseen that. That was dumb.
The phone rang, and I swiveled and got it. Nero Wolfes office, Archie Goodwin speaking.
This is Rattner.
Oh, hello. Keep it down, my ears are sensitive.
Durkin sent me to phone so he could stay on the subject. The subject came out of the house at seven nineteen East Fifty-first Street at eleven forty-one. He was alone. He walked to Lexington and around the corner to a drugstore and is in there now in a phone booth. Im across the street in a restaurant. Any instructions'
Not a thing, thank you. Give my love to the family.
Right.
It clicked off, and I hung up and swiveled back to rejoin the party, but apparently it was over. They were on their feet, and Wengert was turning to go.
Cramer was saying,
… but its not all off the record. I just want that understood.
He turned and followed Wengert out. I saw no point in dashing past them out to the door, since two grown men should be up to turning a knob and pulling, but I stepped to the hall to observe. When they were outside and the door closed I went back in and remarked to Wolfe, Very neat. But what if they had let me phone her'
He made a face. Pfui. If they had got it from her they wouldnt have called on me. They would have sent for you, possibly with a warrant. That was one of the contingencies.
They might have let me phone her anyway.
Unlikely, since that would have disclosed their knowledge - to her and therefore to anyone - and betrayed their informant. But if they had, while she was on her way I would have proceeded with them, and they would have left before she arrived.
I put the yellow chair back in place. All the same Im glad they didnt and so are you. That was Rattner on the phone, reporting for Fred. Heath was with Miss Devlin an hour and four minutes. He left at eleven forty-one and was in a phone booth in a drugstore when Rattner called.
Satisfactory. He picked up his pencil and bent over the crossword puzzle with a little sigh.
June twenty-first is supposed to be the longest day, but this year it was August third. It went on for weeks after Cramer and Wengert left. I spent it all in the office, and it was no fun. There was only one thing that could keep us floating,
but there were a dozen that could sink us. They might lose him. Or he might handle it by phone - most unlikely, but not impossible. Or Wolfe might have it figured entirely wrong; he himself gave it one in twenty. Or Heath might meet him or her some place where they couldnt be nailed. Or a city or federal employee might horn in and ruin it. Or and or and or.
Five bucks an hour had been added to the outgo. If and when the call came that would start me moving, I didnt want to waste any precious minutes or even seconds finding transportation, so Herb Aronson had his taxi parked at the filling station at the corner of Eleventh Avenue, on us. Also he came to us for lunch and again, at seven in the evening, for dinner.
Every time the phone rang and I grabbed it, I wanted it and I didnt. It might be the starting gun, but on the other hand it might be the awful news that they had lost him. Keeping a tail on a guy in New York, especially if he has an important reason for wanting privacy, needs not only great skill but also plenty of luck. We were buying the skill, in Saul and Fred and Orrie, but you cant buy luck.
The luck held, and so did they. There were two more calls from Fred, via Rattner, before two oclock, when he was relieved by Orrie Cather. One was to report that Heath, after calls at an opticians and a bookstore, had entered a restaurant on Forty-fifth Street and was lunching with two men, not known to me as described, and the other was to tell where Orrie could find him. There was still no sign of an official tail.
During the afternoon and early evening there was a series of reports from Orrie.
Heath and his companions left the restaurant at
You called the turn, he said, when you told Goodwin to phone Miss Devlin. I should have foreseen that. That was dumb.
The phone rang, and I swiveled and got it. Nero Wolfes office, Archie Goodwin speaking.
This is Rattner.
Oh, hello. Keep it down, my ears are sensitive.
Durkin sent me to phone so he could stay on the subject. The subject came out of the house at seven nineteen East Fifty-first Street at eleven forty-one. He was alone. He walked to Lexington and around the corner to a drugstore and is in there now in a phone booth. Im across the street in a restaurant. Any instructions'
Not a thing, thank you. Give my love to the family.
Right.
It clicked off, and I hung up and swiveled back to rejoin the party, but apparently it was over. They were on their feet, and Wengert was turning to go.
Cramer was saying,
… but its not all off the record. I just want that understood.
He turned and followed Wengert out. I saw no point in dashing past them out to the door, since two grown men should be up to turning a knob and pulling, but I stepped to the hall to observe. When they were outside and the door closed I went back in and remarked to Wolfe, Very neat. But what if they had let me phone her'
He made a face. Pfui. If they had got it from her they wouldnt have called on me. They would have sent for you, possibly with a warrant. That was one of the contingencies.
They might have let me phone her anyway.
Unlikely, since that would have disclosed their knowledge - to her and therefore to anyone - and betrayed their informant. But if they had, while she was on her way I would have proceeded with them, and they would have left before she arrived.
I put the yellow chair back in place. All the same Im glad they didnt and so are you. That was Rattner on the phone, reporting for Fred. Heath was with Miss Devlin an hour and four minutes. He left at eleven forty-one and was in a phone booth in a drugstore when Rattner called.
Satisfactory. He picked up his pencil and bent over the crossword puzzle with a little sigh.
June twenty-first is supposed to be the longest day, but this year it was August third. It went on for weeks after Cramer and Wengert left. I spent it all in the office, and it was no fun. There was only one thing that could keep us floating,
but there were a dozen that could sink us. They might lose him. Or he might handle it by phone - most unlikely, but not impossible. Or Wolfe might have it figured entirely wrong; he himself gave it one in twenty. Or Heath might meet him or her some place where they couldnt be nailed. Or a city or federal employee might horn in and ruin it. Or and or and or.
Five bucks an hour had been added to the outgo. If and when the call came that would start me moving, I didnt want to waste any precious minutes or even seconds finding transportation, so Herb Aronson had his taxi parked at the filling station at the corner of Eleventh Avenue, on us. Also he came to us for lunch and again, at seven in the evening, for dinner.
Every time the phone rang and I grabbed it, I wanted it and I didnt. It might be the starting gun, but on the other hand it might be the awful news that they had lost him. Keeping a tail on a guy in New York, especially if he has an important reason for wanting privacy, needs not only great skill but also plenty of luck. We were buying the skill, in Saul and Fred and Orrie, but you cant buy luck.
The luck held, and so did they. There were two more calls from Fred, via Rattner, before two oclock, when he was relieved by Orrie Cather. One was to report that Heath, after calls at an opticians and a bookstore, had entered a restaurant on Forty-fifth Street and was lunching with two men, not known to me as described, and the other was to tell where Orrie could find him. There was still no sign of an official tail.
During the afternoon and early evening there was a series of reports from Orrie.
Heath and his companions left the restaurant at
Similar Books
