Wolfe nodded. It may come to that, Saul. Either that or abandon it. Usually, as you know, I merely give you specific assignments, but in this case you will have to be told the situation and the background. We are dealing with the death of a woman named Faith Usher who drank poisoned champagne at the home of Mrs Robert Robilotti. I suppose you have heard of it.
They all had.
Wolfe drank coffee. But you should know all that I know, except the identity of my client. Yesterday morning Archie got a phone call from a man he knows, by name Austin Byne, the nephew of Mrs Robilotti. He asked Archie
Seeing that I could be spared for a while, and thinking it was time for another try at Byne, I got up, circled around the trio, went to the kitchen, and dialled the number on the extension there. After five rings I was thinking I was going to draw a blank again, but then I had a voice saying hallo.
Byne? I asked. Dinky Byne?
Who is this?
Archie Goodwin.
Oh, hallo there. Ive been thinking you might call. To give me hell for getting you into a mess. I dont blame you. Go on and say it.
I could all right, but Ive got another idea. You said youd return the favour some day, and tomorrow is the day. I want to run up to Grantham House and have a talk with someone there, preferably the woman in charge, and theyre probably having too many visitors and wont let me in. So I thought you might say a word for meon the phone, or write a letter I can take, or maybe even go along. How about it?
Silence. Then: What makes you think a word from me would help?
Youre Mrs Robilottis nephew. And I heard somebody say, I forget who, that she has sent you there on errands.
Another silence. What are you after? What do you want to talk about?
Im just curious about something. Some questions the cops have asked me because I was there last night, the mess you got me into, have made me curious.
What questions?
Thats a long story. Also complicated. Just say Im nosy by nature, thats why Im in the detective business. Maybe Im trying to scare up a client. Anyway, Im not asking you to attend a death by poisoning, as you did me, though you didnt know it. I just want you to make a phone call.
I cant, Archie.
No? Why not?
Because Im not in a position to. It wouldnt be It might look as ifI mean
I just cant do it.
Okay, forget it. Ill have to feed some other curiosityIve got plenty. For instance, my curiosity about why you asked me to fill in for you because you had such a cold you could hardly talk when you didnt have a coldat least not the kind you tried to fake, I havent told the cops about that, your faking the cold, so I guess Id better do that and ask them to ask you why. Im curious.
Youre crazy. I did have a cold. I wasnt faking.
Nuts. Take care of yourself. Ill be seeing you, or the cops will.
Silence, a short one. Dont hang up, Archie.
Why not? Make an offer.
I want to talk this over. I want to see you, but I dont want to leave here because Im expecting a phone call. Maybe you could come here?
Where is here?
My apartment. Eighty-seven Bowdoin Street , in the Village. Its two blocks south
I know where it is. Ill be there in twenty minutes. Take some aspirin.
When I had hung up, Fritz, who was at the sink, turned to say, As I thought, Archie. I knew there would be a client, since you were there.
I told him Id have to think that over to decide how to take it, and went to the office to tell the conference it would have to manage without me for a while.
Chapter 7
When I emerged on the fifth floor Byne was there to greet me and ushered me in. After taking my hat and coat he motioned me through a doorway, and I found myself in a room that I would have been perfectly willing to move to when the day came that Wolfe fired me or I quit, with perhaps a few minor changes. The rugs and chairs were the kind I like, and the lights were okay, and there was no fireplace. I hate fireplaces. When Byne had got me in a chair and asked if I would like a drink, and I had declined with thanks, he stood facing me. He was tall and lanky and loose-jointed, with not much covering for his face bones except skin.
That was a hell of a mess I got you into, he said. Im damn sorry.
Dont mention it, I told him. I admit I wondered a little why you picked me. If you want some free advice, free but good, next time you want to cook up a reason for skipping something, dont overdo it. If you make it a cold, not that kind of a cold, just a plain everyday virus.
He turned a chair around and sat. Apparently youve convinced yourself that was a fake.
Sure I have, but my convincing myself doesnt prove anything. The proof would have to be got, and of course it could be if it mattered enoughitems like people you saw or talked to Monday evening, or phoned to yesterday or they phoned you, and whoever keeps this place so nice and clean, if she was here yesterdaythings like that. That would be for the cops. If I needed any proof personally, I got it when as soon as I mentioned that the cold was a fake you had to see me right away. So why dont we just file that?