If you werent an inspector, I cut in, Id say thats a lie. Since you are, make it a fib. You do not know he has been here.
I know he hopped a taxi and gave the driver this address, and when he saw he was being followed he went to a booth and phoned, and took another taxi to a place that runs through the block, and left by the other street. Where would I suppose he went?
Correction. You suppose he has been here.
All right, I do. He took another step, towards Wolfe. Have you seen Edwin Laidlaw in the last three hours?
This is quite beyond belief, Wolfe declared. You know how rigidly I maintain my personal schedule. You know that I resent any attempt to interfere with these two hours of relaxation. But you get into my house by duplicity and then come charging up here to ask me a question to which you have no right to an answer. So you dont get one. Indeed, in these circumstances, I doubt if you could put a question about anything whatever that I would answer. He turned, giving us the broad expanse of his rear, and picked up a seedling.
I guess, I told Cramer sympathetically, your best bet
would be to get a search warrant and send a gang to look for evidence, like cigarette ashes from the kind he smokes. I know where it hurts. Youve never forgotten the day you did come with a warrant and a crew to look for a woman named Clara Fox and searched the whole house, including here, and didnt find her, and later you learned she had been in this room in a packing case, covered with osmundine that Wolfe was spraying water on. So you thought if you rushed up before I could give the alarm youd find Laidlaw here, and now that he isnt youre stuck. You cant very well demand to know why Laidlaw rushed here to discuss something with Wolfe that he wouldnt discuss downtown. You ought to take your coat off when youre in the house or youll catch cold when you leave. Im just talking to be sociable while you collect yourself. Of course Laidlaw was here this morning with the others, but apparently you know that. Whoever told you should
He turned and was going. I followed.
Chapter 11
So far, Saul reported, were only scouting. Marjorie Betz lives with Mrs Elaine Usher at the address on Eighty-seventh Street . Mrs Usher is the tenant. I got in to see Miss Betz by one of the standard lines, and got nowhere. Mrs Usher left Wednesday night, and she doesnt know where she is or when shell be back. We have seen two elevator men, the janitor, five neighbours, fourteen people in local shops and stores, and a hackie Mrs Usher patronizes, and Orrie is now after the maid, who left at five-thirty. Do you want Mrs Ushers description?
Wolfe said no and I said yes simultaneously. Very well, Wolfe said, oblige him.
Around forty. We got as low as thirty-three and as high as forty-five. Five feet six, hundred and twenty pounds, blue eyes set close, oval face, takes good care of good skin, hair was light brown two years ago, now blonde, wears it loose, medium cut. Dresses well but a little flashy. Gets up around noon . Hates to tip. I think thats fairly accurate, but this is a guess with nothing specific, that she has no job but is never short of money, and she likes men. She has lived in that apartment for eight years. Nobody ever saw a husband. Six of them knew the daughter, Faith, and liked her, but it has been four years since they last saw her and Mrs Usher never mentions her.
Wolfe grunted. Surely that will do.
Yes, sir. Do we proceed?
Yes.
Okay. Ill wait to see if Orrie gets anywhere with the maid, and if not I have a couple of ideas. Miss Betz may go out this evening, and the lock on the apartment door is only a Wyatt.
The hackie she patronizes, I said. She didnt patronize him Wednesday night?
According to him, no. Fred found him. I havent seen him. Fred thinks he got it straight.
You know, I said, you say only a Wyatt, but you need more than a paper clip for a Wyatt. I could run up there with an assortment, and we could go into conference
No, Wolfe said firmly. Youre needed here.
For what, he didnt say. After we hung up all he did was ask how I had disposed of Laidlaw and then ask for a report of the hour and a quarter I had spent with him, and I could have covered that in one sentence just by saying it had been a washout. But he kept pecking at it until dinner time. I knew what the idea was, and he knew I knew. It was simply that if I had gone to help Saul with an illegal entry into Elaine Ushers apartment there was a chance, say one in a million, that I wouldnt be there to answer the phone in the morning.
But back in the office after dinner he decided it was about time he exerted himself a little, possibly because he saw my expression when he picked up his book as soon as Fritz had come for the coffee service.
He lowered the book. Confound it, he said, I wait to see Mrs Usher not merely because her daughter said she hated her. There is also the fact that she has disappeared.
Yes, sir. I didnt say anything.
You looked something. I suppose you are reflecting that we have had two faint intimations of the possible identity of the person who sent that communication to the District Attorney.