Before Midnight

If anyone considers this incident an exception to Wolfe's rule never to leave the house on business, I say no. It was not business. He was after the man who had abused his hospitality, which was unforgivable, and made him eat crow in front of Cramer, which was outrageous. I have evidence. On a later day, when he was going over the expense account I had prepared for LBA, he left in the fare for one taxi that morning, the one that Fred and Orrie and Bill took, but took out the other, the one that had carried him and Saul and me.

It lacked a minute of nine-thirty when the six of us entered an elevator in the modern midtown skyscraper, but when we got out at the twenty-second floor the aristocratic brunette with nice little ears was there on the job behind her eight-foot desk. The sudden appearance of a gang of half a dozen males startled her a little, but as I approached and she recognized me she recovered.

I told her good morning. "I'm afraid we'll be making a little disturbance, but we've got a job to do. This is Mr. Nero Wolfe."

Wolfe, at my elbow, nodded. "We have to inventory the contents of the cabinets. The death of Mr. Assa--of course you know of it."

"Yes, I… I know."

"That makes it necessary to proceed without delay."

She looked beyond us, and I turned to do likewise. The squad was certainly proceeding without delay. Saul Panzer had slid open the glass front of the end cabinet at the left wall and had his notebook out. Fred Durkin was at the end cabinet at the right wall, and Bill and Orrie were at the far wall, which was solid with cabinets, a stretch of some fifty feet. It was a relief to see that they all had doors open. I had seen no locks on my former visit, but there could have been tricky ones. We had brought along an assortment of keys, but using them would have made it complicated.

"I know nothing about this," the brunette said. "Who told you to do it?"

"It's part of a job," Wolfe told her, "that was given me by Messers Buff, O'Garro, and Assa last Wednesday. I refer you to them. – -Come, Archie."