Before Midnight

The most important result from the standpoint of the People of the State of New York came a couple of months later, in June, when Oliver Buff was tried and convicted of the first degree murder of Vernon Assa, Cramer and the DA's office having collected a batch of evidence which did, after all, include one good fingerprint from the KCN bottle. But from our standpoint the most important result came much earlier, in fact the very next day, when Rudolph Hansen phoned after lunch and made a date for him and O'Garro and Heery to see Wolfe at six o'clock. They came right on the dot, just as Wolfe got down from the plant rooms. When I took them to the office I saw that O'Garro got the red leather chair, thinking he rated it as the surviving partner. Probably his name would now go into the firm's title. They sure needed some new ones.

They still looked as if they could use some sleep, say about a week, but at least they had their hair combed. They were gloomy but polite. After some recent developments had been mentioned, such as a statement by Buff's secretary that on Monday afternoon she had seen Assa in Buff's room, talking with him, with a brown wallet in his hand, Hansen opened up. He said that in spite of everything it would be a great relief to proceed with the contest in a manner that would leave no loopholes for contention or litigation, and in connection with that process they wanted Wolfe's help. Wolfe asked him how.

"We want you to handle it," Hansen said. "We want you to write the verses, give them to the contestants, and set the conditions and deadline, and, when the answers are received, check them and award the prizes. We want to leave the whole thing to you. Heery refuses to let LBA handle it, and in the circumstances we can't blame him, and it's his money. You'll have full authority. There'll be no interference from anybody. For this service LBA will agree to pay you fifty thousand dollars, plus expenses."

"I won't do it," Wolfe said flatly.

"Damn it, you must!" Heery rapped out.