Before Midnight

Wolfe and Inspector Cramer of Manhattan Homicide West have never actually come to blows, though there have been times when Cramer's big red seamy face has gone almost white, and his burly broad shoulders have seemed to shrink, under the strain. I can always tell what the tone is going to be, at least for the kickoff, by. the way he greets me when I let him in. If he calls me Archie, which doesn't happen often, he wants something he can expect to get only as a favor and has determined to forget old sores and keep it friendly. If he calls me Goodwin and asks how I am, he still is after a favor but thinks he is entitled to it. If he calls me Goodwin but shows no interest in my health, he has come for what he would call co-operation and intends to get it. If he calls me nothing at all, he's ready to shoot from the hip and look out.

That time it wasn't Archie, but he asked how I was, and after he got into the red leather chair he accepted an offer of beer from Wolfe, and apologized for coming so late without phoning. As Fritz served the beer I went to the kitchen to get a glass of milk for myself. When I returned Cramer had a half-empty glass in his hand and was licking foam from his lips.

"I hope," he said, "that I didn't interrupt anything important." He was gruff, but he would be gruff saying his prayers.

"I'm on a case," Wolfe said, "and I was working." Beauty for Ashes, by Christopher La Farge, is a novel written in verse, the scene of the action being Rhode Island. I don't read novels in verse, but I doubt if there's anything in it about perfume contests, or even any kind of cosmetics. If it were Ashes for Beauty that might have been different.

"Yeah," Cramer said. "The Dahlmann murder."

"No, sir." Wolfe poured beer. "I'm aware of your disapproval of private detectives concerning themselves with murders in your jurisdiction-heaven knows I should be--and it pleases me to know that I'm not incurring it. I am not investigating a murder.''

"That's fine. Would you mind telling me who your client is? This case you're on?"

"As a boon?"

"I don't care what you call it, just tell me."

"There's no reason why I shouldn't, in confidence of course. A firm, an advertising agency, called Lippert, Buff and Assa."

I raised my brows. Evidently Cramer wasn't the only one in favor of favors. Wolfe was being almost neighborly.

"I've heard of them," Cramer said. "Just today, in fact. That's the firm Louis Dahlmann was with."

"That's right."

"When did they hire you?"

"Today."