Before Midnight

I thanked him for calling, hung up, and mounted the stairs again to Wolfe's room; and by gum, he wasn't reading. He had put the book down and was sitting there looking imposed upon.

"I said I'd be down shortly," he growled. "Yeah, but you don't have to. Go right on working. Hansen phoned as counsel for the firm. O'Garro was too impetuous, he said. They have full confidence in you, which shows how little--oh well. You're to keep at it. I didn't ask him if the conversation was recorded."

He picked up his book. "Very well. Now you may reasonably expect a respite."

"Not for long. Hansen's dropping in later."

He grunted and I left him.

The respite was a good ten minutes, maybe eleven, and it was ended at the worst possible moment. I had turned on the television and got the ball game, Giants and Dodgers, and Willie Mays was at bat in the fourth inning with a count of two and one, when the phone rang. Dialing the sound off but not the picture, I got at the phone, and received a double jolt. With my ears I heard Oliver Buff saying that both O'Garro and Hansen were too impetuous and had it wrong, and going on from there, and simultaneously with my eyes I saw Mays pop a soft blooper into short center field that I could have caught on the tip of my nose. I turned my back on that, but the rest of Buff I had to take. When he was through I went and turned off the TV, and once again ascended the stairs.

Wolfe frowned at me suspiciously. "Is this flummery?" he demanded.

"Not to my knowledge," I told him. "It sounds like their voices."

"Pfui. I mean you. The call by Mr. Hansen voided the one by Mr. O'Garro. You could have invented both of them; it would be typical."

"Sure I could, but I didn't. You asked for a cease-fire on badgering and got it. This time it was Buff. LBA seems to be tossing coins and giving me a play-by-play report. Buff voided both O'Garro and Hansen. He says they have been conferring and just reached a decision. They want a report by you personally on progress to date, and they're all at the LBA office, including Talbott Heery, and can't leave to come here, so you're to go there. At once. Otherwise the deal is off. I told him, first, that you never go outdoors on business, and second, that I wasn't supposed to disturb you and I wasn't going to. He had heard that before. He said you would be there by four o'clock, or else. It is now a quarter past three. May I offer a suggestion?" "What?"