Before Midnight

"Do you have an appointment, Mr. Goodwin?" "Yes, but under an alias, Nero Wolfe." That only confused her and made her suspicious, but I finally got it straightened out and she used the phone and asked me to wait. I was crossing to a chair when a door opened and Vernon Assa appeared. He stood a moment, wiping his brow and neck with a handkerchief, and then came to me. Short plump men are inclined to sweat, but it did seem that an LBA top executive might have finished wiping before entering the reception room. "Where's Mr. Wolfe?" he asked. "At home. I'll report. To all of you." "I don't think--" He hesitated. "Come with me."

We passed through into a wide carpeted hall. The third door on the left was standing open and we turned in. It was a fairly large room and would be a handsome one after the cleaning women had been around, but at present it was messy. The gleaming top of the big mahogany table in the center had most of its gleam spotted with cigarette ashes and stray pieces of paper, and the nine or ten executive-size chairs were every which way. A cigar butt had spilled out of an ash tray onto the mahogany.

Three men, not counting Assa, looked at me, and I looked at them. Talbott Heery wasn't so broad and tall when he had slid so far forward in his chair that most of him was underneath the table. Buffs white hair was tousled, and his round red face was puffy. He was seated across from Heery and had to twist around to look at me. Rudolph Hansen's long thin neck had a big smudge below the right ear. He was standing to one side with his arms folded and his narrow shoulders slumped.

"Goodwin says he'll report," Assa told them. "We can hear what he has to say."

"To all of you," I said, not aggressively. "Including Mr. O'Garro."

"He's in a meeting and can't be here." "Then I'll wait." I sat down. "He canceled the agreement, and it wouldn't do much good to come to an understanding with you if he phones as soon as I get back and cancels it."

"That was on his own initiative," Buff said, "and unauthorized."

"Isn't he a member of the firm?"

"Yes."

"Okay. I'll wait. If I'm in the way here, tell me where."

"Get him in here," Heery demanded. "He can get the goddam toothpaste account any time."