Champagne for One

Getting a look at someone who is holed up in a hotel room can be a little tricky, but that situation was made to order. Saul, not encumbered with luggage, had got to the hotel first and gone to the ninth floor, and had been strolling past the door of Room 911 at the moment it opened to admit the messenger with the suitcase; and if descriptions are any good at all, Edith Upson was Elaine Usher. Of course, Saul had been tempted to tackle her then and there, but also of course, since it was Saul, he had retired to think it over and to phone. He wanted to know, were there instructions or was he to roll his own?

"You need a staff," I told him. "I’ll be there in twelve minutes. Where-"

"No," Wolfe said, at his phone. "Proceed, Saul, as you think best. You have Orrie. For this sort of juncture your talents are as good as mine. Get her here."

"Yes, sir."

"Preferably in a mood of compliance, but get her here."

"Yes, sir."

That was when we had words. I cradled the receiver, not gently, and stood up. "This is Saturday," I said, "and I’ve got my cheque for this week. I want a month’s severance pay."

"Pfui."

"No phooey. I am severing relations. It has been eighty-eight hours since I saw that girl die, and your one bright idea, granting that it was bright, was to collect her mother, and I refuse to camp here on my fanny while Saul collects her. Saul is not ten times as smart as I am; he’s only twice as smart. A month’s severance pay will be-"

"Shut up."

"Gladly." I went to the safe for the chequebook and took it to my desk.

"Archie."

"I have shut up." I opened the chequebook.

"This is natural. That is, it is in us, and we are alive, and whatever is in life is natural. You are headstrong and I am magisterial. Our tolerance of each other is a constantly recurring miracle. I did not have one idea, bright or not; I had two. We have neglected Austin Byne. It has been two days and nights since you saw him. Since he got you to that party, pretending an ailment he didn’t have, and since he told Laidlaw he had seen Miss Usher at Grantham House, and since he chose Miss Usher as one of the dinner guests, he deserves better of us. I suggest that you attend to him."

I turned my head but kept the chequebook open. "How? Tell him we don’t like his explanations and we want new ones?"

"Nonsense. You are not so ingenuous. Survey him. Explore him."