Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

"He would have, probably soon after he got home, but you rang him first. If he had killed her he wouldn't have waited until he got home. As you know, his worst fault is that he pushes. He knew that the natural thing would be for him to call, and, pushing it, if he had killed her, he would probably have called around five o'clock. Certainly by five-thirty. Damn it, he's not some stranger we can only guess about; we know him like a book."

He turned to Wolfe. "Since you and Archie are passing and Fred is yes and no, my vote tips it. If you buy that and take it on, and want to use me, it will be on me, including expenses. I have no more affection for Orrie than you have, but of course I would want to back up my vote."

"Me too," Fred blurted. "I voted no."

That was quite an offer. Saul, who asks ten dollars an hour and gets it, could afford it, but Fred doesn't rate that high and he has a wife and four children.

Wolfe's eyes came to me, and I met them. "The trouble is," I said, "I'm personally involved. It depends partly on how smart and quick Orrie thinks I am, and that cramps me. But it also depends on how smart I think Saul is, and I would hate to embarrass him either way. I'll switch and vote no, but I'm not giving any twenty to one."

He drew in a bushel of air through his nose, held it three seconds, and let it out through his open mouth. He screwed his head around to look at the wall clock, curled his fingers over the ends of the chair arms, and said, "Grrrhhhh." It was hard to take. A month of the new year had passed with no new business, and he was going to have to work for nothing.

He looked at Saul. "When can you start?"

"Now," Saul said.

"You, Fred?"

"Tuesday," Fred said. "I'm on a little job, but I can clean it up tomorrow."

Wolfe grunted. "You know the situation. We have nothing. We have never had less. We don't even know what objects the police found, if any, involving Orrie. On that Mr. Parker may help. Archie. Are they infesting that neighborhood?"

"Certainly. Of course they're concentrating on Orrie, trying to find someone who saw him yesterday morning. For a case, they need to get him there."