Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

It was closer to passion than I had thought was in his compass, and I was going to offer him a drink, but Wolfe spoke. "A detail. The voice on the telephone. Indubitably a man?"

"Yes. He was disguising it, a kind of falsetto, but I was sure it was a man. No doubt at all."

"Has he communicated with you again? Telephoned?"

"Once. The seventeenth of December. That name again, Robert Service Kipling. At my home. He said he thought I would like to know that the material was being received, and that was all."

Wolfe leaned back, closed his eyes, clasped his hands at the high point of his middle, and pushed his lips out. Ballou started to say something, and I showed him a palm, but it really didn't matter. When Wolfe's lips start working like that, out and in, out and in, he has taken off and he hears nothing. Ballou lowered his head and shut his eyes, so in effect I was left alone for about three minutes. Finally Wolfe opened his eyes and asked me if I could get Saul and Fred, and I said yes but I didn't know how soon. He said, "The kitchen. Tell them to come at once," and I went.

Making phone calls merely to tell men they're wanted – I had to try three numbers to get Saul – doesn't take much brainpower, and my mind could work on something else. Not figuring the odds on Orrie as a blackmailer; that was so long a shot it was just no bet. The riddle was, why was Thales an interesting name for a blackmailer? Wolfe had really meant it; it wasn't the tone he uses when he's faking. If he thought it was interesting I should too, since I knew everything he did. I would give a nice new dollar bill to know how many of the people who read this report will be on to it. I still wasn't when I returned to the office, though I sat and pecked at it for a good five minutes after I got Saul.

Two paces inside the office I stopped. The red leather chair was empty. I asked Wolfe, "Did you bounce him?"

He shook his head. "He's in the front room. Lying down. Of course he shouldn't be seen by Saul and Fred. You got them?"

"They're on the way." I crossed to my desk. "It's too bad Orrie sank to blackmail, but then a wedding ring, furniture, marriage license – it mounts up."

"Nonsense."

"You can say that, with fifty grand there on your desk? Why is it interesting that he picked Thales for a name?"

"You mispronounce it. So did Mr. Ballou."

"It isn't Thales?"

"Certainly not. It's Tha-lez."

"Oh, that's why it's interesting."