Death of a Doxy (Crime Line)

"Yeah, rub it in," I said. "Someday I'll tell you what a fine brave plucky game girl you are, not a single squawk, but now I'm busy. If it had been two feet to the left and a foot higher, you would now be meat. Luck, that's all, just pure luck, and I'm supposed to know what I'm doing. I'll go down and see about Fred. When I come back up you will be packed."

"Packed?"

"Right. What we call the South Room in Nero Wolfe's house, the one above his, has three windows facing south. Very nice in winter. You'll like it."

She shook her head. "I don't – I don't want to hide."

"Listen, snuggle bunny. Kitten. Lamb. I have lost the right to give orders. Have I got to beg, for God's sake?" I went.

On the sidewalk a small audience had collected, a dozen or so. Fred was flat on his back, and the bellboy was putting a cushion under his head. A woman was saying he'd get pneumonia. The cop and the doorman were across the street by the stone wall. I went and squatted by Fred and asked him which leg and where, and he said the left one a little above the knee and it probably got the bone, the way it felt. I asked what about blood, and he said there wasn't much, he had put his hand in and felt it, and he asked, "Is she all right?"

I said yes. "When I get back from the hospital I'm going to take her home with me. I don't want -"

"You're not going to any hospital. Take her now. The cop asked questions, but I don't know anything. Do I?"

"Sure you do. You know Nero Wolfe hired you to help me bodyguard her, and that's all."

"It's enough. Ouch. Take her now. I've been in hospitals before. Don't leave her alone. The sonofabitch nearly got her with us right here. I only wish -"

He stopped because the cop had come. He wanted names, and I gave him some, Fred's and Julie's and mine, and nothing else. All I knew was that someone had shot a gun. He thought he would get tough but decided not to, and the ambulance came. I watched them load Fred and then went into the Maidstone and up to the ninth floor.

When I knocked on the door, Julie's voice came. "Is it you, Archie?"

"No. It's a Boy Scout."

She opened the door wide, and I stepped in. There on the floor were a big suitcase and a big bag. "I didn't send for a boy to take them down," she said, "because I thought you might change your mind."

I picked them up.

Chapter 13