Not Quite Dead Enough (The Rex Stout Library)

“I am spilling it. I went there to see Ann. When I rang the bell the latch didn’t click, so I rang another bell and got in. The door of her apartment was standing a little open, so I knocked once and then went in. I thought she must be there because I had phoned her office and she said she would get home before five-thirty, and it was a quarter to six. She was there all right. She was there on the floor propped up against a chair with a scarf tied around her throat and her tongue hanging out and her eyes popping. She was dead. I saw she was dead and I-”

Roy Douglas went. He did it so quick, pulled the door open and scooted, that I didn’t even get a chance to make a grab for him.

“Goddamn it,” I said. I turned Lily loose and glanced at my wrist-6:02. If I beat it with her it would be just my luck for Wolfe to be approaching and see me. Lily was sputtering:

“I tell you, Archie, it was the most awful-”

“Shut up.” I opened the door to the front room, steered her inside, and closed the door. “You do what I tell you, girlie, or I swear to God I’ll scalp you. Sit down and don’t breathe. Nero Wolfe will be coming in and I don’t want him to know you’re here. No, sit there, away from the window. I want to know one thing. Did you kill her?”

“No.”

“Look at me. You didn’t?”

“No.”

“Okay.”

“Archie-”

“Shut up.”

I sat on the edge of a chair and put my fists on my knees and stared at the wall. I can’t think with my eyes closed the way Wolfe does. In maybe three minutes I thought I had it, at least a sketch of it, if only it hadn’t been for that damn Douglas kid. It all depended on him.

I looked at Lily. “Keep your voice low so we can hear the door open. You’d better whisper. How often have you been to the apartment?”

“Only once. A long time ago. I love you like this, Arch-”

“Save it for Christmas. Whose bell did you ring?”

“I don’t know. One of the upper-”

“Did anybody see you going in or coming out?”

“I don’t know about going in. I think not. I’m sure they didn’t coming out because I looked around and glanced up the stairs.”

“Does anybody there know you? Besides Ann?”

“Mrs. Chack does, that’s all. Ann’s grandmother.”

“Was anybody-hold it.”

The street door was opening. It closed again, and I heard Wolfe’s voice, and a murmur of Fritz’s. Footsteps went down the hall and the door to the kitchen opened and closed.