The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

"I know. But judges and juries are sometimes whimsical. They may capriciously doubt the credibility of witnesses, even five of them-counting me. It would be fatuous for you to question my good faith. I have no desire to enter into a mortal feud with your bureau; my sole purpose is to do the job I have been hired for. As long as you harass or annoy neither my client nor me, I shall have no use either for the credentials or for my witnesses."

Wragg looked at me. I thought he was going to ask me something, but no, I was just a place to give his eyes a rest from Wolfe while he answered some question he had asked himself.

It took him a while. Finally he went back to Wolfe.

"You've left something out," he said. "You say your sole purpose is to do the job you've been hired for. Then why have you been investigating a homicide we have no connection with? Why has Goodwin gone twice to see Mrs David Althaus, and twice to Morris Althaus's apartment, and why did you have those six people here last Thursday evening?"

Wolfe nodded. "You think one of your men shot Morris Althaus."

"I do not. That's absurd."

Wolfe got testy. "Confound it, sir, can't you talk sense? What could they have conceivably been after when they invaded my house? You suspected that I had somehow discovered that three of your men had been in Morris Althaus's apartment the night he was killed, as indeed I had. They had reported to you that he was dead when they arrived, but you didn't believe them. At least you doubted them. I don't know why; you know them; I don't. And you suspected or feared that I had not only learned that they were there but had also secured evidence that they, one of them, had killed him. Talk sense."

"You still haven't told me why you were investigating a homicide."

"Isn't that obvious? Because I had learned that your men had been there."

"How did you learn that?"

Wolfe shook his head. "That's reserved."

"Have you been in touch with Inspector Cramer?"

"No. I haven't seen or spoken with him for months."

"Or the District Attorney's office?"

"No."

"Are you going to continue the investigation?"

A corner of Wolfe's mouth went up. "You know, Mr Wragg, I am both able and willing to relieve your mind, but first I must be assured that I have done my job. Have you accepted my offer? Do you assure me that from six o'clock this afternoon there will be no surveillance of any kind by your bureau of Mrs Bruner or anyone connected with her?"

"Yes. That's settled."