The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

"Satisfactory. Now I ask you to make another engagement. I want you to return here, when requested by me, and bring the bullet which one of your men picked up on the floor of Morris Althaus's apartment."

It probably wasn't easy to faze Richard Wragg. You don't get to be the top G-man at the most important spot, next to Washington, if you faze easy. But that got him. His mouth came open. It took him only two seconds to close it, but he had been fazed.

"Now you're not talking sense," he said.

"But I am. If you'll bring me that bullet when I ask for it, it is next to certain-I am tempted to say certain-that I can establish that Althaus was not killed by one of your men."

"God, you're raw." Wragg's mouth wasn't open now. His eyes were narrowed to slits. "If I had such a bullet I might bring it just to call you."

"Oh, you have it." Wolfe was patient. "What happened that night in Althaus's apartment? A person I'll call X-I could give a better name, for now X will do-shot him with his own gun. The bullet went through him to the wall and fell to the floor. X departed, taking the gun. Soon your three men arrived, entering just as they entered this house last night. Shall I go into detail?"

"Yes."

"Here they didn't ring the bell because it was known, so they thought, that the house was empty. It had been under surveillance for a week. They rang Althaus's bell, and probably his telephone, but he didn't answer because he was dead. After they had searched the apartment and got what they had come for, it occurred to them that you would suspect that one of them had killed him, and as evidence that they hadn't they took the bullet, which was there on the floor. That violated a law of the State of New York, but they had already violated one, why not another? They took it and gave it to you with their report."

He flipped a hand. "Possibly their bringing the bullet, instead of convincing you of their innocence, had the opposite effect, but I won't speculate about your mental processes, why you didn't believe them. As I said, you know your men. But of course you still have the bullet, and I'm going to want it."

Wragg's eyes had stayed narrow. "Listen, Wolfe. You trapped us once, damn you. You trapped us good. But not again. If I had that bullet I wouldn't be sap enough to give it to you."