The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

"Goodwin. You left out the D, W, I, but I'll overlook it. All right, Fritz."

We let go, and he scrambled to his feet. Fritz got his coat from the rack, but he said, "I want to go back in. I'm going to ask him something."

"No. You have bad manners. We'd have to bounce you again."

"No you wouldn't. I want to ask him something."

"Politely. Tactfully."

"Yes."

I shut the door. "You can have two minutes. Don't sit down, don't raise your voice, and don't use words like 'goon.' Lead the way, Fritz."

We filed down the hall and in, Fritz in front and me in the rear. Wolfe, whose good ears hear what is said in the hall, gave him a cold eye as he stopped short of the desk, surrounded by Fritz and me.

"You wanted an acceptable reason," he told Wolfe. "As I said, I am a friend of Miss Hinckley. A good enough friend so that she called me on the phone to tell me about Goodwin-what he said to her and Mrs Althaus. I advised her not to come here this evening, but she's coming. At nine o'clock?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm going-" He stopped. That wasn't the way. It came hard, but he managed it. "I want to be here. Will you… May I come?"

"If you control yourself."

"I will."

"Time's up," I said, and took his arm to turn him.

7

At ten minutes past nine in the evening of that long day I went to the kitchen. Wolfe was at the center table with Fritz, arguing about the number of juniper berries to put in a marinade for venison loin chops. Knowing that that could go on and on, I said, "Excuse me. They're all here, and more. David Althaus, the father, came along. He's the bald one, to your right at the back. Also a lawyer named Bernard Fromm, to your left at the back. Long-headed and hard-eyed."

Wolfe frowned. "I don't want him."

"Of course not. Shall I tell him so?"

"Confound it." He turned to Fritz. "Very well, proceed. I say three, but proceed as you will. If you put in five I won't even have to taste it; the smell will tell me. With four it might be palatable." He gave me a nod and I headed for the office, and he followed.