The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

That was no coincidence; it was cause and effect in a hell of a mess. I started to sort it out but soon found that there were so many combinations and possibilities that you could even come up with the notion that Mrs Bruner had shot Althaus, which wouldn't do, since she was the client. The one conclusion was that there was a needle in this haystack, and it had to be found. Wolfe had stolen another base. He had merely asked Yarmack if the articles Althaus had written for Tick-Tock were innocuous, and had merely told me to find Odell because he couldn't think of anything sensible for me, and here was this.

I couldn't have called Wolfe even if he had been at home, and I decided not to ring him at Hewitt's. Not only does a place like that have a dozen or more extensions, but also G-men had probably followed him there, since Saul had been told to ignore tails, and tapping a line in the country was a cinch for them. I happen to know that they once- But I'll skip it.

But I was not going to go home and sit on it until he got back. I found a phone booth, dialed Mrs Bruner's number and got her, and asked if she could meet me at Rusterman's at twelve-thirty for lunch. She said she could. I rang Rusterman's and got Felix and asked if I could have the soundproofed room upstairs, the small one. He said I could. I went out and got a taxi.

Rusterman's has lost some of the standing it had when Marko Vukcic was alive. Wolfe is no longer the trustee, but he still goes there about once a month and Felix comes to the old brownstone now and then for advice. When Wolfe goes, taking Fritz and me, we eat in the small room upstairs, and we always start with the queen of soups, Germiny a l'Oseille. So I knew that room well. Felix was there with me, being sociable, when Mrs Bruner came, only ten minutes late.

She wanted a double dry martini with onion. You never know; I would have guessed hers would be sherry or Dubonnet, and certainly not the onion. When it came she took three healthy sips in a row, looked to see that the waiter had closed the door, and said, "Of course I didn't ask you on the phone. Something has happened?"