The Doorbell Rang (The Rex Stout Library)

"No. If they learned you were doing that, either by surveillance of you or through inadvertence, they would know we were seriously considering the possibility that that woman killed him, and that would be disastrous. We must maintain the illusion that we are convinced that a member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation killed Morris Althaus and that we are procuring evidence to establish it; otherwise our preparations for next Thursday evening will come to nothing. For protection of our flank we needed to know definitely if Miss Dacos was lying, and you have settled that: she was. Satisfactory. She lied to conceal the fact that she had compromised herself, and that satisfies us. Whether her involvement was merely a secret intimacy she doesn't want revealed, or was murder by her hand, is of no importance to us."

"Cramer would love to know that. After giving us the steer.

I'll call him and tell him, to relieve his mind."

"Pfui. When we have relieved our minds by finishing the job we were hired to do we'll consider our obligation to him. If it seems feasible without excessive effort we'll expose the murderer for him. If it isn't a member of the FBI, as he expects and hopes, he won't thank us, but we'll owe him no apology."

"Then we forget the murder until after Thursday."

"Yes."

"That's just dandy. Agencies are closed today and tomorrow, so Hewitt can't start looking until Monday. I'll be at the Flamingo this evening if anything happens; for instance, if Hewitt calls to say he has decided that it's too much trouble and we have to find someone else. Tomorrow Miss Rowan is having a crowd in for Sunday lunch and dancing and I'll stay afterwards to help empty ashtrays. Any instructions for this afternoon?"

"Turn off the radio," he growled.

11

It bothered me for four days and four nights, from Saturday afternoon, when Wolfe said we would forget the murder, to Wednesday morning, when I did something about it on my own.