The Mother Hunt (Rex Stout Library)

Here tomorrow morning. I am considering Ellen Tenzer's niece. Anne?

Yes.

If I properly understood her mйtier, she replaces office workers temporarily absent?

Right. My brows went up. I'll be damned. Of course. It's certainly possible. I should have thought of it myself.

You were too busy fuming. Speaking of fuming, the sturgeon is quite good, and I would like to try it fumй а la Muscovite. When you go for papers could you get some fennel, bay leaf, chives, parsley, shallots, and tomato paste?

At a delicatessen Sunday morning? No.

A pity. Get any herbs they have.

A licensed private detective, and he didn't even know what you can expect to find in a delicatessen.

So the Sunday passed pleasantly newspapers, books, television, all anyone could ask for. The sturgeon was fine, even with replacements for herbs temporarily absent. When I phoned Lucy and told her she had house guests and she was invited to come and spend the night with us, her first thought was sheets. Had there been any on the beds? Told that there had been, she was so relieved that our being fugitives from the law didn't really matter. Around nine o'clock Saul called, having got the message from the answering service, and I told him where to come in the morning. He had rung the office Saturday evening and again Sunday morning, having heard what had happened to Carol Mardus, and when Fritz had told him we weren't there and that was all he knew he had of course been a little fumй, knowing, as he did, that no limb was too long and narrow for Wolfe to crawl out on if he got peeved enough.

Not knowing if Lucy had another key, I stayed in the kitchen with a couple of magazines after supper, ready to answer the doorbell, but a little after ten o'clock I heard the door open and close and went to the hall to greet her. Needing two hands, or arms, for a satisfactory greeting between detective and client, she let her bag drop to the floor. That accomplished, I picked up the bag.

I know why you're down here, she said. She looked very wholesome in a pale green summer dress and a dark green jacket. A well-tanned skin with a flush is more striking in town than at the beach. She took the bag. You thought I might not be discreet. You are conceited, but I like you anyway. Did you mean what you said on the phone? You and Nero Wolfe are actually hiding?