The Mother Hunt (Rex Stout Library)

Inspector Cramer? Yes, Lucy Valdon. I'm at home, my house on Eleventh Street. I have decided to tell you some things about the baby and about Carol Mardus… Yes, Carol Mardus… No, I don't want to tell the District Attorney, I want to tell you… No, I don't know where Nero Wolfe is. I've decided I have to tell you, but I'm going to do it my way. I want to tell some other people too, at the same time… Willis Krug and Leo Bingham and Julian Haft, and I want you to bring them or have them come… That's right… No, I won't do that, I want them to hear me telling you… No, I won't, and I can be stubborn, you know I can, they have to be here with you… No, Manuel Upton is here with me now… That's all right, I'm all right… Yes, I know exactly what I'm doing… Of course, come right away if you want to, but I'm not going to tell you anything until they're all here… Yes, certainly… All right, I won't.

She hung up and turned. Was that all right?

No, Wolfe said. You shouldn't have told him Mr. Upton is here. He'll come first and want to see him. It's not important; you'll tell him he has gone. Archie, take him to the fourth floor and keep him quiet. In all the years I have been with Nero Wolfe that was the first and only time, to my knowledge, that he has been alone with a woman in a bedroom. The room was the one on the fourth floor he bad slept in, and the woman was Anne Tenzer. I'm merely reporting, not insinuating; the door of the room was standing open, and not far away was another open door, to the room where I was keeping Manuel Upton quiet but that gives a false impression. He was keeping himself quiet, needing no help from me. After hearing Lucy invite Inspector Cramer to call he hadn't uttered more than twenty words, and half of them had been to decline the offer of a ham sandwich and a glass of milk, brought up by Wolfe. I had accepted. Perfectly scrambled eggs are a fine dish, but they digest away on you.