The Second Confesion

I know the chance of finding anything conclusive is remote, but I wish you'd try, and there'll be no grumbling about your charge for the trip.” Vollmer blinked. “It would have to be done this afternoon?” “Yes, sir.” “Have you any idea what weapon might have been used?” “No, sir.” “According to the papers he had no family, no relatives at all Perhaps I should know whom I'm representing-one of his professional associates?” “I'll answer that if they ask it. You're representing me.” “I see. Anything to be mysterious.” Vollmer stood up. “If one of my patients dies while I'm gone-” He left it hanging and trotted out, making me move fast to get to the front door in time to open it for him. His habit of leaving like that, as soon as he had all he really needed, was one of the reasons Wolfe bleed him.

I returned to the office.

Wolfe leaned back. “We have only ten minutes until lunch. Now this afternoon, for you and Saul…”

CHAPTER Fifteen

The locksmith soaked me $8.80 for eleven keys. That was about double the market, but I didn't bother to squawk because I knew why: he was still collecting for a kind of a lie he had told a homicide dick six years ago at my suggestion. I think he figured that he and I were fellow crooks and therefore should divvy.

Even with keys it might have taken a little manoeuvring if Louis Rony had lived in an apartment house with a doorman and elevator man, but as it was there was nothing to it. The address on East Thirty-seventh Street was an old five-storey building that had been done over in good style, and in the downstairs vestibule was a row of mail-boxes, push buttons, and perforated circles for reception on the speaking tube. Rony's name was at the right end, which meant the top floor.

The first key I tried was the right one, and Saul and I entered, went to the self-service elevator, and pushed the button marked 5. It was the best kind of set-up for an able young man with a future like Rony, who had probably had visitors of all kinds at all hours.

Upstairs it was the second key I tried that worked. Feeling that I was the host, in a way, I held the door open for Saul to precede me and then followed him in.

We were at the centre of a hall, not wide and not very long. Turning right, towards the street front, we stepped into a fairly large room with modern furniture that matched, bright-coloured rugs that had been cleaned not long ago, splashy coloured pictures on the walls, a good supply of books, and a fireplace.