The Second Confesion

Minutes later Emerson was taking a crack at another of his pet targets: “…they call themselves World Federalists, this bunch of amateur statesmen, and they want us to give up the one thing we've got left-the right to make our own decisions about our own affairs. They think it would be fine if we had to ask permission of all the world's runts and funny looking dimwits every time we wanted to move our furniture around a little, or even to leave it where it is…” I anticipated the pop of Wolfe's mouth by three seconds, which was par. I couldn't expect to hit it right on the nose. Emerson developed that theme a while and then swung into his finale. He always closed with a snappy swat at some personality whose head was temporarily sticking up from the mob.

“Well, friends and fellow citizens, a certain so-called genius has busted loose again right here in New York, where I live only because I have to. You may have heard of this fat fantastic creature who goes by the good old American name of Nero Wolfe. Just before I went on the air we received here at the studio a Press release from a firm of midtown lawyers-afirmwhich is now minusapartner because one of them, a man named Louis Rony, got killed in an automobile accident Monday night. The authorities have investigated thoroughly and properly, and there is no question about its being an accident or about who was responsible. The authorities know all about it, and so does the public, which means you.

“But this so-called genius knows more than everybody else put together-as usual. Since the regrettable accident took place on the property of a prominent citizen-a man who I have the honour to know as a friend and as a great American-it was too good a chance for the genius to miss, to get some cheap publicity. The Press release from the firm of lawyers states that Nero Wolfe intends to pursue his investigation of Rony's death until he learns the truth. How do you like that? What do you think of this insolent abuse of the machinery of justice in a free country like ours? If I may be permitted to express an opinion, I think we could get along very well without that kind of a genius in our America.