The Second Confesion

As I went up the stairs three at a time I heard the sound of the elevator. He must have moved fast. Fritz was behind me but couldn't keep up. The top landing, which was walled with concrete tile and plastered, was intact. I flipped the light switch and opened the door to the first plant room, the warm room, but I stopped after one step in because there was no light. I stood for five seconds, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and by then Wolfe and Fritz were behind me.

“Let me get by,” Wolfe growled like a dog ready to spring.

“No.” I pushed back against him. “You'll scalp yourself or cut your throat. Wait here till I get a light.” He bellowed past my shoulder. “Theodore! Theodore!” A voice came from the dim starlit ruins. “Yes, sir! What happened?” “Are you all right?” “No,sir! What-” “Are you hurt?” “No, I'm not hurt, but what happened?” I saw movement in the direction of the corner where Theodore's room was, and a sound came of glass falling and breaking.

“You got a light?” I called.

“No, the doggone lights are all-” “Then stay still, damn it, while I get a light.” “Stand still!” Wolfe roared.

I beat it down to the office. By the time I got back up again there were noises from windows across the street, and also from down below. We ignored them. The sight disclosed by the flashlights was enough to make us ignore anything. Of a thousand panes of glass and ten thousand orchid plants some were in fact still whole, as we learned later, but it certainly didn't look like it that first survey. Even with the lights, moving around through that jungle of jagged glass hanging down and protruding from Plants and benches and underfoot wasn't really fun, but Wolfe had to see and so had Theodore, who was okay physically but got so damn mad I thought he was going to choke.

Finally Wolfe got to where a dozen Odontoglossum harryanum, his current pride and joy, were kept. He moved the light back and forth over the gashed and fallen stems and leaves and clusters, with fragments of glass everywhere, turned, and said quietly, “We might as well go downstairs.” “The sun will be up in two hours,” Theodore said through his teeth.

“I know. We need men.” When we got to the office we phoned Lewis Hewitt and G. M. Hoag for help before we called the police. Anyway by that time a prowl car had come.

CHAPTER Six