The Second Confesion

I managed to expose the murderer, who had been blackmailed by them. The day after the murderer was sentenced another phone call came from X. He had the cheek to congratulate me on keeping my investigation within the limits he had prescribed! I told him that his prescription had been ignored. What had happened was that I had caught the murderer, which was my job, without stretching the investigation to an attack on X himself, which had been unnecessary and no part of my commitment.” Sperling had been finding it impossible to get properly settled m his chair. Now he broke training and demanded, “Damn it, can't you cut this short?” “Not and earn my fee,” Wolfe snapped. He resumed.

“That was in May of last year-thirteen months ago. In the interval I have not heard from X, because I haven't happened to do anything with which he had reason to interfere. The good fortune ended-as I suppose it was bound to do sooner or later, since we are both associated with crime-the day before yesterday, Saturday, at 6.10 p.m. He phoned again. He was more peremptory than formerly, and gave me an ultimatum with a time limit. I responded to his tone as a man of my temperament naturally would-I am congenitally tart and thorny-and I rejected his ultimatum. I do not pretend that I was unconcerned. When Mr Goodwin returned from his weekend here, after midnight on Sunday, yesterday, and gave me his report, I told him of the phone call and we discussed the situation at length.” Wolfe looked around. “Do any of you happen to know that there are plant rooms on the roof of my house, in which I keep thousands of orchids, all of them good and some of them new and rare and extremely beautiful?” Yes, they all did, again all but Sperling.