And Four To Go by Rex Stout Read Free Book Online

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    She sat on the edge, her spine straight and her hands together in her lap. 'I was afraid to telephone,' she said, 'because you might tell me not to come. So I just came. Will you forgive me?'
    Wolfe grunted. No commitment. She smiled at him, a friendly smile, or so I thought. After all, she was half Oriental.
    'I must get myself together,' she chirped. 'I'm nervous because it's so exciting to be here.' She turned her head. 'There's the globe, and the bookshelves, and the safe, and the couch, and of course Archie Goodwin. And you. You behind your desk in your enormous chair! Oh, I know this place! I have read about you so much-everything there is, I think. It's exciting to be here, actually here in this chair, and see you. Of course I saw you this afternoon, but that wasn't the same thing, you could have been anybody in that silly Santa Claus costume. I wanted to pull your whiskers.'
    She laughed, a friendly little tinkle like a bell.
    I think I looked bewildered. That was my idea, after it had got through my ears to the switchboard inside and been routed. I was too busy handling my face to look at Wolfe, but he was probably even busier, since she was looking straight at him. I moved my eyes to him when he spoke.
    'If I understand you, Miss Quon, I'm at a loss. If you think you saw me this afternoon in a Santa Claus costume, you're mistaken.'
    'Oh, I'm sorry!' she exclaimed. 'Then you haven't told them?'
    'My dear madam.' His voice sharpened. 'If you must talk in riddles, talk to Mr. Goodwin. He enjoys them.'
    'But I am sorry, Mr. Wolfe. I should have explained first how I know. This morning at breakfast Kurt told me you had phoned him and arranged to appear at the party as Santa Claus, and this afternoon I asked him if you had come and he said you had and you were putting on the costume. That's how I know. But you haven't told the police'Then it's a good thing I haven't told them either, isn't it?'
    'This is interesting,' Wolfe said coldly. 'What do you expect to accomplish by this fantastic folderol?'
    She shook her pretty little head. 'You, with so much sense. You must see that it's no use. If I tell them, even if they don't like to believe me they will investigate. I know they can't investigate as well as you can, but surely they will find something.'
    He shut his eyes, tightened his lips, and leaned back in his chair. I kept mine open, on her. She weighed about a hundred and two. I could carry her under one arm with my other hand clamped on her mouth. Putting her in the spare room upstairs wouldn't do, since she could open a window and scream, but there was a cubbyhole in the basement, next to Fritz's room, with an old couch in it. Or, as an alternative, I could get a gun from my desk drawer and shoot her. Probably no one knew she had come here.
    Wolfe opened his eyes and straightened up. 'Very well. It is still fantastic, but I concede that you could create an unpleasant situation by taking that yarn to the police. I don't suppose you came here merely to tell me that you intend to. What do you intend?'
    'I think we understand each other,' she chirped.
    'I understand only that you want something. What?'
    'You are so direct,' she complained. 'So very abrupt, that I must have said something wrong. But I do want something. You see, since the police think it was the man who acted Santa Claus and ran away, they may not get on the right track until it's too late. You wouldn't want that, would you?'
    No reply.
    'I wouldn't want it,' she said, and her hands on her lap curled into little fists. 'I wouldn't want whoever killed Kurt to get away, no matter who it was, but you see, I know who killed him. I have told the police, but they won't listen until they find Santa Claus, or if they listen they think I'm just a jealous cat, and besides, I'm an Oriental and their ideas of Orientals are very primitive. I was going to make them listen by telling them who Santa Claus was, but I know how they feel about you from