Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe 27 by Three Witnesses Read Free Book Online Page B

“but what are the blue ones?”
    No answer. In another hundred yards I tried again. “This is far enough unless he uses a megaphone.”
    She kept going. “Last call!” I told her. “I admit he would be a maniac to jump Mr. Wolfe under the circumstances, but maybe he is one. I learned long ago that with people involved in a murder case nothing is impossible.”
    She wheeled on me. “He’s not involved in a murder case!”
    “He will be before Mr. Wolfe gets through with him.”
    She plumped down in the grass, crossed her legs, buried her face in her hands, and started to shake. I stood and looked down at her, expecting the appropriate sound effect, but it didn’t come. She just went on shaking, which wasn’t wholesome. After half a minute of it I squatted in front of her, made contact by taking a firm grip on her bare ankle, and spoke with authority.
    “That’s no way to do it. Open a valve and let it out. Stretch out and kick and scream. If Unger thinks it’s me and flies to the rescue that will give me an excuse to plug him.”
    She mumbled something. Her hands muffled it, but it sounded like “God help me.” The shakes turned into shivers and were tapering off. When she spoke again it came through much better. “You’re hurting me,” she said, and I loosened my grip on her ankle and in amoment took my hand away, when her hands dropped and she lifted her head.
    Her face was flushed, but her eyes were dry. “My God,” she said, “it would be wonderful if you put your arms around me tight and told me, ‘All right, my darling, I’ll take care of everything, just leave it to me.’ Oh, that would be wonderful!”
    “I may try it,” I offered, “if you’ll brief me on what I’d have to take care of. The arms around you tight are no problem. Then what?”
    She skipped over it. “God,” she said bitterly, “am I a fool! You saw my car. My Jaguar.”
    “Yeah, I saw it. Very fine.”
    “I’m going to burn it. How do you set fire to a car?”
    “Pour gasoline on it, all over inside, toss a match in, and jump back fast. Be careful what you tell the insurance company or you’ll end up in the can.”
    She skipped again. “It wasn’t only the car, it was other things too. I had to have them. Why didn’t I get me a man? I could have had a dozen, but no, not me. I was going to do it all myself. It was going to be
my
Jaguar. And now here I am, and you, a man I never saw before—it would be heaven if you’d just take me over. I’m telling you, you’d be getting a bargain!”
    “I might, at that.” I was sympathetic but not mealy. “Don’t be too sure you’re a bad buy. What are the liabilities?”
    She twisted her neck to look across the meadow toward the house. Wolfe and Unger were in their chairs under the apple tree, evidently keeping their voices down, since no sound came, and my ears are good.
    She turned back to me. “Is it a bluff? Is he just trying to scare something out of us?”
    “No, not just. If he scares something out, fine. Ifnot, he’ll get it the hard way. If there’s anything to get he’ll get it. If you’re sitting on a lid you don’t want opened, my advice is to move, the sooner the better, or you may get hurt.”
    “I’m already hurt!”
    “Then hurt worse.”
    “I guess I can be.” She reached for one of the blue flowers and pulled it off with no stem. “You asked what these are. They’re wild asters, just the color of my eyes.” She crushed it with her fingers and dropped it. “I already know what I’m going to do. I decided walking over here with you. What time is it?”
    I looked at my wrist. “Quarter past three.”
    “Let’s see, four hours—five. Where can I see Nero Wolfe around nine o’clock in town?”
    From long habit I started to say at his office, but remembered it was out of bounds. “His address and number are in the phone book,” I told her, “but he may not be there this evening. Phone and ask for Fritz. Tell him you are the Queen of