Free Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe by Three at Wolfe's Door

listening.”
    â€œAnd then he arrests me?”
    â€œThat’s just an act.”
    â€œI wish it were. Ask your friends Peggy and Nora if I knew—only I suppose you wouldn’t believe them.
They
knew, and they didn’t tell you. You’d better all think over everything you said. Okay, Sergeant, the leg cramp’s gone.”
    He actually started a hand for my elbow, but I was moving and it wasn’t there. I opened the door to the hall. Of course he had me go first down the three flights; no cop in his senses would descend stairs in front of a dangerous criminal in custody. When we emerged to the sidewalk and he told me to turn left I asked him, “Why not cuffs?”
    â€œClown if you want to,” he croaked.
    He flagged a taxi on Amsterdam Avenue, and when we were in and rolling I spoke. “I’ve been thinking, about laws and liberties and so on. Take false arrest, for instance. And take obstructing justice. If a man is arrested for obstructing justice, and it turns out that he didn’t obstruct any justice, does that make the arrest false? I wish I knew more about law. I guess I’ll have to ask a lawyer. Nathaniel Parker would know.”
    It was the mention of Parker, the lawyer Wolfe uses when the occasion calls for one, that got him. He had seen Parker in action.
    â€œThey heard you,” he said, “and I heard you, and I took some notes. You interfered in a homicide investigation. You quoted the police to them, you said so. Youtold them what the police think, and what they’re doing and are going to do. You played a game with those pieces of paper to show them exactly how it figures. You tried to get them to tell you things instead of telling the police, and you were going to take them to Nero Wolfe so he could pry it out of them. And you haven’t even got the excuse that Wolfe is representing a client. He hasn’t got a client.”
    â€œWrong. He has.”
    â€œLike hell he has. Name her.”
    â€œNot her, him. Fritz Brenner. He is seeing red because food cooked by him was poisoned and killed a man. It’s convenient to have the client living right in the house. You admit that a licensed detective has a right to investigate on behalf of a client.”
    â€œI admit nothing.”
    â€œThat’s sensible,” I said approvingly. “You shouldn’t. When you’re on the stand, being sued for false arrest, it would be bad to have it thrown up to you, and it would be two against one because the hackie could testify. Can you hear us, driver?”
    â€œSure I can hear you,” he sang out. “It’s very interesting.”
    â€œSo watch your tongue,” I told Purley. “You could get hooked for a year’s pay. As for quoting the police, I merely said that they think it was one of those five, and when Cramer told Mr. Wolfe that he didn’t say it was confidential. As for telling them what the police think, same comment. As for playing that game with them, why not? As for trying to get them to tell me things, I won’t comment on that at all because I don’t want to be rude. That must have been a slip of the tongue. If you ask me why I didn’t balk there at the apartment and bring up these points then and there, what was the use? You had spoiled the party. They wouldn’t havecome downtown with me. Also I am saving a buck of Mr. Wolfe’s money, since you had arrested me and therefore the taxi fare is on the city of New York. Am I still under arrest?”
    â€œYou’re damn right you are.”
    â€œThat may be ill-advised. You heard him, driver?”
    â€œSure I heard him.”
    â€œGood. Try to remember it.”
    We were on Ninth Avenue, stopped at Forty-second Street for a light. When the light changed and we moved, Purley told the hackie to pull over to the curb, and he obeyed. At that time of night there were plenty of gaps. Purley took something from a pocket and