She smiled at him.
“As a philosopher, I don’t know.
I’m not a detective.
As a woman, they didn’t.”
“If they did, you have no knowledge of it?”
“No.”
“Good.
Have you a dollar bill?”
“I suppose I have.”
“Give me one.”
She shook her head, not in refusal, but in resigned perplexity at senseless antics.
She looked in her bag and got out a dollar bill and handed it to Wolfe.
He took it and unfolded it and handed it across to me.
“Enter it, please, Archie.
Retainer from Miss Clara Fox.
And get Mr. Perry on the phone.”
He turned to her.
“You are now my client.”
She didn’t smile.
“With the understanding, I suppose, that I may—”
“May sever the connection?” His creases unfolded. “By all means.
Without notice.”
I found Perry’s number and dialed it.
After giving my fingerprints by television to some dumb kluck I finally got him on, and nodded to Wolfe to take it.
Wolfe was suave.
“Mr. Perry?
This is Nero Wolfe.
I have Mr. Goodwin’s report of his preliminary investigation.
He was inclined to agree with your own attitude regarding the probable innocence of Clara Fox, and he thought we might therefore be able to render some real service to you.
But by a curious chance Miss Fox called at our office this evening—she is here now, in fact—and asked us to represent her interests in the matter…. No, permit me, please…. Well, it seemed to be advisable to accept her retainer… Really, sir, I see nothing unethical …”
Wolfe hated to argue on the telephone.
He cut it as short as he could, and rang off, and washed it down with beer.
He turned back to Clara Fox.
“Tell me about your personal relations with Mr. Perry and Mr. Muir.”
She didn’t answer right away. She was sitting there frowning at him.
It was the first time I had seen her brow wrinkled, and I liked it better smoothed out.
Finally she said,
“I supposed you had already taken that case for Mr. Perry.
I had gone to a lot of trouble deciding that you were the best man for us—Miss Lindquist and Mr. Walsh and Mr. Scovil and me—and I had already telephoned on Saturday and made the appointment with you, before I heard anything about the stolen money.
I didn’t know until two hours ago that Mr. Perry had engaged you, and since we had the appointment I thought we might as well go through with it.
Now you tell Mr. Perry you’re acting for me, not the Seaboard, and you say I’ve given you a retainer for that.
That’s not straight.
If you want to call that a retainer, it’s for the business I came to see you about, not that silly rot about the money.
That’s nonsense.”
Wolfe inquired,
“What makes you think it’s nonsense?”
“Because it is.
I don’t know what the truth of it is, but as far as I’m concerned it’s nonsense.”
Wolfe nodded.
“I agree with you.