I would like to see her get something … much more human than justice.
For instance, if there is any difficulty about bail for her I would be glad to furnish it.”
“Thank you.
We’ll manage bail.
You asked me to be brief, Mr. Perry.
First, I suggest that you arrange to have the charge against Miss Fox quashed immediately.
Second, I wish to inform you of our intentions if that is not done.
At ten o’clock tomorrow morning I shall have Miss Fox submit herself to arrest and shall have her at once released on bail.
She will then start an action against Ramsey Muir and the Seaboard Products Corporation to recover one million dollars in damages for false arrest.
We deal in millions here now.
I think there is no question but that we shall have sufficient evidence to uphold our action.
If they try her first, so much the better.
She’ll be acquitted.”
“But how can … that’s absurd … if you have evidence …”
“That’s all, Mr. Perry.
That’s my brevity.
Good-by.”
I heard the click of Wolfe banging up.
Perry was sputtering, but I hung up too.
I tossed the notebook away and got up and stuck my hands in my pockets and walked around.
Perhaps I was muttering.
I was thinking to myself, if Wolfe takes that pot with nothing but a dirty deuce he’s a better man than he thinks he is, if that was possible.
On the face of it, it certainly looked as if his crazy conceit had invaded the higher centers of his brain and stopped his mental processes completely; but there was one thing that made such a supposition unlikely, namely, that he was spending money.
He had four expensive men riding around in taxis and he had got London on the phone as if it had been a delicatessen shop.
It was a thousand to one he was going to get it back.
Still another expenditure was imminent, as I learned when the phone rang again.
I sat down to get it, half hoping it was Perry calling back to offer a truce. But what I heard was Fred Durkin’s low growl, and he sounded peeved.
“That you, Archie?”
“Right.
What have you got?”
“Nothing.
Less than that.
Look here.
I’m talking from the Forty-seventh Street Station.”
“The … what?
What for?”
“What the hell do you suppose for?
I got arrested a little.”
I made a face and took a breath.
“Good for you,” I said grimly. “That’s a big help.
Men like you are the backbone of the country.
Go on.”
His growl went plaintive.
“Could I help it?
They bopped me at the garage when I went there to ask questions.
They say I committed something when I took that car last night.
I think they’re getting ready to send me somewhere, I suppose Centre Street.
What the hell could I do, run and let him tag me?
I wouldn’t be phoning now if it hadn’t happened that a friend of mine is on the desk here.”
“Okay.