Too Many Clients by Rex Stout

Author:Rex Stout [Stout, Rex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Private Investigators, Detective and Mystery Stories, Mystery, New York (N.Y.), Wolfe; Nero (Fictitious Character)
ISBN: 9780553254235
Publisher: Crimeline
Published: 1955-10-01T07:45:33+00:00

Chapter 10

It was 1:40 when I left that house. It was 6:10, four and a half hours later, when I said to Austin Hough, “You know damn well you can’t. Come on.”

During the four and a half hours I had accomplished a good deal. I had learned that in a large university a lot of people know where an assistant professor ought to be or might be, but no one knows where he is. I had avoided getting trampled in corridors twice, once by diving into an alcove and once by fighting my way along the wall. I had sat in an anteroom and read a magazine article entitled “Experiments in Secondary Education in Japan.” I had sweated for fifteen minutes in a phone booth, reporting to Wolfe on the latest developments, including the acquisition of a house by Cesar and Felita Perez. I had taken time out to find a lunch counter on University Place and take in a corned-beef sandwich, edible, a piece of cherry pie, not bad, and two glasses of milk. I had been stopped in a hall by three coeds, one of them as pretty as a picture (no reference to the pictures on the top floor of the Perez house), who asked for my autograph. They probably took me for either Sir Laurence Olivier or Nelson Rockefeller, I’m not sure which.

And I never did find Austin Hough until I finally decided it was hopeless and went for a walk in the direction of 64 Eden Street. I didn’t phone because his wife might answer, and it wouldn’t have been tactful to ask if her husband was in. The thing was to get a look at him. So I went there and pushed the button in the vestibule marked Hough, opened the door when the click sounded, and entered, mounted two flights, walked down the hall to a door which opened as I arrived, and there he was.

He froze, staring. His mouth opened and closed. I said, not aggressively, just opening the conversation, “Other sins only speak; murder shrieks out.”

“How in the name of God …” he said.

“How doesn’t matter,” I said. “We meet again, that’s enough. Is your wife at home?”

“No. Why?”

“Why doesn’t matter either if she’s not here. There’s nothing I’d enjoy more than chatting with you a while, but as you mentioned Monday, Mr. Wolfe comes down from the plant rooms at six o’clock, and he’s in the office waiting for you. Come along.”

He was deciding something. He decided it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I mentioned nothing to you Monday. I’ve never seen you before. Who are you?”

“I’m Thomas G. Yeager. His ghost. Don’t be a sap. If you think it’s just my word against yours, nuts. You can’t get away with it. You know damn well you can’t. Come on.”

“We’ll see if I can’t. Take your foot away from the door. I’m shutting it.”

There was no point in prolonging it. “Okay,” I said, “I’ll answer the question you didn’t finish.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.