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some. He wasn’t nearly as jittery as he had been when he asked for a glass of water to take the pills. He hadn’t acceptedWolfe’s offer in so many words, but he had agreed to take no steps until he had heard further from Wolfe, provided he heard within thirty-two hours, by ten o’clock Wednesday morning. The only action he would take during that period would be to instruct Ann Paige to tell no one that he had read my statement and to learn why she had skedaddled. He didn’t think the police would tell him the contents of my statement, but if they did he would say that he would credit it only if it had corroboration. Of course he wanted to know what Wolfe was going to do, but Wolfe said he didn’t know and probably wouldn’t decide until after breakfast.
    When I returned to the office after holding Otis’s coat for him and letting hin out, Fritz was there.
    “No,” Wolfe was saying grimly. “You know quite well I almost never eat at night.”
    “But you had no dinner. An omelet, or at least—”
    “No! Confound it, let me starve! Go to bed!”
    Fritz looked at me, I shook my head, and he went. I sat down and spoke. “Do I get Saul and Fred and Orrie?”
    “No.” He took in air through his nose and let it out through his mouth. “If I don’t know how I am going to proceed, how the deuce can I have errands for them?
    “Rhetorical,” I said.
    “It is not rhetorical. It’s logical. There are the obvious routine errands, but that would be witless. Find the cheap restaurant or lunchroom where they met? How many are there?”
    “Oh, a thousand. More.”
    He grunted. “Or question the entire personnel ofthat law office to learn which of those three men spoke at length with Miss Aaron yesterday afternoon? Or, assuming that he followed her here, left the office on her heels? Or which one cannot account for himself from five o’clock to ten minutes past six? Or find the nearby phone booth from which he dialed this number? Or investigate their relations with Mrs. Sorell? Those areall sensible and proper lines of inquiry, and by mid-morning Mr. Cramer and the District Attorney will have a hundred men pursuing them.”
    “Two hundred. This is special.”
    “So for me to put three men on them, four including you, would be frivolous. A possible procedure would be to have Mr. Otis get them here—Edey, Heydecker, and Jett. He could merely tell them that he has engaged me to investigate the murder that was committed in my house.”
    “If they’re available. They’ll be spending most of the day at the DA’s office. By request.”
    He shut his eyes and tightened his lips. I picked up the copy of my statement which Otis had surrendered, got the second carbon from my drawer, went and opened the safe, and put them on a shelf. I had closed the safe door and was twirling the knob when Wolfe spoke.
    “Archie.”
    “Yes sir.”
    “Will they tackle Mrs. Sorell?”
    “I doubt it. Not right away. What for? Since Cramer warned us that if we blab what Bertha Aaron told me we may be hooked for libel, which was kind of him, evidently he’s going to save it, and going to Mrs. Sorell would spill it.”
    He nodded. “She is young and comely.”
    “Yeah. I’ve never seen her offstage. You have seen pictures of her.”
    “You have a flair for dealing with personable young women.”
    “Sure. They melt like chocolate bars in the sun. But you’re exaggerating it a little if you think I can go to that specimen and ask her which member of the firm she met in a cheap restaurant or lunchroom and she’ll wrap her arms around me and murmur his name in my ear. It might take me an hour or more.”
    “You can bring her here.”
    “Maybe. Possibly. To see the orchids?”
    “I don’t know.” He pushed the chair back and raised his bulk. “I am not myself. Come to my room at eight o’clock.” He headed for the hall.

Chapter 4
    A t 10:17 that Tuesday morning I left the house, walked north fourteen short blocks and east six long