Read Nero Wolfe 16 - Even in the Best Families for Free Online

make eight. I don’t know who invited him—my cousin perhaps—but it’s Miss Darrow that gets him here, a busy statesman.” Leeds snorted. “At his age he might know better.”
    “You don’t think much of women, huh?”
    “I don’t think of them at all. Much or little.” Leeds finished his drink. “Look at it. Which would you rather live with, those wonderful animals out there, or a woman?”
    “A woman,” I said firmly. “I haven’t run acrossher yet, there are so many, but even if she does turn out to be a dog I hope to God it won’t be one of yours. I want the kind I can let run loose.” I waved a hand. “Forget it. You like ’em, you can have ’em. Mrs. Frey is a member of the household, is she?”
    “Yes,” he said shortly.
    “Mrs. Rackham keeping her around as a souvenir of her dead son? Being neurotic about it?”
    “I don’t know. Ask her.” Leeds straightened up and got to his feet. “You know, of course, that I didn’t approve of her going to Nero Wolfe. I went with her only because she insisted on it. I don’t see how any good can come of it, but I think harm might. I don’t think you ought to be here, but you are, and we might as well go on over and drink their liquor instead of mine. I’ll go and wash up.”
    He left me.

Chapter 4
    H aving been given by Leeds my choice of driving over—three minutes—or taking a trail through the woods, I voted for walking. The edge of the woods was only a hundred yards to the rear of the kennels. It had been a warm day for early April, but now, with the sun gone over the hill, the sharp air made me want to step it up, which was just as well because I had to, to keep up with Leeds. He walked as if he meant it. When I commented on the fact that we ran into no fence anywhere, neither in the woods nor in the clear, he said that his place was merely a little corner of Mrs. Rackham’s property which she had let him build on some years ago.
    The last stretch of our walk was along a curving gravel path that wound through lawns, shrubs, trees, and different-shaped patches of bare earth. Living in the country would be more convenient if they would repeal the law against paths that go straight from one place to another place. The bigger and showier the grounds are, the more the paths have to curve, and the main reason for having lots of bushes and things is to compel the paths to curve in order to get through the mess. Anyhow, Leeds and I finally got tothe house, and entered without ringing or knocking, so apparently he was more or less a member of the household too.
    All six of them were gathered in a room that was longer and wider than Leeds’ whole house, with twenty rugs to slide on and at least forty different things to sit on, but it didn’t seem as if they had worked up much gaiety, in spite of the full stock of the portable bar, because Leeds and I were greeted as though nothing so nice had happened in years. Leeds introduced me, since I wasn’t supposed to have met Mrs. Rackham, and after I had been supplied with liquid, Annabel Frey gave a lecture on how I worked. Then Oliver A. Fierce, the statesman, wanted me to demonstrate by grilling each of them as suspected dog poisoners. When I tried to beg off they insisted, so I obliged. I was only so-so.
    Pierce was a smooth article. His manner was, of course, based on the law of nature regulating the attitude of an elected person toward everybody old enough to vote, but his timing and variations were so good that it was hard to recognize it, although he was only about my age. He was also about my size, with broad shoulders and a homely honest face, and a draw on his smile as swift as a flash bulb. I made a note to look up whether I lived in his assembly district. If he got the breaks the only question about him was how far and how soon.
    If in addition to his own equipment and talents he acquired Lina Darrow as a partner, it would probably be farther and sooner. She was, I would have guessed,