Trouble In Triplicate by Rex Stout Page A

Besides having his gun out, he also had the best of it in size of target, since Meeker was well over six feet and weighed a good two-twenty.
    'Not here and now,' Meeker said in a thin voice. 'Who gave you the steer?'
    'Nobody. I came on business.'
    'Lift 'em up.'
    'Tommyrot!' Wolfe blurted at them, but none of their four eyes moved. He went on, 'This is preposterous! Besides you two, there are five people here. If you shoot him, Mr. Fabian, what do you expect to do, shoot all of us'Nonsense. The same consideration holds for the other gentleman.' He addressed the other gentleman. 'Who the devil are you, sir'What do you mean, bounding into my house like this?'
    That relaxed me. I thought to myself, okay, say it ends-today, tomorrow. Before I die at least I get this. Before I die I get to hear Wolfe bawling hell out of Thumbs Meeker for dashing in to where Fabian is ready with his gun out. I felt I owed them something. So I said, 'That's Mr. Meeker, Mr. Wolfe. Mr. Meeker, this is Nero Wolfe.'
    'You heard me,' Meeker said in his thin voice. 'Not here and now. He's right. I came here on business.' Fabian didn't say anything. His arm didn't straighten out, but his hand receded until it was where his elbow had been, and both hand and gun slid into his side coat-pocket and stayed there.
    Wolfe demanded, 'You came here on business'What business?'
    Meeker turned, letting his eyes leave Fabian. They aimed at Wolfe. 'Who are these guys?'
    'They're here on business too. What is yours?'
    'By God.' Meeker smiled. That smile was famous, and I decided it justified its reputation. 'I don't know if I care to make it public. With Fabian here. He might think I was backing out, and I don't back out.' He turned again, not fast. 'I don't back out, Fabian.' Fabian had nothing to say. He was still standing up.
    'Confound it,' Wolfe said testily. 'What do you want?'
    Meeker turned again, and smiled again. 'I want to know if it's true that you told the cops that your punk put a finger on Perrit and his daughter for me.'
    'No.'
    'They seem to have that idea.'
    'That isn't true.'
    Meeker's smile came again. It came and went. 'Oh,' he said, 'I'm a liar.'
    'I don't know whether you're a liar or not. But if the police have made any such statement or intimation, they are. I would have expected you to be sufficiently familiar with police methods not to come running to me with anything as silly as that.'
    'You didn't tell them that?'
    'Certainly not.'
    Meeker looked at me. I was back at my desk. 'You're Goodwin. Did you?'
    'No,' I said. 'Am I a half-wit?'
    'Mr. Meeker.' Wolfe was curt. 'Now that you're here, I suggest that you stay. Be seated. You'll be interested in what I have to say. When you entered I was about to tell these people who killed Mr. Perrit and his daughter and how and why. It will be doubly interesting because the man who did it is present.'
    You could have heard a cockroach stomping. Schwartz, who was back in the red leather chair, was blinking as if he would never stop again. Morton was sitting on the edge of the couch, his palms on his knees. Saul Panzer hadn't moved as much as a finger since Wolfe and I had brought Fabian in.
    Fabian, still on his feet, rasped, 'I don't want to miss that.'
    'I'm present,' Meeker said.
    'Yes, sir, but it wasn't you. Sit down. I don't like to talk to faces on different levels. You too, Mr. Fabian.'
    '[Missing] as a law student, and indeed, his temerity was unlimited. He didn't bother about an alias. I suppose at the beginning, he regarded the two worlds as too far apart ever to get connected, and if he regretted it later on it was too late to change. Anyhow, he became engaged to marry Mr. Perrit's daughter under his own, Morton Schane.'
    'That's a lie.' It was Morton again. His tone wasn't as loud as it had been before, but it packed more weight.
    'You'll have a turn, Mr. Schane,' Wolfe said.
    His glance went around. 'As I said, I can't believe that Mr. Perrit didn't know about Mr. Schane, though he didn't