The Rubber Band/The Red Box 2-In-1 Read Free Page B

well tell you, Muir wanted to send for the police this morning, and I restrained him.”
    “Maybe Miss Vawter took it.”
    “She has been with us eighteen years. I would sooner suspect myself. Besides, someone is constantly passing in the corridor. If she left her desk even for a minute it would be noticed.”
    “How old is Clara Fox?”
    “Twenty-six.”
    “Oh. A bit junior, huh? For such a responsible position. Married?”
    “No. She is a remarkably competent person.”
    “Do you know anything of her habits? Does she collect diamonds or frolic with the geegees?”
    Perry stared at me. I said, “Does she bet on horse races?”
    He frowned. “Not that I know of. I am not personally intimate with her, and I have not had her spied on.”
    “How much does she get and how do you suppose she spends it?”
    “Her salary is thirty-six hundred. So far as I know, she lives sensibly and respectably. She has a small flat somewhere, I believe, and she has a little car—I have seen her driving it. She—I understand she enjoys the theater.”
    “Uh-huh.” I flipped back a page of my notebook and ran my eye over it. “And this Mr. Muir who leaves his drawer unlocked with thirty grand inside—might he have been caught personally with his financial pants down and made use of the money himself?”
    Perry smiled and shook his head. “Muir owns some twenty-eight thousand shares of the stock of our corporation, worth over two million dollars at the present market, besides other properties. It was quite usual for him to leave the drawer unlocked under those circumstances.”
    I glanced at my notebook again, and lifted my shoulders a shade and let them drop negligently, which meant that I was mildly provoked. The thing looked like a mess, possibly a little nasty, with nothing much to be expected in the way of action or profit. The first step, of course, after what Wolfe had said, was for me to go take a look at the 32nd floor of the Seaboard Building and enter into conversation. But the clock on the wall said 4:20. At six the attractive telephone voice with her out-of-town friend was expected to arrive; I wanted to be there, and I probably wouldn’t be if I once got started chasing that thirty grand. I said to Perry:
    “Okay. I suppose you’ll be at your office in the morning? I’ll be there at nine sharp to look things over. I’ll want to see most of—”
    “Tomorrow morning?” Perry was frowning. “Why not now?”
    “I have another appointment.”
    “Cancel it.” The color topped his cheekbones again. “This is urgent. I am one of Wolfe’s oldest clients. I took the trouble to come here personally …”
    “Sorry, Mr. Perry. Won’t tomorrow do? My appointment can’t very well be postponed.”
    “Send someone else.”
    “There’s no one available who could handle it.”
    “This is outrageous!” Perry jerked up in his chair. “I insist on seeing Wolfe!”
    I shook my head. “You know you can’t. You know darned well he’s eccentric.” But then I thought, after all, I’ve seen worse guys, and he’s a client, and maybe he can’t help it if he gets on Mayor’s Committees, perhaps they nag him. So I got out of my chair and said, “I’ll go upstairs and put it up to Wolfe, he’s the boss. If he says—”
    The door of the office opened. I turned. Fritz came in, walking formal as he always did to announce a caller. But he didn’t get to announce this one. The caller came right along, two steps behind Fritz, and I grinned when I saw he was stepping so soft that Fritz didn’t know he was there.
    Fritz started, “A gentleman to—”
    “Yeah, I see him. Okay.”
    Fritz turned and saw he had been stalked, blinked, and beat it. I went on observing the caller, because he was a specimen. He was about six feet three inches tall, wearing an old blue serge suit with no vest and the sleeves a mile short, carrying a cream-colored ten-gallon hat, with a face that looked as if it had been left out on the fire