Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe 27 Read Online Free PDF

on flat heels toward the front. Wolfe passed through the open door with me behind.
    This room was different—somewhat smaller, with no van Gogh and the kind of furniture you might expect. The bed hadn’t been made, and Wolfe stood and scowled at it a moment, lowered himself gingerly onto a chair too small for him with worn upholstery, and told me curtly, “Look around.”
    I did so. Bella Velardi was a crack-lover. A closet door and a majority of the drawers in a dressing table and two chests were open to cracks of various widths. One of the reasons I am still shy a wife is the risk of getting a crack-lover. I went and pulled the closet door open, and, having no machete to hack my way into the jungle of duds, swung it back to its crack and stepped across to the library. It was a stack of paperbacks on a little table, the one on top being entitled
One Mistake Too Many
, with a picture of a double-breasted floozie shrinking in terror from a muscle-bound baboon. There was also a pile of recent editions of
Racing Form
and
Track Dope.
    “She’s a philanthropist,” I told Wolfe. “She donates dough to the cause of equine genetics.”
    “Meaning?”
    “She bets on horse races.”
    “Does she lose much?”
    “She loses. How much depends on what she bets.Probably tidy sums, since she takes two house journals.”
    He grunted. “Open drawers. Have one open when she enters. I want to see how much impudence these creatures will tolerate.”
    I obeyed. The six drawers in the bigger chest all held clothes, and I did no pawing. A good job might have uncovered some giveaway under a pile of nylons, but there wasn’t time for it. I closed all the drawers to show her what I thought of cracks. Those in the dressing table were also uninteresting. In the second drawer of the smaller chest, among other items, was a collection of photographs, mostly unmounted snaps, and, running through them, with no expectations, I stopped at one for a second look. It was Bella Velardi and another girl, with a man standing between them, in bathing outfits with the ocean for background. I went and handed it to Wolfe.
    “The man?” I asked. “I read newspapers too, and look at the pictures, but it was two months ago, and I could be wrong.”
    He slanted it to get the best light from a window. He nodded. “Guy Unger.” He slipped it into a pocket. “Find more of him.”
    “If any.” I went back to the collection. “But you may not get a chance at her. It’s been a good four minutes. Either she’s getting a full briefing from Miss Hart, or they’ve phoned for help, and in that case—”
    The sound came of high heels clicking on the uncarpeted hall. I closed the second drawer and pulled the third one open, and was inspecting its contents when the clicks got to the door and were in the room. Shutting it in no hurry and turning to Bella Velardi, I was ready to meet a yelp of indignation, but didn’t have to. With her snappy black eyes and sassy littleface she must have been perfectly capable of indignation, but her nerves were too busy with something else. She decided to pretend she hadn’t caught me with a drawer open, and that was screwy. Added to other things, it made it a cinch that these phone answerers had something on their minds.
    Bella Velardi said in a scratchy little voice, “Miss Hart says you want to ask me something,” and went and sat on the edge of the unmade bed, with her fingers twisted together.
    Wolfe regarded her with his eyes half closed. “Do you know what a hypothetical question is, Miss Velardi?”
    “Of course I do.”
    “I have one for you. If I put three expert investigators on the job of finding out approximately how much you have lost betting on horse races in the past year, how long do you think it would take them?”
    “Why, I—” She blinked at him with a fine set of long lashes. “I don’t know.”
    “I do. With luck, five hours. Without it, five days. It would be simpler for you to tell me. How much