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bootblack. You owe Mr. Wolfe something and he wants it. Elma Vassos, the daughter, slept in his house last night.'
    'The hell she did. In your room?'
    'No. I snore. She came and fed him a line that her life was in danger. Whoever killed Ashby and her father, she didn't know who, was going to kill her. Then the morning paper has it different. Not spelled out, but it's there, that Vassos killed Ashby and when you started breathing down his neck he found a cliff and jumped off. So you knew about it when you came to see Mr. Wolfe Monday, you knew then about Ashby and Elma Vassos. Why didn't you say so'If you had, when she came last night she wouldn't have got in. So you owe him something. When he turns her out he wants to make a little speech to her, and he wants to know who gave you the dope on her and Ashby. Off the record, and you won't be quoted.'
    He threw his head back and laughed. Not an all-out laugh, just a ha-ha. He stretched an arm to touch my chest with a forefinger. 'Slept in his house, huh'Wonderful! I'd like to hear his speech, what will he call her'Not trollop or floozy, he'll have some fancy word for it. And he has the nerve-on out, Goodwin.'
    'He wants to know-'
    'Nuts. Beat it.'
    'But dammit-'
    'Out.'
    I went; and since there was now nothing to work the brain on, I walked back to 35th Street. Wolfe was at his desk with the book he was on, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by Shirer. A tray on his desk held beer bottles and a glass, and beside it was the report I had typed of my talk with Elma. I went to my desk and sat, and waited until he finished a paragraph and looked up.
    'We'll have to bounce her,' I said. 'You will. I would prefer to marry her and reform her, but Cramer would take my license away. Do you want it in full?'
    He said yes, and I gave it to him. At the end I said, 'As you see, it didn't take any dexterity. The first thing he said, 'So your client bought a one-way ticket,' was enough. He is not finessing. You can't blame him for laughing, since he honestly believes that you have a floozy for a house guest. As for his refusing to name-'
    'Shut up.'
    I leaned back and crossed my legs. He glowered at me for five seconds, then closed his eyes. In a moment he opened them. 'It's hopeless,' he said through his teeth.
    'Yes, sir,' I agreed. 'I suppose I could disguise myself as a bootblack and take Pete's box and try to-'
    'Shut up! I mean it's intolerable. Mr. Cramer cannot be permitted to flout& ' He put the book down without marking his place, which he never did. 'There's no way out. I could have shined my shoes myself. I considered this possibility after reading your report, and here it is. Get Mr. Parker.'
    I didn't have to look at the book for the number of Nathaniel Parker, the lawyer. I turned to the phone and dialed it, and got him, and Wolfe lifted his receiver.
    'Good morning, sir. Afternoon. I need you. I am going to advise a young woman who has consulted me to bring actions against a corporation and five or six individuals, asking for damages, say a million dollars from each of them, on account of defamatory statements they have made. Slander, not libel, since as far as I know the statements have been made orally and not published. She is here in my house. Can you come to my office?& No, after lunch will do. Three o'clock?& Very well, I'll expect you.'
    He hung up and turned to me. 'We'll have to keep her. You will go with her to her home to get whatever she needs-not now, later. Mr. Cramer expects me to turn her out, does he'Pfui. She would be dead within twenty-four hours, and that would clean the slate for him. Tell Fritz to take her lunch to her room. I will not be rude to a guest at my table, and the effort to control myself would spoil the meal.'

Nero Wolfe 39 - Trio For Blunt Instruments
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    I ASKED PARKER ONCE how many law books he had in his office, and he said about seven hundred. I asked how many there were in print in the English language, and he said probably around ten