Rex Stout - The Final Deduction (A Nero Wolfe Mystery)

Mrs. Vail got her bag and opened it and took out an envelope. He didnt come home Sunday night, and yesterday this came in the mail.

It was an ordinary off-white envelope. The flap had been cut clean with a knife or opener, no jagged edges. I handed it to Wolfe, and he removed the contents, a folded sheet of cheap bond paper, the kind you get in scratch pads. He held it to his left, so I could read it too. This is what it said:

We have got your Jimmy safe and sound. We havent hurt him any and you can have him back all in one piece for $500,000 if you play it right and keep it strictly between you and us. We mean strictly. If you try any tricks, youll never see him again.

This low-priced Bantam Book
has been completely reset in a type face
designed for easy reading, and was printed
from new plates. It contains the complete
text of the original hard-cover edition.
NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED

THE FINAL DEDUCTION
A Bantam Book / published by arrangement with
The Viking Press, Inc.

PRINTING HISTORY
Viking edition published October 1961
Dollar Mystery Guild edition published February 1962
Bantam edition published March 1963
2nd printing . August 1963 3rd printing . September 1968
4th printing . September 1969
New Bantam edition published October 1970
2nd printing October 1974 3rd printing May 1981
4th printing . November 1985

All rights reserved.
Copyright 1955 by Rex Stout.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by
mimeograph or any other means, without permission.
For information address: The Viking Press, Inc.,
40 W. 23 St., New York, NY 10010.

Ebook ISBN: 9780307755933

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Your name, please?

I asked her only as a matter of form. Having seen her picture in newspapers and magazines at least a dozen times, and having seen her in person at the Flamingo and other spots around town, I had of course recognized her through the one-way glass in the door as I went down the hall to answer the doorbell, though she wasnt prinked up for show. There was nothing dowdy about her brown tailored suit or fur stole or the hundred-dollar pancake on her head, but her round white face, too white there in daylight, which could be quite passable in a restaurant or theater lobby, could have stood some attention. It was actually flabby, and the rims of her eyes were red and swollen. She spoke.

I dont think She let it hang a moment, then said, But youre Archie Goodwin.

I nodded. And youre Althea Vail. Since you have no appointment, Ill have to tell Mr. Wolfe what you want to see him about.

Id rather tell him myself. Its very confidential and very urgent.

I didnt insist. Getting around as I do, and hearing a lot of this and that, both true and false, I had a guess on what was probably biting her, and if that was it I would enjoy watching Wolfes face as she spilled it, and hearing him turn her down. So I admitted her. The usual routine with a stranger who has no appointment is to leave him or her on the stoop while I go and tell Wolfe, but I can make exceptions, and it was a raw windy day for late April, so I took her to the front room, the first door on your left when you are inside, returned to the hall, and went to the second door on the left, to the office.

Wolfe was on his feet over by the big globe, glaring at a spot on it. When I had gone to answer the bell he had been glaring at Cuba, but he had shifted to Laos.

A woman, I said.

He stuck with Laos. No, he said.

Probably, I conceded. But she says its urgent and confidential, and she could pay a six-figure fee without batting an eye. Her name is Althea Vail. Mrs. Jimmy Vail. You read newspapers thoroughly, so you must know that even the Times calls him Jimmy. Her eyes are red, presumably from crying, but she is now under control. I dont think shell blubber.

No!

I didnt leave her on the stoop because of the weather. Shes in the front room. I have heard talk of her, and I understand that she is prompt pay.

He turned. Confound it, he growled. He took in a bushel of air through his nose, let it out through his mouth, and moved. Behind his desk he stood, a living mountain, beside his oversized chair. He seldom rises to receive a caller, woman or man, but since he was already on his feet it would take no energy to be polite, so why not? I went and opened the connecting door to the front room, told Mrs. Vail to come, presented her, and convoyed her to the red leather chair near the end of Wolfes desk. Sitting, she gave the stole a backward toss, and it would have slid to the floor if I hadnt caught it. Wolfe had lowered his 285 pounds into his chair and was scowling at her, his normal attitude to anyone, especially a woman, who had the gall to come uninvited to the old brownstone on West 35th Street, his house, expecting him to go to work.

Althea Vail put her brown leather bag on the stand at her elbow. First, she said, Id better tell you how I got here.

Not material, Wolfe muttered.

Yes it is, she declared. It came out hoarse, and she cleared her throat. Youll see why. But first of all it has to be understood that what Im going to tell you is absolutely in confidence. I know about you, I know your reputation, or I wouldnt be here, but it has to be definite that this is in complete confidence. Of course Im going to give you a check as a retainer, and perhaps I should do that before She reached to the stand for her bag. Ten thousand dollars?

Wolfe grunted. If you know about me, madam, you should know that thats fatuous. If you want to hire me to do a job, what is it? If I take it, a retainer may or may not be required. As for confidence, nothing that you tell me will be revealed unless it involves a crime which I am obliged, as a citizen and a licensed private detective, to report to authority. I speak also for Mr. Goodwin, who is in my employ and who

It does involve a crime. Kidnaping is a crime.

It is indeed.

But it must not be reported to authority.

My brows were up. Seated at my desk, my chair swiveled to face her, I crossed off the guess I had made. Apparently I wouldnt get to watch Wolfes face while a woman asked him to tail her husband, or to hear him turn her down. He was speaking.

Certainly kidnaping is unique. The obligation not to withhold knowledge of a major crime must sometimes bow to other considerations, for instance saving a life. Is that your concern?

Yes.

Then you may trust our discretion. We make no firm commitment, but we are not fools. I suppose you have been warned to tell no one of your predicament?

Yes.

Then I was wrong. How you got here is material. How did you?

I phoned a friend of mine, Helen Blount, who lives in an apartment on Seventy-fifth Street, and arranged it with her. The main entrance to the apartment house is on Seventy-fifth Street, but the service entrance is on Seventy-fourth Street. I phoned her at half past ten. I told my chauffeur to have my car out front at half past eleven. At half past eleven I went out and got in my car and was driven to my friends address. I didnt look behind to see if I was being followed because I was afraid the chauffeur would notice. I got out and went into the apartment housethe men there know meand I went to the basement and through to the service entrance on Seventy-fourth Street, and Helen Blount was there in her car, and I got in, and she drove me here. So I dont think theres the slightest chance that they know Im seeing Nero Wolfe. Do you?