Rex Stout - The Last Witness

I had had previous contacts with Assistant District Attorney Irving Mandelbaum, but had never seen him perform in a courtroom. That morning, watching him at the chore of trying to persuade a jury to clamp it on Leonard Ashe for the murder of Marie Willis, I thought he was pretty good and might be better when he had warmed up. A little plump and a little short, bald in front and big-eared, he wasnt impressive to look at, but he was businesslike and self-assured without being cocky, and he had a neat trick of pausing for a moment to look at the jury as if he half expected one of them to offer a helpful suggestion. When he pulled it, not too often, his back was turned to the judge and the defense counsel, so they couldnt see his face, but I could, from where I sat in the audience.

It was the third day of the trial, and he had called his fifth witness, a scared-looking little guy with a pushed-in nose who gave his name, Clyde Bagby, took the oath, sat down, and fixed his scared brown eyes on Mandelbaum as if he had abandoned hope.

Mandelbaums tone was reassuring. What is your business, Mr. Bagby?

The witness swallowed. Im the president of Bagby Answers Ink.

By Ink you mean Incorporated?

Yes, sir.

Do you own the business?

I own half the stock thats been issued, and my wife owns the other half.

How long have you been operating that business?

Five years now nearly five and a half.

And what is the business? Please tell the jury about it.

Bagbys eyes went left for a quick, nervous glance at the jury box but came right back to the prosecutor. Its a telephone-answering business, thats all. You know what that is.

Yes, but some members of the jury may not be familiar with the operation. Please describe it.

The witness licked his lips. Well, youre a person or a firm or an organization and you have a phone, but youre not always there and you want to know about calls that come in your absence. So you go to a telephone-answering service. There are several dozen of them in New York, some of them spread all over town with neighborhood offices, big operations. My own operation, Bagby Answers Ink, its not so big because I specialize in serving individuals, houses and apartments, instead of firms or organizations. Ive got offices in four different exchange districts Gramercy, Plaza, Trafalgar, and Rhinelander. I cant work it from one central office because

Excuse me, Mr. Bagby, but we wont go into technical problems. Is one of your offices at six-eighteen East Sixty-ninth Street, Manhattan?

Yes, sir.

Describe the operation at that address.

Well, thats my newest place, opened only a year ago, and my smallest, so its not in an office building, its an apartment on account of the labor law. You cant have women working in an office building after two a.m. unless its a public service, but I have to give my clients all-night service, so there on Sixty-ninth Street Ive got four operators for the three switchboards, and they all live right there in the apartment. That way I can have one at the boards from eight till two at night, and another one from two oclock on. After nine in the morning three are on, one for each board, for the daytime load.

Are the switchboards installed in one of the rooms of the apartment?

Yes, sir.

Tell the jury what one of them is like and how it works.

Bagby darted another nervous glance at the jury box and went back to the prosecutor. Its a good deal like any board in a big office, with rows of holes for the plugs. Of course its installed by the telephone company, with the special wiring for connections with my clients phones. Each board has room for sixty clients. For each client theres a little light and a hole and a card strip with the clients name. When someone dials a clients number his light goes on and a buzz synchronizes with the ringing of the clients phone. How many buzzes the girl counts before she plugs in depends on what client it is. Some of them want her to plug in after three buzzes, some want her to wait longer. Ive got one client that has her count fifteen buzzes. Thats the kind of specialized individualized service I give my clients. The big outfits, the ones with tens of thousands of clients, they wont do that. Theyve commercialized it. With me every client is a special case and a sacred trust.

Thank you, Mr. Bagby. Mandelbaum swiveled his head for a swift sympathetic smile at the jury and swiveled it back again. But I wasnt buzzing for a plug for your business. When a clients light shows on the board, and the girl has heard the prescribed number of buzzes, she plugs in on the line, is that it?

I thought Mandelbaums crack was a little out of place for that setting, where a man was on trial for his life, and turned my head right for a glance at Nero Wolfe to see if he agreed, but one glimpse of his profile told me that he was sticking to his role of a morose martyr and so was in no humor to agree with anyone or anything.

That was to be expected. At that hour of the morning, following his hard-and-fast schedule, he would have been up in the plant rooms on the roof of his old brownstone house on West Thirty-fifth Street, bossing Theodore for the glory of his celebrated collection of orchids, even possibly getting his hands dirty. At eleven oclock, after washing his hands, he would have taken the elevator down to his office on the ground floor, arranged his oversized corpus in his oversized chair behind his desk, rung for Fritz to bring beer, and started bossing Archie Goodwin, me. He would have given me any instructions he thought timely and desirable, for anything from typing a letter to tailing the mayor, which seemed likely to boost his income and add to his reputation as the best private detective east of San Francisco. And he would have been looking forward to lunch by Fritz.

And all that was would-have-been because he had been subpoenaed by the State of New York to appear in court and testify at the trial of Leonard Ashe. He hated to leave his house at all, and particularly he hated to leave it for a trip to a witness-box. Being a private detective, he had to concede that a summons to testify was an occupational hazard he must accept if he hoped to collect fees from clients, but this cloud didnt even have that silver lining. Leonard Ashe had come to the office one day about two months ago to hire him, but had been turned down. So neither fee nor glory was in prospect. As for me, I had been subpoenaed too, but only for insurance, since I wouldnt be called unless Mandelbaum decided Wolfes testimony needed corroboration, which wasnt likely.

It was no pleasure to look at Wolfes gloomy phiz, so I looked back at the performers. Bagby was answering. Yes, sir, she plugs in and says, Mrs. Smiths residence, or, Mr. Joness apartment, or whatever she has been told to say for that client. Then she says Mrs. Smith is out and is there any message, and so on, whatever the situation calls for. Sometimes the client has called and given her a message for some particular caller. Bagby flipped a hand. Just anything. We give specialized service.

Mandelbaum nodded. I think that gives us a clear picture of the operation. Now, Mr. Bagby, please look at that gentleman in the dark blue suit sitting next to the officer. He is the defendant in this trial. Do you know him?

Yes, sir. Thats Mr. Leonard Ashe.

When and where did you meet him?

In July he came to my office on Forty-seventh Street. First he phoned, and then he came.

Can you give the day in July?

The twelfth. A Monday.

What did he say?

He asked how my answering service worked, and I told him, and he said he wanted it for his home telephone at his apartment on East Seventy-third Street. He paid cash for a month in advance. He wanted twenty-four-hour service.