He knew damn well I hadn't had time to ask what he wanted. I said, "You."
"No. I've been pestered enough on a matter in which I have no interest. Tell him so and don't-"
Weed was there. He crossed to the red leather chair, plumped into it as if he owned it, and said, "I'm not going to pester you. I'm going to hire you."
Wolfe glared at me. I had let a man in without con- sulting him; he would have something to say about that when we were alone. Weed was going on. "I know you come high, but I pay my bills. Do you want a retainer?"
Wolfe had transferred the glare to him. "No. You not only intrude, you presume. Archie, show him the door."
"Now wait a minute. I'm not very…" He let it hang and started to work his jaw. He had plenty of jaw, a little bony but not out of proportion. He got it under control. "All right, I started wrong. I'll try again. Mrs. Barry Hazen came to see you this morning and left a gun with you. Where is it?"
"Intrusion and presumption," Wolfe said, "and now effrontery. I must insist-"
"Damn it, I know she did! She told me so! She was here when she heard about it, that they had found his body! And she wanted to hire you, she wanted to give you a check, and you wouldn't take it!" He paused to control his jaw. "So I want to hire you, and I'll pay your bill. I just left the District Attorney's office and she's still there. They wouldn't let me see her, but she's there and they're going to charge her with murder. I can't see why it's presumption for me to want to hire you- you're in the detective business and my money is as good as anybody's. All right, I got ahead of myself asking you about the gun, but when I'm your client there's no reason why you shouldn't tell me where it is." He stuck a hand in his pocket and brought out a wad of bills, not a thick one, and unfolded it.
I was trying to decide. Either he thought that Lucy Hazen had killed her husband, and was being ehival- rous, or he didn't think she had but was selling Wolfe the idea that he did think so. Whichever it was, he was willing to spend money on it, for he got up from his chair to put the bills on Wolfe's desk.
As Wolfe started to speak the phone rang, and I turned and got it. It was Lucy Hazen. She asked for Wolfe, and I told her to hold it and turned to him. "The woman that brought the sausage this morning wants to know if it will do. If you want to ask Fritz you can talk on the kitchen extension."
He got up and went, and I held on. In a moment his voice was in my ear. "This is Nero Wolfe. Mrs. Hazen?"
"Yes. You said this morning that if I need your ser- vices you would see." Her voice was shaky. "I do need them. I'm going to be arrested, and I-"
"Where are you?"
"At the District Attorney's. I don't know any-"
"Say only what you must say on the telephone."
"I'm in a booth with the door closed."
"Pfui. It is probably not only heard but also recorded. Say only what you must."
"All right." A little pause. "He said I could phone a lawyer, and I don't know any except my husband's, and I don't want him. Will you get one for me?"
"I'll send one to you. After speaking with him you can decide whether to engage him."
"I will. Of course. But I want to engage you too. You said you would if I needed you."
"I said I would see." A pause, longer than hers. If he committed himself he would have to work, and he would rather eat than work. "Very well." He growled it. "I am engaged. One question: have you disclosed any of your conversation with me? Yes or no."
"No."
"Satisfactory. One instruction: if you have an inten- tion to reject property left you by your husband you will neither declare it nor indicate it. You're going to have some bills to pay."
"But I don't want anything from him! I told you-" "We're on the phone. The lawyer will join me in that instruction. His name is Nathaniel Parker. Archie, get Mr. Parker. I'll talk from here."
Chapter 4
I pushed the button down, released it, dialed Park- er's home number, got him, buzzed the kitchen, and Wolfe got on. He gave Parker the necessary facts, and not much more-nothing of what Mrs. Hazen had told us that morning, nothing about the gun. He did say that I had formed the conclusion that she had not shot her husband, and that he had accepted it. Parker was to arrange for bail if she was bailable, if they held her on the big charge he was to get what he could at the DA's office. I waited to hang up until Wolfe was at the office door. He went to his desk, sat, leveled his eyes at Theodore Weed, and spoke.
"Now sir. That was timely. It was Mrs. Hazen on the phone. I have sent-"
"Where is she?"
"At the District Attorney's office. She thinks she is going to be held. I have sent a lawyer to her, and I have agreed to act in her behalf. You were assuming that I declined her offer of a check because I thought she was guilty of murder or at least was implicated, but you were wrong. She is now my client." He wiggled a finger at the bills on the desk. "Your money. Take it."
Weed's jaw was hanging, his lips parted. He found words. "But you-I don't see why you-"
"You're not obliged to see and I'm not obliged to explain. Why do you think Mrs. Hazen killed her hus- band? Was it merely surmise?"
"I don't-I don't think she killed him. She didn't!"
"If I had taken your money what were you going to ask me to do?" "I don't know exactly. I was going… to consult you. I wanted to know what you did with the gun. Have the police got it?"
Wolfe shook his head. "I am acting for her now, Mr. Weed. You are the enemy-one of them. What if you killed Mr. Hazen, or know who did, and would like to see it imputed to her, and suspecting, for whatever reason, that she left a gun with me this morning, you want to find out? What if you are indeed the enemy?"
Weed sat and stared at him. His jaw started to work again and he stopped it. "Look here," he said. "I want to know something. I know your reputation, I know about you. Is that straight, Mrs. Hazen phoned you just now and you're working for her?"
"It is."
"All right, then this is straight too." He stuck an arm out. "You can cut off this arm if it will help her any. And the other one. If that's corny, okay, that's where I stand."
Wolfe regarded him with narrowed eyes. So did I. He looked as if he meant it, but even if he did, that didn't make him our pal. If he would give an arm to help her, and if he had known how she felt about her husband, he might have taken steps to get rid of him for her, which wouldn't cost him even a finger if he was lucky.
Wolfe made a tent with his fingers, the tips together, his elbows on the chair arms. "Indeed," he said. "I have no use for your arm, but some information might be helpful. When did you last see Mr. Hazen?"
"I want to know where that gun is. I know she left it here, she told me so."
"When did she tell you?"
"This afternoon. I was there when she came home."
"What else did she tell you?"
"Not much-there wasn't time. We were inter- rupted. I knew Hazen had a gun in a drawer in his room, and I had looked to see if it was there and it wasn't, and I asked her if she knew where it was. Have the police got it?"