It was a little after midnight when the doorbell rang again, and I went to answer it and got an unpleasant surprise. There on the stoop was Johnny Keems. I never resented any of the other boys being called in to work on a case, and I didn’t actually resent Johnny either, only he gave me a pain in the back of my lap with his smirking around trying to edge in on my job. So I didn’t howl with delight at sight of him, and then I nearly did howl, not with delight, when I saw he wasn’t alone and what it was that kept him from being alone.
It was Anne Tracy standing behind him. And standing behind her was Fred Updegraff.
“Greetings,” I said, concealing my emotions, and they all entered. And the sap said to her, “This way, Miss Tracy,” and started for the office with her!
I stepped around and blocked him. “Some day,” I said, “you’ll skin your nose. Wait in the front room.”
He smiled at me the way he does. I waited until all three of them had gone through the door to the front room and it had closed behind them, and then returned to the office and told Wolfe:
“I didn’t know you had called out the army while I was gone. Visitors. The guy who wants my job and is welcome to it at any time, and my future wife, and the wholesome young fellow with the serious chin.”
“Ah,” Wolfe said. “That’s like Johnny. He should have phoned.” He grunted. He leaned back. His eyes rested on Rose an instant, then they closed, and his lips pushed out, and in, and out and in.
His eyes opened. “Bring them in here.”
“But—” Rose began, starting from her chair.
“It’s all right,” he assured her.