I went on dialing.
“I said stop it!”
“That will do, Archie,” Wolfe told me. I turned from the phone and saw he was still frowning at the inspector but his lips had relaxed. He used them for speech. “I don’t see, Mr. Cramer, what better you can ask than the choice I offer. As I told you on the phone, give me your word that you’ll cooperate with me on my terms, and I shall at once tell you about it in full detail, including of course the justification for it. Or refuse to give me your word, that’s the alternative, and I shall ask Mr. Skinner if the District Attorney’s office would like to cooperate with me. I guarantee only that no harm will be done, but my expectation is that the case will be closed. Isn’t that fair enough?”
Cramer growled like a tiger in a cage having a chair poked at him.
“I don’t understand,” Wolfe declared, “why the devil I bother with you. Mr. Skinner would jump at it.”
Cramer’s growl became words. “When would it be — tonight?”
“I said you’d get details after I get your promise, but you may have that much. It would be early tomorrow morning, contingent upon delivery of a package I’m expecting — by the way, Archie, you didn’t put the car in the garage?”
“No, sir.”
“Good. You’ll have to go later, probably around midnight, to meet an airplane. It depends on the airplane, Mr. Cramer. If it arrives tomorrow instead of tonight, we’d have to postpone it until Saturday morning.”
“Where? Here in your office?”