“Can’t. The hinge is broke.”
“I say open up! We know they’re here!”
“You do in a pig’s eye. The things you don’t know. If you’ve got one, show it. No? No warrant? And all the judges out to lunch—”
“By God, if you think—”
“I don’t. Mr. Wolfe thinks. All I have is brute force. Like this—”
I banged the door to, made sure the lock had caught, went to the kitchen and stood on a chair and removed a screw, bolted the back door and told Fritz to leave it that way, and returned to the office. Wolfe stopped talking to look at me. I nodded, and told him as I crossed to my chair:
“Three irate men. They’ll probably return with legalities.”
“Who are they?”
“Cramer, Rowcliff, Stebbins.”
“Ha.” Wolfe looked gratified. “Disconnect the bell.”