“Okay,” I said courteously, “if that’s how it is. I did not invite them to come here, let alone to lunch. They came on their own, and I let them in, which is one of my functions. Having started it, I’ll finish it. May I use the front room, please? I’ll have them out of here in ten minutes.”
“Pfui.” He was supercilious. “I am now responsible for their presence, since they were my guests at lunch. Sit down, sir. Sit down, Mrs. Vardas, please.”
Carl and Tina didn’t know what from which. I had to push the chairs up behind their knees. Then I went to my own chair and swiveled to face Wolfe.
“I have a question to ask them,” I told him, “but first you need a couple of facts. They’re in this country without papers. They were in a concentration camp in Russia and they’re not telling how they got here if they can help it. They could be spies, but I doubt it after hearing them talk. Naturally they jump a mile if they hear someone say boo, and when a man came to the barber shop this morning and showed a police card and asked who they were and where they came from and what they were doing last night they scooted the first chance they got. But they didn’t know where to go so they came here to buy fifty bucks’ worth of advice and information. I got bighearted and went to the shop disguised as a Boy Scout.”
“You went?” Tina gasped.
I turned to them. “Sure I went. It’s a complicated situation, and you made it worse by beating it, but you did and here we are. I think I can handle it if you two can be kept out of the way. It would be dangerous for you to stay here. I know a safe place up in the Bronx for you to lay low for a few days. You shouldn’t take a chance on a taxi or the subway, so we’ll go around the corner to the garage and get Mr. Wolfe’s car, and you can drive it up there. Then I’ll—”
“Excuse me,” Carl said urgently. “You would drive us up there?”
“No, I’ll be busy. Then I’ll—”
“But I can’t drive a car! I don’t know how!”
“Then your wife will drive. You can leave—”