“Okay.”
I hung up. The fat devil had put it over. I had no idea what items of ammunition he had procured from Dora Chapin, and of course he had the advantage that Chapin was already in the Tombs with a first degree murder charge glued on him, but even so I handed it to him. I would say that that cripple was the hardest guy to deal with I had ever run across, except the perfume salesman up in New Rochelle who used to drown kittens in the bathtub and one day got hold of his wife by mistake. I would have loved to see Wolfe inserting the needle in him.
Wolfe had said without delay, so I let the last three victims wait. I wrapped the box up and drove down to Perry Street with it, removing a pair of gloves first in accordance with instructions and putting them in a drawer of my desk. I parked across the street from 203 and got out. I had decided on the proper technique for that delivery. I went across to where the elevator man was standing inside the entrance and said to him:
“Take this package up to Mrs. Chapin on the fifth floor. Then come back here and I’ll give you a quarter.”
He took the package and said, “The cop was sore as a boil yesterday when he found you’d gone. How’re you feeling?”
“Magnificent. Run ahead, mister.”
He went, and came back, and I gave him a quarter. I asked him, “Did I break anything on your vertical buggy? The lever wouldn’t work.”
He grinned about a sixteenth of an inch. “I’ll bet it wouldn’t. Naw, you didn’t break it.”
So I kept Wolfe’s promise for him and got the package delivered without running any unnecessary risk of being invited in for tea, and all it cost me was two bits, which was cheap enough.
Wolfe returned before I got back home. I knew that in the hall, seeing his hat and coat there. Since it was after four o’clock he would of course be upstairs with the plants, but all of his traipsing around had me nervous, and before going to the office I went up the three flights. I had hardly seen the orchids for more than brief glances for nearly a week. Wolfe was in the tropical room, going down the line looking for aphids, and from the expression on his face I knew he had found some. I stood there, and pretty soon he turned and looked at me as if I was either an aphid myself or had them all over me. There was no use attempting any conversation. I beat it downstairs to resume at the telephone.