“Yes. I have to go there to sign a paper.”
“Okay. Be seeing you.”
I hung up and told Wolfe. He lifted his eyes, said, “Ah!” and returned to the report.
After lunch there was an important chore, involving Wolfe, me, our memory of the talk Saturday evening with Koven, and the equipment that had been installed by Levay Recorders, Inc. We spent nearly an hour at it, with three separate tries, before we got it done to Wolfe’s satisfaction.
After that it dragged along, at least for me. The phone calls had fallen off. Wolfe, at his desk, finished with the report, put it in a drawer, leaned back, and closed his eyes. I would just as soon have opened a conversation, but pretty soon his lips started working — pushing out, drawing back, and pushing out again — and I knew his brain was busy so I went to the cabinet for a batch of the germination records and settled down to making entries. He didn’t need a license to go on growing orchids, though the question would soon arise of how to pay the bills. At four o’clock he left to go up to the plant rooms, and I went on with the records. During the next two hours there were a few phone calls, but none from Koven or his lawyer or Parker. At two minutes past six I was telling myself that Koven was probably drinking himself up to something, no telling what, when two things happened at once: the sound came from the hall of Wolfe’s elevator jerking to a stop, and the doorbell rang.
I went to the hall, switched on the stoop light, and took a look through the panel of one-way glass in the front door. It was a mink coat all right, but the hat was different. I went closer, passing Wolfe on his way to the office, got a view of the face, and saw that she was alone. I marched to the office door and announced, “Miss Patricia Lowell. Will she do?”
He made a face. He seldom welcomes a man crossing his threshold; he never welcomes a woman. “Let her in,” he muttered.
I stepped to the front, slid the bolt off, and opened up. “This is the kind of surprise I like,” I said heartily. She entered, and I shut the door and bolted it. “Couldn’t you find a coconut?”
“I want to see Nero Wolfe,” she said in a voice so hard that it was out of character, considering her pink cheeks.
“Sure. This way.” I ushered her down the hall and on in. Once in a while Wolfe rises when a woman enters his office, but this time he kept not only his chair but also his tongue. He inclined his head a quarter of an inch when I pronounced her name, but said nothing. I gave her the red leather chair, helped her throw her coat back, and went to my desk.