Rex Stout Read Online Free

“Monkeying around in the dark …”
    Dol Bonner said, “Don’t lose sight of him. You will probably see him on his way in, so you will have a little time. Have a rope ready to go out through the window. Have a flashlight and a gun. Get as close as you can quietly. If he runs it will be legal to shoot, but aim low.”
    “If I aim low I’ll hit him in the stomach.”
    “Don’t you dare hit him in the stomach.” Dol Bonner’s eyes flashed. “Or anywhere else. Just scare him. Then run and catch him. He must be an awful coward to be sneaking around in the night strangling …” She shivered. “You can catch him, can’t you?”
    “I’ll try.” Silky sighed and was on his feet. “I don’t like this on a perch all night. Never have.” He moved, and stopped. “This Foltz place, ain’t it near that Birchhaven, the Storrs place, where I went for that trunk that time?”
    “It adjoins Birchhaven, yes. Now don’t start deducing from that.” Dol Bonner had left her chair and was beside him. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Get him. Okay, Pratt?”
    “Okay, boss. So-long.”
    “Wait a minute.” Dol turned. “How about it, Sylvia? This will cost us money. You’re the treasurer.”
    “Oh, my God.” Sylvia looked startled, and helpless. “Oh, Dol—that’s what I have to tell you … Dol dear. But then—have we got the money in the bank?”
    “Of course we have. That thousand you put in Wednesday.”
    “Good. Go ahead. Unless … no, go ahead.”
    Dol looked at her partner, hesitated, and turned to Silky Pratt and nodded him on his way. When the door had clicked behind him, she walked around the desk again to her chair. Moving, she gave the impression that she was proceeding with the air rather than through it. Unconsciously, seeing her move, or hearing her speak, people settled into their chairs more easily, it was so pleasant to see energy flowing like that, naturally, with no strain and no interruption of grace. She sat down with her back straight, touched the black spot on her cheek with the tip of her finger, lightly, and let her hand fall to the desk.
    “Well? The three points didn’t work?”
    “They did not.” Sylvia suddenly grabbed her gloves and hurled them to the floor, then her ostrich-skin bag, harder, to the other side. Foltz reached for the gloves, and got up to retrieve the bag, and sat holding them. Sylvia said bitterly, “I could chew him up.”
    “But …” Dol looked puzzled. “Could he cut you off for six months? Your own money? Is that it?”
    “Of course not. I don’t know, he wouldn’t. That’s not it.”
    “Then …” Dol waved a hand. “All right. What does it amount to?”
    “Plenty.”
    “For instance?”
    “I am to have no connection whatever, financial or personal, with this damned detective business.”
    “I see. Just like that.” Dol sat a moment, pursed her lips and was so still she seemed to be not breathing. “Well. Then you’re not a detective any more. It must be nice to have a man to tell you just what to do. You know I can’t return your capital … not now.”
    “Oh, Dol!” Syliva looked miserable.
    Foltz was on his feet. “If I’m in the way—”
    Sylvia told him to stay. Dol said, “Not at all, Martin. It will be your turn next to tell her what to do. Stay and admire the virtue of submissiveness.”
    “Dol Bonner!” Sylvia showed color. “You have no right to say that! I’m not submissive to any man!”
    “I don’t like men.”
    “Neither do I! At least—I don’t like all of them. But that has nothing to do with it. P. L. didn’t tell me what to do. He said specifically that if I stuck here in spite of his disapproval he would do nothing at all, and he would … he wouldn’t like me any less. That’s the devil of it.” She sounded bitter. “That’s how clever he is. He knows darned well I wouldn’t stand for dictation, even from him. He also said I don’t owe him any gratitude, because he knows I’m