Short Story Wednesday: "Die Like a Dog" by Rex Stout

I am continuing my reread of Rex Stout's novellas. "Die Like a Dog" is a 66-page novella in the Nero Wolfe series. It is one of three stories in Three Witnesses, published in 1957. 

I have featured some of my favorite novellas by Stout in previous posts in the last year. However, this story might be my absolute favorite of Nero Wolfe stories in shorter format.

It is unusual because it has a dog as a prominent character. Archie walks in the rain to a man's apartment to return a raincoat that the man had left at Wolfe's brownstone. What had happened is that the man had an argument with Wolfe, stormed out of Wolfe's office, and grabbed Archie's raincoat instead of his own. Archie wants his raincoat back.

When Archie gets to the apartment building, he sees a crowd around the building and some police cars in front of the building. He also sees Sgt. Purley Stebbins walking into the building. Stebbins is in the homicide department, working under Captain Cramer. Both Stebbins and Cramer are suspicious whenever Archie shows up near a murder. Archie knows that if Stebbins sees him, he will assume that Nero Wolfe is somehow mixed up in whatever crime has taken place, so he turns around and leaves. There is a dog outside the building, wandering around, looking lost. The dog follows Archie back to Nero Wolfe's brownstone, where Archie lives with Wolfe, Fritz the cook, and Theodore the horticulture expert. Archie takes the dog into the house, planning to call the ASPCA to come and get him. However, it turns out that there was dead body in the building and the police want to use the dog as a sort of witness.

In the rest of the story, Captain Cramer and Nero Wolfe spar about how involved Wolfe is in the case, and whether Wolfe has to turn the dog over to the police. Wolfe and Fritz have developed a definite affection for the dog.

Archie does some legwork investigating leads for Wolfe, even though the dog and Archie's missing raincoat is truly their only connection to the murder. It is a fun story, especially for a fan of the Nero Wolfe series. 

As usual, Archie Goodwin narrates the story. This story has a very good depiction of Archie's relationship with Wolfe.

The other two novellas in Three Witnesses are "When a Man Murders..." and "The Next Witness."