Fourth of July Picnic


"Fourth of July Picnic" is a Nero Wolfe mystery novella by Rex Stout, first published as "The Labor Union Murder" in the July 9, 1957, issue of Look magazine. It first appeared in book form in the short-story collection And Four to Go, published by the Viking Press in 1958.

Plot summary

A restaurant workers' union is having a Fourth of July picnic in a remote meadow on Long Island. Time has been set aside during the afternoon for a few speeches from prominent figures in the restaurant business, and also one from Nero Wolfe. Wolfe has been the trustee for Rusterman's Restaurant since the death of his old friend Marko Vukcic, and because the restaurant is so highly regarded the union wants Wolfe to speak. As an added inducement, the union has also promised to stop trying to get Fritz, Wolfe's personal chef, to join.
Wolfe and Archie arrive at the meadow and work their way through a tent to a raised platform from which the speakers will address the thousands of union members. One of the organizers, Phil Holt, has eaten some bad snails and is lying in misery on a cot in the tent. He has been seen by a doctor but is too weak to participate in the festivities. He is shivering and Wolfe tells Archie to tie the tent flap closed, to help stop the draft blowing through.
One by one, as the scheduled speakers address the throng, those on the speakers' platform go back into the tent to see to Holt. Eventually Wolfe goes to check on Holt and shortly calls to Archie to join him. Holt is dead, lying on the cot, covered by a blanket that conceals the knife in his back.
It is Wolfe's habit, when he is away from home and confronted by a murder, to tell Archie to take him back to the brownstone immediately, before the police arrive. It is Archie's habit to refuse and he does so now, pointing out that they would simply be hauled back to Long Island. Wolfe concedes the point and returns to the platform to deliver his speech.
Archie has noticed that the tent flap is no longer tied shut. He glances out the back of the tent and sees a woman sitting in a car parked by the tent. Archie gets her name, Anna Banau, and asks her if she has seen anyone enter the tent since the speeches started. Mrs. Banau says that she has not. Archie is impressed by her calm certainty, and concludes that no one entered the tent from the back. Someone must have gone in from the platform, stabbed Holt, and then opened the rear flap to make it appear as though the killer came from that direction, not from the platform.
The body is soon discovered and the police are called. It's clear that the local District Attorney would love to hold Wolfe and Archie as material witnesses, but he can't find a legitimate reason, so Wolfe returns home after all. The next day, though, Mr. Banau comes calling. He knows of his wife's discussion with Archie on the prior afternoon, and cannot understand why the papers report that the police are proceeding on the assumption that the murderer entered the tent from the rear. His wife saw no one enter the tent from that side, and that is what she told Archie – surely Archie passed that along to the police. When Wolfe tells Banau that Mrs. Banau's information was not passed along, Banau becomes upset and leaves the brownstone, stating that he must tell the police.
Wolfe sees that he and Archie will be arrested and must make their getaway. They head for Saul Panzer's apartment, where they have arranged to meet with the others who were on the speakers' platform. Wolfe as yet has no idea who the murderer is, nor the motive for the crime. But when the principal suspects arrive at Saul's, Wolfe finds it important that he and Archie share autobiographical sketches with them. Then he bluffs the murderer into identifying himself.

Cast of characters

"Fourth of July Picnic"