Spiders (1953), clothing store owner Bernard Levine states that he was shown "a New York detective license with his picture on it and his name, Orvald Cather." In chapter 3 of If Death Ever Slept, Archie calls the office and Orrie answers the phone, "Nero Wolfe's residence. Orville Cather speaking." And, thinking he was clarifying the matter, Rex Stout's biographer John McAleer asked the author, "Is Orrie Cather's given name Orrin?" "Probably," Stout replied. In the A&E TV series A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2001–2002) and the series pilot, The Golden Spiders: A Nero Wolfe Mystery (2000), the role of Orrie Cather is played by Trent McMullen. Law enforcement officials "I am much kinder to the police than most writers of detective stories," Rex Stout said. "My two main police characters, Cramer and Stebbins, are neither stupid nor brutal, and, judging from letters I get from readers, they are likable." Inspector Cramer Inspector Cramer, head of the New York Police Department's Homicide Division, is Wolfe's main foil. Cramer collaborates with Wolfe in the majority of the novels and short stories, but resents the high-handed manner in which Wolfe pursues his investigationsparticularly Wolfe's tendency to manipulate murderers into committing suicide rather than allowing them to face trial. Cramer is usually assisted by Sergeant Purley Stebbins, and at times by Lt. George Rowcliff, Archie's personal nemesis. Wolfe and Archie collaborate with Cramer on his homicide cases, but the relationship is a contentious one. Wolfe regularly and deliberately withholds information from Cramer to ensure that Wolfe, rather than the police, will solve a case. In return, Cramer has enjoyed twitting Wolfe by rising from the red leather chair without using his arms for leverage – something that Wolfe cannot do. Nearly every novel that involves Cramer shows him calling on Wolfe in a barely suppressed rage, demanding the information he is suresometimes quite rightlythat Wolfe is withholding. Despite their argumentative relationship, Cramer has considerable respect for Wolfe's investigative skill. In The Doorbell Rang, Cramer goes to some lengths to keep the state of New York from taking Wolfe and Archie's licenses as private investigators, and in In the Best Families, Cramer says, "Wolfe is too cocky to live ... I would love to bloody his nose for him. I've tried to often enough, and someday I will and enjoy it. But I would hate to see him break his neck on a deal like