are his size, stamina and determination. As well, having decided that Archie is a funny guy, he laughs at all Archie's quips and comments, even if he doesn't understand them. Despite Wolfe's apparent early approval of Bill, he is infrequently seen and makes his last appearance in 1955's Before Midnight, although he is mentioned in passing in at least one later Stout story. He is glimpsed again in some of Goldsborough's books more than 30 years after his previous appearance. Johnny KeemsFreelance operative occasionally called in by Wolfe. Flashy, and prone to showboating, Johnny is generally reliable if given specific instructions. He makes his last appearance in the novel Might as Well Be Dead, where he is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Johnny, like Orrie, is said by Archie to covet his (Archie's) job. Del BascomIndependent investigator who runs a large detective agency in Manhattan. Wolfe sometimes subcontracts to Bascom when he needs more operatives than usual (The Silent Speaker, for example). Herb Aronson and Al GollerCabdrivers hired by Archie for mobile surveillance work. Ethelbert (or "Geoffrey") HitchcockWolfe's contact in London who handles inquiries to be made in Europe. Arnold Zeck Arnold Zeck appears in three Nero Wolfe novels. Zeck is a mysterious and powerful crime boss, possessed of a superior intellect. He and Wolfe become mutual admirers and antagonists in the course of several cases; when he is first mentioned in And Be a Villain, Archie indicates that he became aware of Zeck following a telephone call to Wolfe made several months before the events of the novel during an unreported case, but Wolfe has warned him not to investigate any further and to do his best to forget that the criminal exists. Wolfe summarises his activities and tactics in The Second Confession (1949) as follows: "He has varied and extensive sources of income. All of them are illegal and some of them are morally repulsive. Narcotics, smuggling, industrial and commercial rackets, gambling, waterfront blackguardism, professional larceny, blackmailing, political malfeasance – that by no means exhausts his curriculum, but it sufficiently indicates his character. He has, up to now, triumphantly kept himself invulnerable by having the perspicacity to see that a criminal practising on a large scale over a wide area and a long period of time can get impunity only by maintaining a gap between his person and his crimes which cannot be bridged; and by having unexcelled