Character details
- First Name
- Arnold
- Last Name
- Zeck
- Notes
- Criminal mastermind. Wolfe's arch nemesis. First made himself known to Wolfe in June 1943.
- Reserved Notes
-
Set up by Wolfe in "In the Best Families."
Character cases:
Zeck tells Wolfe over the phone, "The wisest course for you will be to drop the matter."
Reserved notes for this case
Gives Wolfe an ultimatum -- recall Archie from his weekend at the Sperling estate or suffer consequences.
Reserved notes for this caseAfter Archie returned from his weekend 8 hours late, Zeck had the plant rooms shot up by henchmen using automatic machine guns from the roof across the street from Wolfe's brownstone.
Sends $50,000 cash to Nero to re-imburse him for the destruction of the plant rooms. Zeck encourages Wolfe to hunt the murderer of Rony.
Sends $15,000 to Wolfe after he solves the murder to cover the expense of employing Mr. Jones.
Wolfe sets aside the $50,000 cash received from Zeck in case he needs it to destroy his nemesis, rather than deposit it to his bank account.
Sends a cannister of tear gas in a box of sausages to Wolfe's house.
Reserved notes for this caseWolfe vanishes from the brownstone, and out of the story, for a period of several months. He spent this time losing a lot of weight and growing a beard so as to be unrecognizable to Zeck upon his return.
Wolfe traveled to California, where he designed and implemented an illegal scheme to catch Zeck's attention, and become one of the mastermind's inner circle.
Killed by Barry Rackham as planned by Wolfe and Goodwin.