Out Like a Light by Randall Garrett (1960)
Posted on February 3rd, 2008
“I’m a social worker,” Kettleman said, “working on an individual basis with these—social groups that the adolescents have formed. It’s my job to make friends with them, become accepted by them, and try to turn their hostile impulses toward society into more useful, more acceptable channels.”
“I see,” Malone said, feeling that something was expected of him. “That’s fine.”
“Oh, we don’t expect praise, we social workers,” Kettleman said instantly. “The worth of a good job well done, that’s enough for us.” He smiled. The effect was a little unsettling, as if a hippopotamus had begun to laugh like a hyena. “But to continue, Mr. Malone,” he said.
“Of course,” Malone said. “Certainly.”
“I’ve worked with many of the organizations in this neighborhood,” Kettleman said. “And I’ve been quite[Pg 75] successful in getting to know them, and in being accepted by them. Of course, the major part of my job is more difficult, but … well, I’m sure that’s enough about my own background. That isn’t what you’re interested in, now, is it?”
He looked penitent. Malone said: “It’s all right. I don’t mind.” He shifted positions on the hard chair.
“Well, then,” Kettleman said, with the air of a man suddenly getting down to business. He leaned forward eagerly, his eyes big and bright behind the lenses. “There’s something very peculiar about those boys,” he said in a whisper.
“Really?” Malone said.
“Very peculiar indeed,” Kettleman said. “My, yes. All of the other … ah … social groups are afraid of them.”
“Big, huh?” Malone said. “Big, strong boys who—”
“Oh, my no,” Kettleman said. “My goodness, no. All of the Spooks are rather slight, as a matter of fact. They’ve got something, but it isn’t strength.”
“My goodness,” Malone said tiredly.
“I doubt if—in the language of my own groups—any one of the Spooks could punch his way out of a paper bag,” Kettleman said. “It’s more than that.”
“Frankly,” Malone said, “I’m inclined to agree with you. But what is this something that frightens everyone else?”
Kettleman leaned even closer. “I’m not sure,” he said softly. “I can’t say for certain, Mr. Malone. I’ve only heard rumors.”
“Well,” Malone said, “rumors might—”
“Rumors are a very powerful force among my groups, Mr. Malone,” Kettleman said. “I’ve learned, over the years, to keep my ear to the ground, as it were, and pay very close attention to rumors.”
“I’m sure,” Malone said patiently. “But what did this particular rumor say?”
“Well,” Kettleman said, and stopped. “Well,” he said again. And at last he gulped and got it out: “Magicians, Mr. Malone. They say the Spooks are magicians—that they can come and go at will. Make themselves invisible. All sorts of things. Of course, I don’t believe that, but—”
“Oh, it’s quite true,” Malone said, solemn-faced.
“It’s … what?”
“Perfectly true,” Malone said. “We’ve known all that.”
“Oh, my,” Kettleman said. His face took on a whitish cast. “Oh, my goodness,” he said. “Isn’t that … isn’t that amazing?” He swallowed hard. “True all the time,” he said. “Magicians. I—”
“You see, this information isn’t new to us,” Malone said.
“Oh,” Kettleman said. “No. Of course not. My. It’s … rather disconcerting to think about, isn’t it?”
“There,” Malone said, “I agree with you.”
Kettleman fell silent. Malone offered him a cigarette, but the social[Pg 76] worker refused with a pale smile, and Malone lit one for himself. He took a couple of puffs in the silence, and then Kettleman said: “Well, Mr. Malone, Lieutenant Lynch did say that I was to tell you everything I could about these boys.”
“I’m sure we all appreciate that,” Malone said at random, wondering exactly what he meant.
“There is … well, there is one more thing,” Kettleman said. “Ordinarily, of course, I wouldn’t say anything about this to anyone. In my line of work, Mr. Malone, you learn the need for confidence. For being able to keep one’s word.”
“Certainly,” Malone said, wondering what startling new fact was on its way now.
“And we certainly try to keep the confidence of the boys,” Kettleman said maddeningly. “We wouldn’t betray them to the police in any way unless it were absolutely necessary.”
“Betray them—? Mr. Kettleman,” Malone said, “just what are you trying to tell me?”
“It’s about their meeting place,” Kettleman said. “Oh, my. I’m not at all sure I ought to tell you this.” He wrung his pale fat hands together and looked at Malone appealingly.
“Now, now,” Malone said, feeling foolish. “It’s perfectly all right. We don’t want to hurt the Spooks. Not any more than we have to. You can tell me, Mr. Kettleman.”
“Oh,” Kettleman said. “Well. I—The Spooks do have a sort of secret meeting place, you know. And they meet there.”
He stopped. Malone said: “Where is it?”
“Oh, it’s a big empty warehouse,” Kettleman said. “I really feel terrible about this. They’re meeting there tonight some time, or that’s what the rumors say. I shouldn’t be telling you—”
“Of course you should,” Malone said, trying to sound reassuring. “Don’t worry about a thing, Mr. Kettleman. Tonight?”
“That’s right,” Kettleman said eagerly. He grinned and then looked morosely down at his hands.
“Do you know where this warehouse is?” Malone said. “If any of the other little social groups use it—”
“Oh, no, they don’t,” Kettleman said. “That’s what makes it so funny. You see, the warehouse is deserted, but it’s kept in good repair; there are bars on the windows, and it’s protected by all sorts of alarm systems and things like that. So none of the others can use it. Only the Spooks. You can’t get in without a key, not at all.”
“But do the Spooks—” Malone began.
“Oh, no,” Kettleman moaned. “They don’t have a key. At least, that’s what the other … social groups say. The Spooks just … just melt through the walls, or something like that.”
“Mr. Kettleman,” Malone said, “where is this warehouse?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” Kettleman said.
Malone sighed. “Please. Mr. Ket[Pg 77]tleman. You know we’re working for the good of those boys, don’t you?”
“Well, I—”
“Sure we are,” Malone said. “So you can tell me.”
Kettleman blinked behind his glasses, and moaned a little. Malone waited with his hands tense in his lap. At last Kettleman said: “It’s on West Street, near Chambers. That’s downtown.” He gave Malone an address. “That’s where it is,” he said. “But you won’t … do anything to the boys, will you? They’re basically good boys. No matter what. And they—”
“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Kettleman,” Malone said. “We’ll take care of the Spooks.”
“Oh,” Kettleman said. “Yes. Sure.”
He got up. Malone said: “There’s just one more thing, Mr. Kettleman.”
“Yes?” The big man’s voice had reached the high, breathy pitch of a fife.
“Do you have any idea what time the Spooks usually meet?”
“Well, now,” Kettleman said, “I don’t really know. You see, the reason I wanted to tell you all this was because Lieutenant Lynch was checking up on all those boys yesterday, and I thought—” He stopped and cleared his throat, and when he began again his voice had dropped almost to a whisper: “Well, Mr. Ma[Pg 78]lone, I thought, after all, that since he was asking me questions … you know, questions about where they were, the Spooks I mean, and all of that … since he was asking me questions—”
“Yes?” Malone said.
“I thought perhaps I ought to tell you about them,” Kettleman said. “Where they were, and all of that.”
Malone stood up. “Mr. Kettleman,” he said in his most official voice, “I want you to know that the FBI appreciates what you’ve done. Your information will probably be very helpful to us, and the FBI certainly commends you for being public-spirited enough to come to us and tell us what you know.” He thought for a second, and then added: “In the name of the FBI, Mr. Kettleman—well done!”
Kettleman stared, smiled and gulped. “My goodness,” he said “Well.” He smiled again, a little more broadly. “One has one’s duty, you know. My, yes. Duty.” He nodded to Malone.
“Of course,” Malone said, going to the door and opening it. “Thanks again, Mr. Kettleman.”
Kettleman saw the open door and headed for it blindly. As he left he flashed one last smile after Malone, who sighed, shut the door and leaned against it for a second.
The things an FBI agent had to go through!
When he had recovered, he opened the door again and peered carefully down the hallway to make sure Kettleman had gone. Then he left the interrogation room and went down the hall, past the desk sergeant, and up the stairs to Lieutenant Lynch’s office. He was still breathing a little hard when he opened Lynch’s door, and Lynch didn’t seem to be expecting him at all. He was very busy with a veritable snow flurry of papers, and he looked as if he had been involved with them steadily ever since he had left Malone and Kettleman alone downstairs.
“Well,” Malone said. “Hello there, lieutenant.”
Lynch looked up, his face a mask of surprise. “Oh,” he said. “It’s you. Through with Kettleman?”
“I’m through,” Malone said. “As if you didn’t know.” He looked at Lynch for a long minute, and then said: “Lieutenant—”
Lynch had gone right back to his papers. He looked up again with a bland expression. “Yes?”
“Lieutenant, how reliable is Kettleman?” Malone said.
Lynch shrugged. “He’s always been pretty good with the kids, if that’s what you mean. You know these social workers—I’ve never got much information out of him. He feels it’s his duty to the kids … I don’t know. Some such thing. Why do you ask?”
“Well,” Malone said, “what he told me. Was he kidding me? Or does he know what he’s talking about? Was what he said reasonably accurate?”
“How would I know?” Lynch said. “After all, you were down there[Pg 79] alone, weren’t you? I was up here, working. If you’ll tell me what he said, maybe I’ll be able to tell you whether or not I think he was kidding. But—”
Malone placed both his palms on the lieutenant’s desk, mashing a couple of piles of papers. He leaned forward slowly, his eyes on Lynch’s bland, innocent face. “Now look, Lynch,” he said. “I like you. I really do. You’re a good cop. You get things done.”
“Well, thanks,” Lynch said. “But I don’t see what this has to do with—”
“I just don’t want you trying to kid your buddy-boy,” Malone said.
“Kid you?” Lynch said. “I don’t get it.”
“Come on, now,” Malone said. “I know that room was bugged, just as well as you do. It was the sensible thing for you to pull, and you pulled it. You’ve got the whole thing recorded, haven’t you?”
“Me?” Lynch said. “Why would I—”
“Oh, cut it out,” Malone said impatiently. “Let’s not play games, O.K.?”
There was a second of silence.
“All right,” Lynch said. “So I recorded the conversation. Kill me. Crucify me. I’m stealing FBI secrets. I’m a spy secretly working for a foreign power. Take me out and electrocute me.”
“I don’t want to fight you,” Malone said wearily. “So you’ve got the stuff recorded. That’s your business.”
“My business?”
“Sure,” Malone said cheerfully, “as long as you don’t try to use it.”
“Now, Malone—” Lynch began.
“This is touchy stuff,” Malone said. “We’re going to have to take a lot of care in handling it. And I don’t want you throwing raids all over the place and mixing everything up.”
“Malone, I—”
“Eventually,” Malone said, “I’m going to need your help with these kids. But for right now, I want to handle this my way, without any interference.”
“I wouldn’t think of—”
“You wanted information,” Malone said. “Fine. That’s all right with me. You got the information, and that’s O.K., too. But if you try to use it before I say the word, I’ll … I’ll talk to good old Uncle John Henry Fernack. And he’ll help me out: he’ll give you a refresher course on How To Be A Beat Cop. In Kew Gardens. It’s nice and lonely out there now, Lynch. You’d love it.”
“Malone,” Lynch said tiredly.
“Don’t give me any arguments,” Malone said. “I don’t want any arguments.”
“I won’t argue with you, Malone,” Lynch said. “I’ve been trying to tell you something.”
Malone stepped away from the desk. “All right,” he said. “Go ahead.”
Lynch took a deep breath. “Malone, I’m not trying to queer your pitch,” he said. “If I were going to pull a raid, here’s what I’d have to do: get my own cops together, then[Pg 80] call the precinct that covers that old warehouse. We don’t cover the warehouse from here, Malone, and we’d need the responsible precinct’s aid in anything we did down there.”
Malone said: “Well, all I—”
“Not only that,” Lynch said. “I’d have to call Safe and Loft, and get them in on it. A warehouse raid would probably be their baby first of all. That means this precinct, the warehouse precinct, and the Safe and Loft Squad, all together to raid that warehouse. Malone, would I pull a raid at this stage, if I had to go through all that, without knowing what I was going to find down there?”
“Oh,” Malone said.
“If those kids can just appear and disappear at will,” Lynch said, “I’m not going to pull a raid on them, and end up looking like a fool, until I’ve got some way of making sure they’re there when the raid goes through.”
Malone coughed gently. “O.K.,” he said at last. “Sorry.”
“There’s only one thing I want,” Lynch said. “I want to be able to move as soon as possible.”
“Well, sure,” Malone said apologetically.
“And that means I’m going to have to be informed,” Lynch said. “I want to know what’s going on, as fast as possible.”
Malone nodded gently. “Sure,” he said. “I’ll tell you everything that happens—as soon as I know myself. But right now, I haven’t got a thing for you. All I have is a kind of theory, and it’s pretty screwy.”
He stopped. Lynch looked up at him. “Just how screwy can it get?” he said. “The facts are nutty enough.”
“You have absolutely no idea,” Malone assured him. “I’m not even saying a word about this, not until I prove it out one way or another. I’m not even thinking about it. I don’t even want me to know about it, until it stops sounding so nutty to me.”
“O.K., Malone,” Lynch said. “I can see a piece of it, if no more. The Fueyo kid vanishes mysteriously—never mind all that about you getting him out of the interrogation room by some kind of confidential method. There isn’t any confidential method. I know that better than you do.”
“I had to say something, didn’t I?” Malone asked apologetically.
“So the kid disappears,” Lynch said, brushing Malone’s question away with a wave of his hand. “So now I hear all this stuff from Kettleman. And it begins to add up. The kids can disappear somehow, and re-appear some place else. Walk through walls?” He shrugged. “How should I know? But they can sure do something like it.”
“Something,” Malone said. “Like I said, it sounds screwy.”
“I don’t like it,” Lynch said.
Malone nodded. “Nobody likes it,” he said. “But keep it under your hat. I’ll give you everything I have—whenever I have anything. And … by the way—”
“Yes?” Lynch said.
“Thanks for giving me and Kettleman a chance to talk,” Malone said.[Pg 81] “Even if you had reasons of your own.”
“Oh,” Lynch said. “You mean the recording.”
“I was a little suspicious,” Malone said. “I didn’t think you’d give Kettleman to me without getting something for yourself.”
“Would you?” Lynch said.
Malone shrugged. “I’m not crazy either,” he said.
Lynch picked up a handful of papers. “I’ve got all this work to do,” he said. “So I’ll see you later.”
“O.K.,” Malone said.
“And if you need my help, buddy-boy,” Lynch said, “just yell—right?”
“I’ll yell,” Malone said. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll yell loud enough to get myself heard in Space Station One.”
XI.
The afternoon was bright and sunny, but it didn’t match Malone’s mood. He got a cab outside the precinct station and headed for Sixty-ninth Street, dining off his nails en route. When he hit the FBI Headquarters, he called Washington and got Burris on the line.
He made a full report to the FBI chief, including his wild theory and everything else that had happened. “And there was this notebook,” he said, and reached into his jacket pocket for it.
The pocket was empty.
“What notebook?” Burris said.
Malone tried to remember if he’d left the book in his room. He couldn’t quite recall. “This book I picked up,” he said, and described it. “I’ll send it on, or bring it in when the case is over.”
“All right,” Burris said.
Malone went on with his description of what had happened. When he’d finished, Burris heaved a great sigh.
“My goodness,” he said. “Last year it was telepathic spies, and this year it’s teleporting thieves. Malone, I hate to think about next year.”
“I wish you hadn’t said that,” Malone said sadly.
Burris blinked. “Why?” he said.
“Oh, just because,” Malone said. “I haven’t even had time to think about next year, yet. But I’ll think about it now.”
“Well, maybe it won’t be so bad,” Burris said.
Malone shook his head. “No, chief,” he said. “You’re wrong. It’ll be worse.”
“This is bad enough,” Burris said.
“It’s a great vacation,” Malone said.
“Please,” Burris said. “Did I have any idea—”
“Yes,” Malone said.
Burris’ eyes closed. “All right, Malone,” he said after a little pause. “Let’s get back to the report. At least it explains the red Cadillac business. Sergeant Jukovsky was hit by a boy who vanished.”
“I was hit by a boy who vanished, too,” Malone said bitterly. “But, of course, I’m just an FBI agent. Expendable. Nobody cares about—”[Pg 82]
“Don’t say that, Malone,” Burris said. “You’re one of my most valuable agents.”
Malone tried to stop himself from beaming, but he couldn’t. “Well, chief,” he began, “I—”
“Vanishing boys,” Burris muttered. “What are you going to do with them, Malone?”
“I was hoping you might have some kind of suggestion,” Malone said.
“Me?”
“Well,” Malone said, “I suppose I’ll figure it out—when I catch them. But I did want something from you, chief.”
“Anything, Malone,” Burris said. “Anything at all.”
“I want you to get hold of Dr. O’Connor, out at Yucca Flats, if you can. He’s the best psionics man Westinghouse has right now, and I might need him.”
“If you say so,” Burris said doubtfully.
“Well,” Malone said, “these kids are teleports. And maybe there’s some way to stop a teleport. Give him a good, hard kick in the psi, for instance.”
“In the what?”
“Never mind,” Malone said savagely. “But if I’m going to get any information on what makes teleports tick, I’m going to have to get it from Dr. O’Connor—right?”
“Right,” Burris said.
“So get in touch with Dr. O’Connor,” Malone said.
“I’ll have him call you,” Burris said. “Meanwhile … well, meanwhile just carry on, Malone. I’ve got every confidence in you.”
“Thanks,” Malone growled.
“If anybody can crack a case like this,” Burris said, “it’s you.”
“I suppose it had better be,” Malone said, and rang off.
Then he started to think. The notebook wasn’t in his pockets. He checked every one, even the jacket pocket where he usually kept a handkerchief and nothing else. It wasn’t anywhere on his person.
Had he left it in his room?
He thought about that for several minutes, and finally decided that he hadn’t. He hadn’t taken it out of his pocket, for one thing, and if it had fallen to the ground he couldn’t have helped seeing it. Of course, he’d put his wallet, keys, change and other such items on the dresser, and then replaced them in his pockets when morning had come—but he could remember how they’d looked on the dresser.
The notebook hadn’t been there among them.
Now that he came to think of it, when had he seen the notebook last? He’d shown it to Lieutenant Lynch during the afternoon, and then he’d put it back in his pocket, and he hadn’t looked for it again.
So it had to be somewhere in one of the bars he’d visited, or at the theater where he and Dorothy had seen “The Hot Seat.”
Proud of himself for this careful and complete job of deduction, he strolled out and, giving Boyd and[Pg 83] the Agent-in-Charge one small smile each, to remember him by, he went into the sunlight trying to decide which place to check first. He settled on the theater because it was most probable: after all, people were always losing things in theaters. Besides, if he started at the theater, and found the notebook there, he could then go on to a bar to celebrate. If he found the notebook in a bar, he didn’t much relish the idea of going on to an empty theater in the middle of the afternoon to celebrate getting the book back.
Shaking his head over this flimsy structure of logic, he headed down to “The Hot Seat.” He banged on the lobby doors for a while without any good result, and finally leaned against one of the side doors, which opened. Malone fell through, recovered his balance and found himself facing an old, bewhiskered man with a dustpan, a broom and a surprised expression.
“I’m looking for a notebook,” Malone said.
“Try a stationery store, youngster,” the old man said. “I thought I’d heard ‘em all, but—”
“No,” Malone said. “You don’t understand.”
“I don’t have to understand,” the old man said. “That’s what’s so restful about this here job. I just got to sweep up. I don’t have to understand nothing. Good-by.”
“I’m looking for a notebook I lost here last night,” Malone said desperately.
“Oh,” the old man said. “Lost and Found. That’s different. You come with me.”
The old man led Malone in silence to a cave deep in the bowels of the theater, where he went behind a little desk, took up a pencil as if it were a club, held it poised over a sheet of grimy paper, and said: “Name?”
Malone said: “I just want to find a notebook.”
“Got to give me your name, youngster,” the old man said solemnly. “It’s the rules here. After all.”
Malone sighed: “Kenneth Malone,” he said. “And my address is—”
The old man, fiercely scribbling, looked up. “Wait a minute, can’t you?” he said. “I ain’t through ‘Kenneth’ yet.” He wrote on, and finally said: “Address?”
“Statler Hilton Hotel,” Malone said.
“In Manhattan?” the old man said.
“That’s right,” Malone said wearily.
“Ah,” the old man said. “Tourist, ain’t you? Tourists is always losing things. Once it was a big dog. Don’t know yet how a dog got into this here theater. Had to feed it for four days before somebody showed up to claim it. Fierce-looking animal. Part bloodhound, part water spaniel.”
Fascinated in spite of himself, Malone said: “That’s impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” the old man said. “Work for a theater long enough and you find that out. Part bloodhound, I said, and part water spaniel. Should have seen that dog[Pg 84] before you start talking about impossibilities. What a strange-looking beast. And then there was the time—”
“About the notebook,” Malone said.
“Notebook?” the old man said.
“I lost a notebook,” Malone said. “I was hoping that—”
“Description?” the old man said, and poised his pencil again.
Malone heaved a great sigh. “Black plastic,” he said. “About so big.” He made motions with his hands. “No names or initials on it. But the first page had my name written on it, along with Lieutenant Peter Lynch.”
“Who’s he?” the old man said.
“He’s a cop,” Malone said.
“My, my,” the old man said. “Valuable notebook, with a cop’s name in it and all. You a cop, youngster?”
Malone shook his head.
“Too bad,” the old man said obscurely. “I like cops.” He stood up. “You said black plastic? Black?”
“That’s right,” Malone said. “Do you have it here?”
“Got no notebooks at all here, youngster,” the old man said. “Empty billfold, three hats, a couple of coats and some pencils. And an umbrella. No dogs tonight, youngster, and no notebooks.”
“Oh,” Malone said. “Well … wait a minute.”
“What is it, youngster?” the old man said. “I’m busy this time of day. Got to sweep and clean. Got work to do. Not like you tourists.”
With difficulty, Malone leashed his temper. “Why did I have to describe the notebook?” he said. “You haven’t got any notebooks at all.”
“That’s right,” the old man said cheerfully.
“But you made me describe—”
“That’s the rules,” the old man said. “And I ain’t about to go against the rules. Not for no tourist.” He put the pencil down and rose. “Wish you were a cop,” he said. “I never met a cop. They don’t lose things like people do.”
Making a mental note to call up later and talk to the manager, if the notebook hadn’t turned up in the meantime, Malone went off to find the bars he had stopped in before the theater.
Saving Topp’s for last, he started at the Ad Lib, where a surprised bald man told him they hadn’t found a notebook anywhere in the bar for something like six weeks. “Now if you’d been looking for umbrellas,” he said, “we could have accommodated you. Got over ten umbrellas downstairs, waiting for their owners. I wonder why people lose so many umbrellas?”
“Maybe they hate rain,” Malone said.
“I don’t know,” the bald man said. “I’m sort of a psychologist—you know, a judge of people. I think it’s an unconscious protest against the fetters of a society which is slowly strangling them by—”
Malone said good-by in a hurry and left. His next stop was the[Pg 85] Xochitl, the Mexican bar on Forty-sixth Street. He greeted the bartender warmly.
“Ah,” the bartender told him. “You come back. We look for you.”
“Look for me?” Malone said. “You mean you found my notebook?”
“Notesbook?” the bartender said.
“A little black plastic book,” Malone said, making motions, “about so big. And it——”
“Not find,” the bartender said. “You lose him?”
“Sure I lost him,” Malone said. “I mean, it. Would I be looking for it if I hadn’t lost it?”
“Who knows?” the bartender said, and shrugged.
“But you said you were looking for me,” Malone said. “What about?”
“Oh,” the bartender said. “I only say that. Make customer feel good, think we miss him. Customers like, so we do. What your name?”
“Pizarro,” Malone said disgustedly, and went away.
The last stop was Topp’s. Well, he had to find the notebook there. It was the only place the notebook could be. That was logic, and Malone was proud of it. He walked into Topp’s trying to remember the bartender’s name, and found it just as he walked into the bar.
“Hello, Wally,” he said gaily.
The bartender stared at him. “I’m not Wally,” he said. “Wally’s the other barman. My name’s Ray.”
“Oh,” Malone said, feeling deflat[Pg 86]ed. “Well, I’ve come about a notebook.”
“Yes, sir?” Ray said.
“I lost the notebook here yesterday evening, between six and eight. If you’ll just take me to the Lost and Found department—”
“One moment, sir,” Ray said, and left him standing at the bar, all alone.
In a few seconds he was back. “I didn’t see the notebook myself, sir,” he said. “But if Wally picked it up, he’d have turned it over to the maître d’. Perhaps you’d like to check with him.”
“Sure,” Malone said. The maître d’ turned out to be a shortish, heavy-set man with large blue eyes, a silver mane and a thin, pencil-line mustache. He was addressed, for no reason Malone was able to discover, as BeeBee.
Ray introduced them. “This gentleman wants to know about a notebook,” he told BeeBee.
“Notebook?” BeeBee said.
Malone explained at length. BeeBee nodded in an understanding fashion for some moments and, when Malone had finished, disappeared in search of the Lost and Found. He came back rather quickly, with the disturbing news that no notebook was anywhere in the place.
“It’s got to be here,” Malone insisted.
“Well,” BeeBee said, “it isn’t. Maybe you left it some place else. Maybe it’s home now.”
“It isn’t,” Malone said. “And I’ve tried every place else.”
“New York’s a big city, Mr. Malone,” BeeBee said.
Malone sighed. “I’ve tried every place I’ve been. The notebook couldn’t be somewhere I haven’t been. A rolling stone follows its owner.” He thought about that. It didn’t seem to mean anything, but maybe it had once. There was no way to tell for sure.
He went back to the bar to think things over and figure out his next move. A bourbon-and-soda while thinking seemed the obvious order, and Ray bustled off to get it.
Had he left the notebook on the street somewhere, just dropping it by accident? Malone couldn’t quite see that happening. It was, of course, possible—but the possibility was so remote that he decided to try and think of everything else first. There was Dorothy, for instance.
Was it possible that she might have the book?
It was. But, if so, how had she got it?
Malone enumerated possibilities on his fingers. First, he could have dropped it or something like that, and she could have picked it up. But dropping the notebook was a chance he’d eliminated already. It just didn’t sound likely.
Besides, if he were going to work on the dropping hypothesis, he might as well start from anywhere, on the assumption that he had dropped it anywhere on the street.
But if he had dropped it—second finger—and Dorothy had picked[Pg 87] it up, wouldn’t she have given it back?
She would have, Malone decided, unless she actually intended to steal it.
And if she had intended to steal it, she could just as easily have lifted it out of his pocket in the first place. She didn’t need to wait for it to fall out conveniently, all by itself.
Third finger: why would she steal the notebook? What good was it to her? And how did she even know he had it?
None of those questions seemed to have any answers. Of course, if she’d been connected with the Silent Spooks in some way, it would explain a little—but somehow Malone couldn’t see Dorothy as a Silent Spook.
Malone stared at his ring finger and pinky. He pressed the ring finger down, thinking that perhaps Dorothy had picked the notebook up and just forgotten to give it back. That was possible, even if not likely.
Only it required that notebook dropping out again.
The pinky went down. She might be some sort of a kleptomaniac, Malone thought.
That didn’t look very probable.
No, Malone decided, realizing that he had no more fingers left, it was impossible to shake off the feeling that the girl had deliberately taken the book for some definite purpose of her own.
He decided to give her a call.
He took the drink from Ray and slid off the bar stool. Two steps away he remembered one more little fact.
He didn’t have her number, and he didn’t know anything about where she lived, except that it could be reached by subway. That, Malone told himself morosely, limited things nicely to the five boroughs of New York.
And she’d said she was living with her aunt. Would she have a phone listing under her own name, or would the listing be under her aunt’s name—which he also didn’t know?
At any rate, he could check listings under Dorothy Francis, he told himself.
He did so.
There were lots and lots of people named Dorothy Francis, in Manhattan and in all the other boroughs.
Malone frowned thoughtfully. I wish somebody would tell me how to get in touch with her, he thought. She might know more about that book than I do.
The thought bothered him. But, to offset it, there was a nice new feeling growing at the back of his mind.
He felt as if he were going to know the answer soon enough.
He felt as if he were going to be lucky again.
In the meantime, he went back to the bar to think some more. He was on his second bourbon-and-soda, still thinking but without any new ideas, when BeeBee tapped him gently on the shoulder.
“Pardon me,” the maître d’ said, “but are you English?”
“Am I what?” Malone said, spill[Pg 88]ing a little of his drink on the bar.
“Are you English?” BeeBee inquired.
“Oh,” Malone said. “No. Irish. Very Irish.”
“That’s nice,” BeeBee said.
Malone stared at him. “I think it’s fine,” he said, “but I’d love to know why you asked me.”
“Well,” BeeBee said, “I knew you couldn’t be American. Not after the phone call. You don’t have to hide your nationality here; we’re quite accustomed to foreign visitors. And we don’t have special prices for tourists.”
Malone waited two breaths. “Will you please tell me,” he said slowly, “what it is you’re talking about?”
“Certainly,” BeeBee said with aplomb. “There’s a call for you in the upstairs booth. A long-distance call, personal.”
“Oh,” Malone said. “Who’d know I was—” He stopped, thinking hard. There was no way in the world for anyone to know he was in Topp’s. Therefore, nobody could be calling him. “They’ve got the wrong name,” he said decisively.
“Oh, no,” BeeBee said. “I heard them quite distinctly. You are Sir Kenneth Malone, aren’t you?”
Malone gaped for one long second, and then his mind caught up with the facts. “Oh,” he said. “Sure.” He raced upstairs to the phone booth, said: “This is Sir Kenneth Malone,” into the blank screen, and waited patiently.
After a while an operator said: “Person to person call, Sir Kenneth, from Yucca Flats. Will you take this call?”
“I’ll take it,” Malone said. A face appeared on the screen, and Malone knew he was right. He knew exactly how he’d been located, and by whom.
Looking at the face in the screen alone, it might have been thought that the woman who appeared there was somebody’s grandmother, kindly, red-cheeked and twinkle-eyed. Perhaps that wasn’t the only stereotype; she could have been an old-maid schoolteacher, one of the kindly schoolteachers who taught, once upon a time that never was, in the little old red schoolhouses of the dim past. The face positively radiated kindliness, and friendship, and peace.
But if the face was the face of a sentimental dream, the garb was the garb of royalty. Somebody’s grandmother was on her way to a costume party. She wore the full court costume of the days of Queen Elizabeth I, complete with brocaded velvet gown, wide ruff collar and bejeweled skullcap.
She was, Malone knew, completely insane.
Like all the other telepaths Malone and the rest of the FBI had found during their work in uncovering a telepathic spy, she had been located in an insane asylum. Months of extensive psychotherapy, including all the newest techniques and some so old that psychiatrists were a little afraid to use them, had done absolutely nothing to shake the firmest[Pg 89] conviction in the mind of Miss Rose Thompson.
She was, she insisted, Elizabeth Tudor, rightful Queen of England.
She claimed she was immortal—which was not true. She also claimed to be a telepath. This was perfectly accurate. It had been her help that had enabled Malone to find the telepathic spy, and a grateful government had rewarded her.
It had given her a special expense allotment for life, covering the clothing she wore, and the style in which she lived. Rooms had been set aside for her at Yucca Flats, and she held court there, sometimes being treated by psychiatrists and sometimes helping Dr. Thomas O’Connor in his experiments and in the development of new psionic machines.
She was probably the happiest psychotic on Earth.
Malone stared at her. For a second he could think of nothing to say but: “My God.” He said it.
“Not at all, Sir Kenneth,” the little old lady said. “Your Queen.”
Malone took a deep breath. “Good afternoon, Your Majesty,” he said.
“Good afternoon, Sir Kenneth,” she said, and waited. After a second Malone figured out what she was waiting for.
He inclined his head in as courtly a bow as he could manage over a visiphone. “I am deeply honored,” he said, “that Your Majesty has called on me. Is there any way in which I might be of service?”
“Oh, goodness me, no,” said the little old lady. “I don’t need a thing. They do one very well here in Yucca Flats. You must come out soon and see my new throne room. I’ve had the decorations done by … but I can see you’re not interested in that, Sir Kenneth.”
“But—” Malone realized it was useless to argue with the old lady. She was telepathic, and knew exactly what he was thinking. That, after all, was how he had been located; she had mentally “hunted” for him until she found him.
But why?
“I’ll tell you why, Sir Kenneth,” the little old lady said. “I’m worried about you.”
“Worried? About me, Your Majesty?”
“Certainly,” the little old lady said, inclining her head just the proper number of degrees, and raising it again. “You, Sir Kenneth, and that silly little notebook you lost. You’ve been stewing about it for the last hour.”
It was obvious that, for reasons of her own, the Queen had seen fit to look into Malone’s mind. She’d found him worrying, and called him about it. It was, Malone thought, sweet of her in a way. But it was also just a bit disconcerting.
He was perfectly well aware that the Queen could read his mind at any distance. But unless something reminded him of the fact, he didn’t have to think about it.
And he didn’t like to think about it.
“Don’t be disturbed,” the Queen[Pg 90] said. “Please. I only want to help you, Sir Kenneth; you know that.”
“Well, of course I do,” Malone said. “But—”
“Heavens to Betsy,” she said. “Sir Kenneth, what kind of a detective are you?”
“What?” Malone said, and added at once: “Your Majesty.” He knew perfectly well, of course, that Miss Thompson was not Queen Elizabeth I—and he knew that Miss Thompson knew what he thought.
But she didn’t mind. Politeness, she held, was the act of being pleasant on the surface, no matter what a person really thought. People were polite to their bosses, she pointed out, even though they were perfectly sure that they could do a better job than the bosses were doing.
So she insisted on the surface pretense that Malone was going through, treating her like a Queen.
The psychiatrists had called her delusion a beautifully rationalized one. As far as Malone was concerned, it made more sense than most of real life.
“That’s very nice of you, Sir Kenneth,” the Queen said. “But I want to ask you again: what kind of detective are you? Haven’t you got any common sense at all?”
Malone hated to admit it, but he had always had just that suspicion. After all, he wasn’t a very good detective. He was just lucky. His luck had enabled him to break a lot of tough cases. But some day people would find out, and then—
“Well,” the Queen said, “at the very least you ought to act like a detective.” She sniffed audibly. “Sir Kenneth, I’m ashamed that a member of My Own FBI can’t do any better than you’re doing now.”
Malone blinked into the screen. He did feel ashamed in a vague sort of way, and he was willing to admit it. But he did feel, wistfully, that it would be nice to know just what he was being ashamed of. “Have I been missing something?” he said.
“Outside of the obvious,” the Queen said, “that you’ve been missing your notebook—or, rather, Mike Fueyo’s notebook.”
“Yes?” Malone said.
“You certainly have,” the Queen said. “Don’t you see what happened to that notebook? You’ve been missing the only possible explanation.”
“All I can figure,” Malone said, “is that Dorothy Francis picked my pocket.”
“Exactly,” the Queen said. “Now, if you’d only wear proper clothing, and a proper pouch at your belt—”
“I’d be stared at,” Malone said. “In court clothing—”
“No one in New York would stare at you,” the Queen said. “They’d think it was what they call an advertising stunt.”
“Anyhow,” Malone said, “I wasn’t wearing court clothing. So that made it easy for her to steal the notebook.”
Her Majesty gave him a bright smile. “There!” she said.
“There, what?” Malone said.
“I knew you could do it,” the[Pg 91] Queen said. “All you had to do was apply your intelligence and you’d come up with just the fact you needed.”
“What fact?” Malone said.
“That Miss Francis has your notebook,” the Queen said. “You just told me.”
“All right,” Malone said, and stopped, and took a deep breath. After a pause he said: “What is that supposed to mean? What on Earth would she want with it? Just to look at all the pretty pictures?”
“Don’t be silly,” the Queen said, with some asperity. “She doesn’t even want to look at the thing. She doesn’t care what’s in it.”
Malone closed his eyes. “Riddle time,” he murmured. “Great.” Then he sighed. “O.K.,” he said. “What does she want with it? She must have some use for it. She isn’t just a kleptomaniac or something—is she?”
“Of course not,” the Queen said.
“Then she has a reason,” Malone said. “Fine. But what is it? Is she an auxiliary member of the Silent Spooks, or something like that? Don’t tell me she’s Mike Fueyo’s girl friend. I don’t think I could take that. It’s too silly.”
“Naturally it’s silly! Sir Kenneth, I—” She stopped, and her face lit up suddenly with pleasure. “Now you’re on the right track!” she said. “You just keep right on with that line of thought.”
Malone blinked in awe. “You mean she’s—”
He didn’t want to say it. But the evidence was all there. Dorothy’s appearance at the station. The remark Mrs. Fueyo had made when he went to the apartment.
It all fit.
“That’s right,” the Queen said, a little sadly. “She’s Dorothea Francisca Fueyo—little Miguel Fueyo’s older sister.”[Pg 92]
XII.
Malone put in a great deal of time, he imagined, just staring at the face of the little old lady in the screen. At last he said: “Her name is Fueyo!”"I’ve told you so,” the Queen said with some asperity.
“I know,” Malone said. “But—”
“You’re excited,” the Queen said. “You’re stunned. Goodness, you don’t need to tell me that, Sir Kenneth. I know.”
“But she’s—” Malone discovered that he couldn’t talk. He swallowed a couple of times and then went on. “She’s Mike Fueyo’s sister.”
“That’s exactly right, Sir Kenneth,” the Queen said.
“Then she … swiped the book to protect her little brother,” Malone said. “Oh, boy.”
“Exactly, Sir Kenneth,” the Queen said.
“And she doesn’t care about me at all,” Malone said. “I mean, she only went out with me because I was me. Malone. And she wanted the notebook. That was all there was to it.”
“I wouldn’t say that, if I were you,” she went on. “Quite the contrary. She does like you, you know. And she thinks you’re a very nice person.” The Queen beamed. “You are, you know,” she said.
“Oh,” Malone said uncomfortably. “Sure.”
“You don’t have to think that she merely went out with you because of her brother’s notebook,” the Queen said. “But she does have a strong sense of loyalty—and he is her younger brother, after all.”
“He sure is,” Malone said. “He’s a great kid, little Mike.”
“You see,” the Queen continued imperturbably, “Mike told her about losing the notebook the other night—when he struck you.”
“When he struck me,” Malone said. “Oh, yes. He struck me all right.”
“He guessed that you must have it when you started asking questions about the Silent Spooks, you see,” the Queen said. “That was the only way you could have found out about him—unless you were telepathic. Which, of course, you’re not.”
“No,” Malone said.
“Now, understand me,” the Queen said. “I do not think that his striking you was a very nice act.”[Pg 94]
“I don’t either,” Malone said. “It hurt like … it hurt quite a lot.”
“Certainly,” the Queen said. “But, then, he didn’t hurt the car any, and he didn’t want to. He just wanted to ride around in it for a while.”
“He likes red Cadillacs,” Malone said.
“Oh, yes,” the Queen said. “He thinks they’re wonderful.”
“Good for him,” Malone said sourly.
“Well, now,” the Queen said. “You just go right on over to her house. Of course, she doesn’t live with an aunt.”
“No,” Malone said. “She lives with Mike and his mother.”
“Why not?” the Queen said. “She’s part of the family.”
Malone nodded silently.
“She’ll give you the book, Sir Kenneth. I just know that she will. And I want you to be very nice to her when you ask for it. She’s a very nice girl, you know.”
“She’s a swell girl,” Malone said morosely. “And I’ll … hey. Wait a minute.”
“Yes, Sir Kenneth?”
“How come you can read her thoughts?” Malone said. “And Mike’s? I thought you had to know somebody pretty well before you could read them at a distance like this. Do you? Know them, I mean.”
“Oh, no,” the Queen said. “But I can read you, of course.” Malone could see that the Queen was trying very hard not to look proud of herself. “And last night,” she went on, “you two were … well, Sir Ken[Pg 95]neth, you had a real rapport with each other. My goodness, yes.”
“Well,” Malone said, “we—”
“Don’t explain, Sir Kenneth,” the Queen said. “It really isn’t necessary; I thought it was very sweet. And—in any case—I can pick her up now. Because of that rapport. Not quite as well as I can pick you up, but enough to get the strong surface thoughts.”
“Oh,” Malone said. “But Mike—”
“I can’t pick him up at all, this far away,” the Queen said. “There is just a faint touch of him, though, through the girl. But all I know about him is what she thinks.” She smiled gently. “He’s a nice boy, basically,” she said.
“Sure he is,” Malone said. “He’s got a nice blackjack, too—basically.” He grimaced. “Were you reading my mind all last night?” he said.
“Well,” the Queen said, “no. Toward morning you were getting so fuzzy I just didn’t bother.”
“I can understand that,” Malone said. “I nearly didn’t bother myself.”
The Queen nodded. “But toward afternoon,” she said, “I didn’t have anything to do, so I just listened in. You do have such a nice mind, Sir Kenneth—so refreshing and different. Especially when you’re in love.”
Malone blushed quietly.
“Oh, I know,” the Queen said. “You’d much rather think of yourself as a sort of apprentice lecher, a kind of cynical Don Juan, but—”
“I know,” Malone said. “Don’t tell me about it. All right?”
“Of course, Sir Kenneth,” the Queen said, “if you wish it.”
“Basically, I’m a nice boy,” Malone said. “Sure I am.” He paused. “Do you have any more pertinent information, Your Majesty?”
“Not right now,” the Queen admitted. “But if I do, I’ll let you know.” She giggled. “You know, I had to argue awfully hard with Dr. Hatterer to get to use the telephone,” she said.
“I’ll bet,” Malone said.
“But I did manage,” she said, and winked. “I won’t have that sort of trouble again.”
Malone wondered briefly what dark secret Dr. Hatterer had, that Her Majesty had discovered in his mind and used to blackmail him with. At last he decided that it was probably none of his business, and didn’t matter too much anyway.
“Quite right, Sir Kenneth,” the Queen said. “And good-bye for now.”
“Good-bye, Your Majesty,” Malone said. He bowed again, and flipped off the phone. Bowing in a phone booth wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to do, he thought to himself. But somehow he had managed it.
He reached into his pocket—half-convinced, for one second, that it was an Elizabethan belt-pouch. Talks with Her Majesty always had that effect; after a time, Malone came to believe in her strange, bright world. But he shook off the lingering effects of her psychosis, fished out some coins and thought for a minute.
So Dorothy—Dorothea—had lifted the notebook. That was some help,[Pg 96] certainly. It let him know something more about the enemy he was facing. But it wasn’t really a lot of help.
What did he do now?
Her Majesty had suggested going to the Fueyo house, collaring the girl—but treating her nicely, Malone reminded himself—and demanding the book back. She’d even said he would get the book back—and, since she knew some of what went on in Dorothea Fueyo’s mind, she was probably right.
But what good was that going to do him?
He knew what was in the book. Getting it back was something that could wait. It didn’t sound particularly profitable and it didn’t even sound like fun.
What he needed was a next move. He thought for a minute, dropped the coins into the phone and dialed the number of the police commissioner’s office. After a brief argument with a secretary, he had Fernack on the phone. And this time, Malone told himself, he was going to be polite.
If possible.
“Good afternoon, John Henry,” he said sunnily, when the commissioner’s face was finally on the screen. “Can you get me some more information?”
Fernack stared at him sourly. “Depends,” he said.
“On what?” Malone said, telling himself he wasn’t going to get irritated, and knowing perfectly well that he was lying.
“On what kind of information you want,” Fernack said.
“Well,” Malone said, “there’s a warehouse I want to know some more about. Who the owner is, for one thing, and—”
Fernack nodded. “I’ve got it,” he said. He fished, apparently on his desk, and brought up a sheet of paper. He held it up to the screen while Malone copied off the name and address. “Lieutenant Lynch told me all about it.”
“Lynch?” Malone said. “But he—”
“Lynch works for me, Malone,” Fernack said. “Remember that.”
“But he said he’d—”
“He said he wouldn’t do anything, and he won’t,” Fernack said. “He just reported it to me for my action. He knew I was working with you, Malone. And I am his boss, remember.”
“Great.” Malone said. “Now, John Henry—”
“Hold it, Malone,” Fernack said. “I’d like a little information, too, you know. I’d like to know just what is going on, if it isn’t too much trouble.”
“It’s not that. John Henry,” Malone said earnestly. “Really. It’s just that I—”
“All this about vanishing boys,” Fernack said. “Disappearing into thin air. All this nonsense.”
“It isn’t nonsense,” Malone said.
“All right,” Fernack said indulgently. “Boys disappear every day like that. Sure they do.” He leaned toward the screen and his voice was[Pg 97] as hard as his face. “Malone, are these kids mixed up with those impossible robberies you had me looking up?”
“Well,” Malone said, “I think so. But I doubt if you could prove it.”
Fernack’s face had begun its slow climb toward purple again. “Malone,” he said, “if you’re suppressing evidence, even if you are the FBI, I’ll—”
“I’m not suppressing any evidence,” Malone said. “I don’t think you could prove a connection. I don’t think I could prove a connection. I don’t think anybody could—not right now.”
Fernack leaned back, apparently mollified.
“John Henry,” Malone said, “I want to ask you to keep your hands off this case. To let me handle it my way.”
Fernack nodded absently. “Sure, Malone,” he said.
“What?”
“I said sure,” Fernack said. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Well, yes,” Malone said, “but—”
Fernack leaned all the way back in his chair, his face a mask of disappointment and frustration. “Malone,” he said, “I wish I’d never heard of this case. I wish I’d been retired or died before it ever came up. I’ve been a police officer in New York for a long time, and I wish this case had waited a few more years to happen.”
He stopped. Malone leaned against the back wall of the phone booth and lit a cigarette.
“Andy Burris called me less than half an hour ago,” Fernack said.
“Oh,” Malone said.
“That’s right,” Fernack said. “Good old Burris of the FBI. And he told me this was a National Security case. National Security. It’s your baby, Malone, because Burris wants it that way.” He snorted. “So don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’m just here to co-operate. The patriotic, loyal, dumb slave of a grateful government.”
Malone blew out a plume of smoke. “You know, John Henry,” he said, “you might have made a good FBI man yourself. You’ve got the right attitude.”
“Never mind the jokes,” Fernack said bitterly.
“O.K.,” Malone said. “But tell me: Did you actually make arrangements for me to get into that warehouse? I suppose you know that’s what I want.”
“I guessed that much,” Fernack said. “I haven’t made any arrangements at all yet, but I will. I’ll have Safe and Loft get the keys, and a full set of floor plans to the place while they’re at it. Will that do, Your Majesty?”
Malone choked on his smoke and shot a quick look over his shoulder. There was nothing there but the wall of the booth. Queen Elizabeth I was nowhere in evidence. Then he realized that Fernack had been talking to him.
“Don’t do that,” he said.
“What?” Fernack said.
Malone realized in one awful sec[Pg 98]ond how strange the explanation was going to sound. Could he say that he thought he’d been mistaken for an old friend of his, Elizabeth Tudor? Could he say that he’d just had a call from her?
In the end he merely said: “Nothing,” and let it go at that.
“Well, anyhow,” Fernack said, “do you want anything else?”
“Not right now,” Malone said. “I’ll let you know, though. And—thanks, John Henry. No matter why you’re doing this, thanks.”
“I don’t deserve ‘em.” Fernack muttered. “And I hope you get caught in some kind of deadfall and have to come screaming to the cops.”
That, Malone reflected, was the second time a cop had suggested his yelling if he got into trouble.
Hadn’t the police force ever heard of telephones?
He said good-by and flipped off.
Then he stared at the screen for a little while, as his cigarette burned down between his fingers. At last he put the cigarette out and went downstairs again to the bar.
If he had to do some heavy thinking, he told himself, there was absolutely no reason why he couldn’t enjoy himself a little while doing it.
The evening rush had begun, and Malone found himself a stool by the simple expedient of slipping into one while a drinker’s back was turned. Once ensconced, he huddled himself up like an old drunk, thus effectively cutting himself off from interruptions, and lit another cigarette. Ray was down at the other end of the bar, chatting with a red-headed woman and her pale, bald escort. Malone sighed and set himself to the job of serious, constructive thinking.
How, he asked himself, do you go about catching a person who can vanish away like so much smoke?
Well, Malone could think of one solution, but it was pretty bloody. Nailing the kids to a wall would probably work, but he couldn’t say much else for it. There had to be another way out. For some reason Malone just couldn’t see himself with a mouthful of nails, a hammer and a teen-ager.
It sounded just a little too messy.
Then, of course, there were handcuffs.
That sounded a little better. The trouble was that Malone simply didn’t have enough information, and knew it. Obviously, the kids could carry stuff with them when they teleported; the stuff they stole proved that. And their clothes, Malone added. Apparently the kids didn’t arrive at wherever they went stark staring naked.
But how close to a teleport did the things he carried have to be?
In other words. Malone thought, if you put handcuffs on a teleport, would the handcuffs vanish when the teleport did? And did that include the part of the cuff you were holding?
What happened if you snapped half the cuff around your own wrist first? Did you go along with the teleport? Or did your wrist go, while[Pg 99] you stayed behind and wondered how long it would take to bleed to death?
Or what?
All the questions were intriguing ones. Malone sighed, wishing he knew the answer to even one of them.
It was somewhat comforting to think that he’d managed to progress a little, anyway. The kids hadn’t meant anybody to find out about them—but Malone had found out about them, and alerted all the cops in town, as well as the rest of the FBI. He knew just who they were, and where they lived, and how they performed the “miracles” they performed.
Anyhow, he knew something about that last item.
He even knew who had his notebook.
He tabled that thought, and went back to feeling victorious. Within a few seconds, the sense of achievement was gone, and futility had come in its place. After all, he still didn’t know how to catch the kids, did he?
No.
He thought about handcuffs some more and then gave up. He’d just have to try it and see how it worked. And if the teleports took his wrist away he’d … he’d … he’d go after them and make them give it back.
Sure he would.
That reminded him of the notebook again, and, since the thing was being so persistent, he decided he might as well pay some attention to it.
Dorothea had the notebook. Malone tried to see himself barging in on her and asking for it, and he didn’t care for the picture at all—no matter how Good Queen Bess felt about it.
After all, she thought Mike Fueyo was basically a nice kid.
So what did she know?
He closed his eyes. There he was, in the Fueyo apartment, talking to Dorothea.
“Dorothea,” he muttered. “You filched my notebook.”
That didn’t sound very effective. And besides, it wasn’t really his notebook. He tried again.
“Dorothea, you pinched your brother’s notebook.”
Now, for some reason, it sounded like something covered by the Vice Squad. It sounded terrible. But there were other ways of saying the same thing.
“Dorothea,” he muttered, “you borrowed your brother’s notebook.”
That was too patronizing. Malone told himself that he sounded like a character straight out of the 3-D screens, and settled himself gamely for another try.
“Dorothea, you have your brother’s notebook.”
To which the obvious answer was: “Yes, I do, and so what?”
Or, possibly: “How do you know?”
And Malone thought about answering that one. “Queen Elizabeth told me,” was the literal truth, but somehow it didn’t sound like it. And[Pg 100] he couldn’t find another answer to give the girl.
“Dorothea,” he said, and a voice from nowhere added:
“Will you have another drink?”
Malone exploded, “That’s not the question. Drinks have nothing to do with notebooks. I’m after notebooks. Can’t you understand—” Belatedly, he looked up.
There was Ray, the barman.
“Oh,” he said.
“I just came over,” Ray said. “And I figured if you couldn’t find your notebook, maybe you’d like a drink. So long as you’re here.”
“Ray,” Malone said with feeling, “you are an eminently reasonable fellow. I accept your solution. Nay, more. I endorse your solution. Wholeheartedly.”
Ray went off to mix, and Malone stared after him happily. This was really a nice place, he reflected—almost as nice as the City Hall Bar in Chicago where he’d gone long ago with his father.
But he tore his mind away from the happy past and concentrated, instead, on the miserable present. He decided for the last time that he was not going to ask Dorothea for the book—not just yet, anyhow. After all, it wasn’t as if he needed the book; he knew his own name, and he knew Lynch’s name, and he knew the names on the second page. And he didn’t see any particular need for a picture of a red Cadillac, no matter how nicely colored it was.
So, he asked himself, why embarrass everybody by trying to get it back?
Of course, it was technically a crime to pick pockets, and that went double or triple for the pockets of FBI agents. But Malone told himself that he didn’t feel like pressing charges, anyhow. And Dorothy probably didn’t make a habit of pocket-picking.
He sighed and glanced at his watch. It was fifteen minutes of six.
Now, he knew what his next move was going to be.
He was going to go back to his hotel and change his clothes.
That is, he amended, as soon as he finished the drink that Ray was setting up in front of him.
XIII.
By the time Malone reached the Statler Hilton Hotel it was six-twenty. Malone hadn’t reckoned with New York’s rush-hour traffic, and, after seeing it, he still didn’t believe it. Finding a cab had been impossible, and he had started for the subway, hoping that he wouldn’t get lost and end up somewhere in Brooklyn.
But one look at the shrieking mob trying to sardine itself into the Seventh Avenue subway entrance had convinced him it was better to walk. Bucking the street crowds was bad enough. Bucking the subway crowds was something Malone didn’t even want to think about.
He let himself into his room, and was taking off his shoes with a grate[Pg 101]ful sigh when there was a rap on the door of the bathroom that connected his room with Boyd’s. Malone padded over to the door, his shoes in one hand. “Tom?” he said.
“You were expecting maybe Titus Moody?” Boyd called.
“O.K.,” Malone said. “Come on in.”
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