ALFRED AUGUST 60< K MTCHCOCKS tAYSTERY MAGA2INE

NEW stories presented by the master of SUSPENSE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED August 1970

Dear Reader:

=^!=—s>j=iL^ The summer sun is a dim light bulb ^ [j \\ riA when compared with the heat put upon "^—-^— ^ the personahties in this issue. Some of these souls are more deserving than others, but ill fates are handed down without fear or favor. Surely these new and well-plotted plights will diminish your own, as is my wish. If thinking processes slow in this season, there is no sign of it within, particularly in this month's novelette. There­ in the human mind begins to realize its full potential. Intelligence also comes to the fore in matters of job ad­ vancement, the newer math, classified prevarication and, for well-rounded midsummer learning, the fine arts. Yet, whatever else may be involved, the mayhem is ever-present. It matters not at which point you enter this domain. Each beginning is devised by professionals to ensnare you hopelessly and hold you to the end. May your final exit be reluctant.

' .^^^:^^,A>^^^c£e^

R chard E. Decker, Publisher Gladys Foster Decker, Editorial Director Ernest M. Hutter, Editor Patricia Hitchcock Associate Editor Nick J. Sartorio Circulation Director Marguerite Blair Deacon Art Director

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED VOLUME 15, NO. 8 AUGUST 1970

CONTENTS

NOVELETTE

STRANGE PREY by George C. Chesbro 116

SHORT STORIES

A PINK SUNSET by James McKimmey 2 THE PROBLEM by Pauline C. Smith 19

THE ART OF LYING by Al Nussbaum 30

YANKEE NIGHT RIDER by Waldo Carlton Wright 35 CRASH PARTY by Carl Henry Rathjen 44 A DIP IN THE POOLE by Bill Pronzini 58

GRANNY by Ron Goulart 62 STRIPED RABBIT by George Graver Kipp 74

GLORY HUNTER by Richard M. Ellis 89

CAUSE OF DEATH by George Antonich 96

THE LEAKAGE by Fran\ Sis\ Ill

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE Lt^.tt^„U7^o"o'?frV.''/?eSrS>r&Vlte«.%^a°,'?s and Possessions; elsewhere $8.00 (In U.S. funds) for one year. Published monthly by H. S. D. Publications, Inc., 2441 Beach Court, Riviera Beach, Fla. 33404. Publications ofUce, 10 Ferry Street. Concord, N. H. 03302. Second class postage paid at Concord. N. H. Conyrlght H. S. D. Publications. Inc.. 1970. All rights reserved. Protection secured under the International and Pan-Amf^rlcan convrlght convention. Title registered U.S. Pat. Office. Reproduction or use without express permission of editorial or pictorial content !n anv manner Is pro­ hibited. Postage must accompany manuscripts If return Is desired but no responsibility will be assumed for unsolicited materia!. Manuscripts and changes of addresses should be sent to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Maga­ zine, 2441 Beach Court, Riviera Beach. Ha. 33404. No similarity between anv of the names, characters, persons and/or Institutions appearing In this magazine and those of any living or dead person or institution Is Intended and any Bimllarlty which may exist Is purely coincidental. Printed In the U.S.A.

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Lady LucJ{ seldom begrudges a helping hand, but even that hand may need a bit of reciprocation.

DDENNY MULHANE stood morosely caught in the current-sweep of life, behind the front desk of the large • as he liked to phrase it. There was Reno hotel, contemplating luck. so very little he could do about Luck, he had long believed, was that beyond keeping himself afloat, the final decider of a man's des­ because it was luck, finally, that tiny. He also believed, of course, brought a man to his level of that a man was required to be con­ worth, accomplishment and re­ scientious, hard-working, dedi­ ward. cated, eager, and scrupulous be­ And this was his level of worth? yond a fault. Still, a man was His accomplishment.? His reward.J"

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Denny sighed and turned his that of assistant manager, a posi­ lean figure, suited conservatively in tion finally vacated two weeks ago dark blue. He rolled up a check-in and refilled by Andy Applehoff, slip of a recently arrived guest and manager, with the yellow-shirted stuffed it into a tube. As he sent it Jack Beeker. Beeker, in his weeks on its pneumatic way to the in Reno, had also taken something switchboard upstairs where it else from Denny Mulhane. He'd would go into the rack, a tali man, taken Denny's bride of two years: broad-shouldered and gifted with Sharon, a sweet-looking blonde dark good looks, stepped out of with an angel's face. one of the nearby self-operating Denny felt incredulous that it elevators. He walked across the had actually happened, but it had. small well-appointed lobby with Now, Beeker, with a rich, the springing grace of a bounding snappy voice, said "Come on, Mul­ buck. He wore a tan suit that had hane. Are we running a mor­ cost at least $200, Denny estimated tuary?" A hand wearing a flashing grimly; yellow shirt, Italian shoes. , ring on the little finger slapped the The man had also just bought a desk. "How much did you hold cream-colored Cadillac. out of the last check-out tip, huh.?" Denny stared at the man in total resentment. "I've never held out i^at on a tip in my life!" he said hon­ estly. The hotel tips were pooled among the bellrrien and desk clerks—just as they were pooled upstairs in the casino among mem­ J^ bers of a given game and shift. Yet Denny had been certain that Beek­ Denny stared down at the regis­ er, when he'd been on the desk, ter, trying to look preoccupied. had held out just as much as he'd Jack Beeker had come to town just figured he could get away with. six weeks ago, with slight hotel ex­ Where was the justice.? perience from San Francisco. He'd "I ever catch you at it," Beeker gotten a job on the desk, working said, "you're finished. Trim up, swing, four to midnight. Now, Mulhane, or you're gone." just six weeks later, Beeker had "Listen . . ." Denny managed, taken from Denny the job that he feeling his voice leaving him. had been counting on for years: "To what.?"

A PINK SUNSET- LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Sharon . . ." he whispered, maybe one of these days I'll .put in gripping his hands into fists. a raise for you. How about two "Stay away from her." cents a week.?" He grinned, heeled "What?" about and disappeared into an "I said stay away from her!" elevator to go up to the adminis­ "But—she's my wife!" trative floor to confer with Andy Becker's dark look passed; his Applehofif, the manager. white smile gleamed. "Is that He should be doing that, Denny right.?" thought. Yet Beeker had every- "I married her! Legally!" thing ... "I thought she kicked-you out." He shook his head, eyes misting. "That's none of your business!" No, he was not going to be assis­ "Are you honestly being serious, tant manager. Even' the job he Mulhane.?" now held had become impossible "I tell you—" under Beeker. So, finally, he made "Keep your voice down. You'll the decision he knew he should wake them up all the way to the have made earlier. As soon as that top floor. Get hold of yourself, conference was over upstairs, he Mulhane. Sharon's done with you. would give Andy Applehoff no­ And I don't want you going over tice, then try for another front- there bothering her anymore." desk job in town. If he couldn't Denny felt his teeth gritting. find anything here, he would have He'd gone back to his own house to leave, giving up virtually every­ just once after Sharon had shouted thing. at him to leave two weeks ago. Five minutes later the elevator He'd tried to talk sense to her, but opened, and Jack Beeker stepped it had been no use. Now, he'd out, face flushed with anger. heard that Beeker had moved in. Denny stared as the man marched His house! His wife! grimly across the lobby and out the The telephone on the desk rang. glassed door to the drive. Beeker Beeker arrogantly lifted it and stopped, walked down the macad­ said, "Beeker." His smile flashed am, turned around and stopped again, and his voice took on the again, as though he had been mov­ texture of false subservience. ing blindly. Then, dark eyes "Right, Andy. Be straight up." He gleaming, he came back inside to put the telephone down and eyed get on an elevator, which rose and 'Denny with cool contempt. "Shape then stopped, Denny saw by the up, keep away from Sharon, and indicator, at casino level.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Minutes later Andy Applehoff said. "What else is new.? Nothing.?" got out of. a second elevator and "Applehoff fired Beeker." walked across the lobby to stop by Briggs' smile widened slowly. the desk and stare out the win­ "That's going to make me feel dow, eyes looking mean. He was a good all the way into next week!" short man, broadly built, in his Denny took an elevator up to early sixties, with short-cropped the casino level and went into the white hair. "That creep," he said in men's room to wash. He damp­ his rusty voice. ened his thinning brown hair and "What.?" Denny asked. combed it carefully. Then, in rit­ "Beeker." ualistic fashion, he went up front "I don't understand." to the main bar to sit down at the "I fired him. He was trying to end, where Joey, a small quick- con the maids into crossroading eyed man with sleek black hair, tips with him!" rested between _ mixing drinks. Denny stared at the man, feeling "Welcome, Denny,'- Joey said, slid­ a wild joy beginning down deep ing out a cocktail napkin. "You inside of him. "Fired him—out of got it coming." hand.?" "Okay," Denny said gratefully, "That's right." so accustomed to the action of the "Well . . . who's going to take casino by now that he paid no at­ his place.?" tention whatever to the chants at Applehoff looked at Denny the crap tables and the ringing of coldly. "Whoever I decide is going jackpot bells. The lounge enter­ to." tainment didn't start on the stage behind the bar until five—and by Harry Briggs, the new swing that time he would be gone. clerk, relieved Denny punctually at Mostly he liked to talk to Joey. a quarter to four. Briggs was tall, With savor, he watched Joey extraordinarily skinny, and yet had overpour gin into a glass partially a perfectly round, slightly plump filled with cracked ice. The bar­ face. He rested his knob-knuckled tender impaled an olive on a plas­ hands on the register and said, tic toothpick, poured a tiny "How many squirrels, freaks and amount of vermouth on the olive, baboons have we got in this zoo shook it to remove any excess, then today?" plunged the olive into the gin and "Half full," Denny said. put the glass in front of Denny. "That's half too many," Briggs "One very dry, over." He took the

A PINK SUNSET 5

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED bill Denny had placed on the Where's he going to get a decent wood, made change, then looked job now? He fooled ApplehofI, all at Denny with a grin. "How do right, but not for long. He won't you feel?" fool Sharon anymore, either, I "Good." figure. You want her back, "You ought to. That fathead Denny?" thought he was going to be man­ Denny closed his hand around ager in a few weeks. Now he's out his glass, tightly. "I'll think about on his tail." it." "How'd you know?" "Yeah, right," Joey nodded. "He came up here after Ap- "You think about it, Denny. You plehoff axed him. He was drink­ got that privilege now, you know.'' ing until five minutes ago. The Denny did think about it most bum." of the night, sleeping only minutes Denny tasted his drink, smiling. in the inexpensive motel where he "The great Beeker," Joey said now lived. Then he drove to work, sarcastically. telling himself that Sharon had "How did betake it?" been very young, after all, when "Hard. Called ApplehofI all the they'd got married. Could you names he knows, which are blame her, really, for tumbling plenty." head over heels for a guy like Jack Denny smiled again. Beeker, as she had done shortly "That bum thought he'd lucked after Denny had introduced her out," Joey said with feeling. "Only to him? Naive, trusting, in­ it dissolved on him." He leaned experienced, she simply hadn't forward, resting his forearms on been aware of what she was doing. the bar. "Maybe it isn't any of my Forgiveness, Denny told himself business, Denny—but are you go­ righteously, was a quality of ing to take her back?" worth. Denny began blinking rapidly. She usually slept late, and so he He'd been thinking only of Beeker waited until eleven,'then lifted the getting fired, he realized.. He desk telephone, got an outside line hadn't considered how it would be and dialed the familiar number. for Sharon until now. After several rings, she answered "Maybe it is none of my busi­ in a high, sleepy voice, "Yeah?" ness," Joey said. "But what would "Denny, Sharon," he said, feel­ she see in that bum now? He's ing his heart begin to beat faster. lucky he didn't get eighty-sixed! "I wouldn't know that?"

6 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Well—^how are you?" he asked. Then she hung up the receiver. "Half asleep. What the hell time When Denny" stepped into the is it, anyway?" coffee shop at 1:30, he could see She'd never sworn before she'd that she hadn't yet arrived. He met Beeker—and what else had he asked for a booth for two, then taught her? But Denny swiftly kept looking at his watch as he drove that conjecture from his waited. Finally he saw her, and he mind. Instead, he tried to be calm, forgot all else as he watched her convincing, reassuring. After all, moving toward him, her face set in she'd been through an experience. a cool expression of resignation. "Eleven o'clock," he said. She was as beautiful as ever, al­ "So why wake me this time of though he was fairly sure she'd put day, huh?" on an extra pound or two. She was "Do you know what happened wearing a new coat he'd never to Jack Beeker?" seen before. Her hair was arranged "He was fired. Is that why you in a different style. But it was Sha­ woke me up ?" ron, all right, and she was sitting "Well, do you know why? I beside him again. mean, like he was trying to split "This is great!" he said. "This is tips with the maids, and—" just wonderful." "Baloney. Applchoff made that "Yeah. And it better be impor­ up because he was afraid Jack tant. I'll have a gimlet, please." would have his job in another "You never used to drink before week." lunch, honey." Denny took a breath, then said "This is before breakfast. And •- carefully, "Sharon, I have to talk to call me Sharon." you." Feeling'subdued, he ordered the "What else do you call this?" drink for her, as well as sand­ "I mean in person." wiches, which she said she wanted. "Dori't you understand yet? He'd expected her to have warmed Can't you get it through your a little by the time she arrived but head?" then, of course, she still didn't un­ "It's really important, Sharon. I derstand how wrong it had gone swear. How about lunch? In the for Jack Beeker. coffee shop?" "All right," she said, arching her He could hear her sighing. eyebrows. "What's so important I've "Okay, all right, I'll be there got to jump out of bed, dress and about one-thirty." run down here? You want a di-

A PINK SUNSET LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED yy:fs^->--^----

vorce now, all of a sudden?" for him. He was fired for cheating He felt his face warming. "Di­ on tips. He can't get a recommen­ vorce!" dation for another job like that. "If you do, you've got it. No That means he's finished. What sweat." There was something does he really know, anyway.'' different about her .eyes, and the Where's his talent?" way she held herself, and even the She looked at him brightly. way she talked now. "You want to know?" "I don't want a divorce." His forehead prickled with per­ "What do you want, then.''" spiration. "I'd be careful if I were "I'm willing to forgive and for­ you, Sharon! Divorce! Well, I get, Sharon. I'm willing to come could get one. And it would go home!"' my way, wouldn't it? He's living She looked at him incredulously. in our house and everybody knows "Oh, my hero!" it! You wouldn't get a cent of Then his emotion turned to alimony." anger. "Sharon, I'm being very "That's a loss? On your salary?" generous about this. You don't un­ "You tell me, then! What's Jack derstand what's happened. Jack Beeker got to offer you now?" Beeker gave you a song and dance. "Aside from his talent, you All right, I understand that. But mean." you have to realize that it's over "I'm warning you, Sharon . . ."

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I don't need any warning, espe­ ing to be stuck the rest of. your cially from you. Your tires were life. When you get done with that, blown out when I rharried you. I go home and play with your rub­ know now what I was missing, in­ ber duck, or whatever it is you're cluding in the neighborhood of doing these days." forty-two thousand dollars. Make it exactly forty-two thousand." Her \yhen Denny left the desk later voice had gone down to a whisper. that afternoon he knew very sin­ "What are you talking about?" cerely that he needed the large and "Jack was so mad last night he dry martini that Joey would pour decided to take it out on gambling. for him. He sat on his favorite He hit every casino in town. Craps stool as Joey made the drink. Then and blackjack. He couldn't lose! the small bartender leaned forward And we've got that bundle put solicitously. "That bum, Beeker. I away now. What do you think of saw you go into the coffee shop, that, Charlie Brown ?" then her later. And that guy sits Denny sat there feeling his blood here and drinks three fast ones like pumping. The sandwiches had he hasn't got a worry in the world. been delivered. He stared at his Big smile on his face. Oh, he shot plate, finding it out of focus. off about Applehoff firing him. "No!" he said. But it's like he doesn't realize he's "No what?" Sharon said, tip­ finished!" ping her glass up. Denny drank his drink swiftly. "It's not fair! He shouldn't have Normally he made it last at least that kind of luck." thirty minutes, but not now. He "He knows the rules of the felt fevered. game he's playing. He isn't afraid "Want another, for a change, to take a chance when it's running -Denny?" Joey asked. "Tomorrow's good. That's something you never a day off." understood. You make your own "No," he said. He got up and luck." She put down her empty walked through the length of the glass. "He's waiting for me at the casino, turned a corner where the front bar." elevators were and stepped into He spread his hands, feeling be­ one of the public telephone booths wildered now. "You didn't eat there. He put a dime in the slot your sandwich." and dialed the hotel's number. "You eat it. Then go back to When the switchboard operator your front desk where you're .go­ answered, he said in a reedy voice.

A PINK SUNSET LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Andy Applehoff's office, please." beautiful, and he began to whistle Applehofl's rusty voice re­ a little tune. sponded, and Denny lowered his He drove to, the edge of town to a whisper. "You've been asking where there was an excellent road- for it, Applehoff. You're going to house, and sat very silently at the get it. I've got a bomb in that bar over his second martini, con­ joint. Any minute it's going to templating. He felt relaxed now, blow you and the rest of the and his mind was moving easily, clowns there all the way to Salt thinking absolutely clear thoughts. Lake City. All you got to do is Andy Applehoff usually worked figure out when it goes." split shifts in order to keep every­ He hung up and sat for a mo­ one on his toes. This evening he ment, then he stepped out of the would remain at the hotel until booth, hearing a voice on the eight. The entire hotel personnel loudspeaker saying urgently, "Se­ would be in a frenzy as a result of curity Code Seven! Hotel man­ that bomb threat.- They'd had ager's office!" He met a large se­ them before, and so far the threats curity guard moving quickly had proven to be idle. Still, you toward the elevators. The threat could never be sure. would get the whole department A slim bartender stopped in converging. front of Denny and asked, "Dry He took an escalator down to enough.?" the parking lot in the rear. As he "Right. And let's have another, stepped outside, a patrol car rocked shall we.''" to a halt. Officers spilled out and ' He got up and walked to a tele­ ran for the back entrance. One of phone booth near the entrance, them was named Regis, the police then dialed the hotel and asked for department's demolition expert. Applehoff. The man answered Denny walked toward his old with tension in his voice. "Tick, sedan parked at the end of the lot, tick," Denny whispered. "Boom, a slight jauntiness going into his boom. Any second, Simplehoff." stride. Sunset was just beginning, He hung up and walked cheerfully with a refreshingly cool edge to back to the bar where his new the late breeze. He loved sunsets in drink was waiting. this town. They were pink. He'd He settled for that, then had a lived in other places and seen a lot huge, delicious steak in a rustic of other sunsets, but never like dining room, each fact of his in­ Reno's. Reno's were pink and tention falling into place. When

10 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED he'd finished the meal, he paid his plus dining rooms, plus coffee check, then stopped at the tele­ shop, plus kitchen, plus basement, phone booth on his way out. He plus . . . called the hotel again. Good luc\, he thought, and got "How would you like a trip to into his car and drove east until he the moon, Applehoff ?" was a dozen blocks frdm his Back in his motel unit he house. He parked in darkness on a changed into old clothes—polo silent street, then moved on foot shirt, chinos, sneakers. Then he lay until he was just a block from his on his back on his bed in dim house. There, he darted into an al­ light and thought of his own ley and ran lightly until he was at house—that place from which he'd the rear of the structure. He saw been banished by his own wife, light showing against the drapes of where Jack Beeker now reigned. It the livingroom as well as light be­ was in a rather old, middle-class hind the shades of the kitchen. He neighborhood near the edge of still had his own keys, and he qui­ town: quiet streets, trees, entirely etly inserted one into the door comfortable. He, remembered how, leading to a short hallway where during his stretch, in the Army, steps led up to the kitchen and he'd dreamed of living in a house down to the basement. just like that with a girl who He went in and down the steps. looked exactly as Sharon did. He could hear them talking up­ Well, he could hit her with a di­ stairs, and he felt a wild fury for a vorce and have both thrown out of moment. Then he controlled it there—but there was also another and went directly to an old-fash­ way of handling it. ioned trunk, confident in the dark­ He looked at his watch, then got ness because he knew the area so up and put on a Windbreaker. He well. As he opened the trunk, the went down the block to a public lid hinges squeaked, but he was al­ booth and called the hotel again. most sure that it couldn't be heard Applehoff was now gone, he was above. He worked his hand down told. "All right," he said hoarsely. to a cardboard box in a corner. He "But it's going to blow just the picked it up, closed the trunk and same." It would keep them search­ started back for the steps leading ing, he knew, like mice for cheese. up and oiit. Then light flashed Three hundred rooms, plus casino, above. He saw the shadow of a plus lobby, plus administrative figure there. offices, plus rest rooms, plus closets. "Listen," Sharon said, "I don't

A PINK SUNSET 11 ..^l LA t LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED see why you can't lower yourself glad she was leaving; _ it would just once to take out the garbage." simplify what he had to do now. He heard Becker's rumbling He knocked on the back door. laughter. "Is that what you want Minutes later Jack Beeker, with a out of me, baby?" day's growth of beard, looking Sharon giggled. Denny, pressing hung over, opened it and stared at himself against the wall at the foot him in surprise and irritation. of the stairway, felt himself heat­ "What do you want, Mulhane.'' I ing with fresh anger. He saw his told you to stay away from here." wife's trim ankles as she went out­ "I've got a right to get some side. There was a ringing sound of things from this place!" Denny the garbage can's lid being lifted said, putting a note of almost juve­ and put back. Then she returned nile hysteria in his voice. inside and went up to the kitchen "Like what?" to close the door behind her. "If I have' to call the cops, I'll get Ten minutes later Denny was them!" back in his motel, opening that "All right, you crazy nut! Conie box. in and collect what you want and The next morning, late, he re­ get out of here!" turned to his own neighborhood Beeker turned, and Denny fol­ and parked his car blocks from his lowed him through the kitchen to house. The sun was shining the livingroom. The room was, clearly, and there was a smell' of Denny saw without surprise, in an sage in the air from a light wind entirely unkempt condition. He blowing in from the surrounding quickly chose a cigarette lighter on desert. Wearing a topcoat over his an end table, a framed diploma in­ sports jacket and slacks, as well as dicating his degree from a trade thin leather gloves, he made a school teaching hotel business, swift trip through alleys until he hanging on the wall, and a silver- reached his house, certain that his bladed letter opener resting beside journey had been unobserved. the telephone on the coffee table. He arrived just in time to see He said he wanted all three items. Sharon getting into a cab. Jack "So take them!" Beeker said Beeker's precious Cadillac was caustically. parked at the curb in front of the Denny removed the diploma house. She was probably going to from the wall and, holding it as he get her hair done, an activity to would a tray, put the lighter and which she was addicted. He was letter opener on it. Then he said.

12 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "That's too bad about your nice car." He removed the bills, pocketed "What are you talking about?" them and slid the drawer shut, Beeker asked. heart beating fast. Sharon had al­ "Somebody banged into it." ways foolishly, but stubbornly, in­ "It hasn't got a mark on it!" sisted that it was the place to put "When was the last time you away money kept in the house. looked?" She should have used the false Beeker charged out the front book on that shelf, an item that door. Denny, knowing he'd come looked quite genuine with its relic- to the moment of action, put looking leather cover and gold- ' down the three items he'd been etched title reading: The History holding and looped a gloved finger Of Nevada Railroads. He'd found around the inside of the receiver it in a curio shop and bought it to end of the telephone. Lifting it, he store away valuables. He'd finally dialed a number with the tip of decided a bank safety deposit box the letter opener's blade, seeing would be,safer. Now, however, he that Beeker had reached the car. was going to find a purpose for it. When the operator at the hotel an­ He picked up the framed di­ swered, he said in a whisper, "Tell ploma, letter opener and lighter Appleho£f this is it. I'm blowing just moments before Beeker, look­ him out of this world." • ing grim, returned to the liv- He dropped the telephone into ingroom. "What's the matter with place, then moved toward a book­ you, anyway? There isn't a scratch case which contained his collected on that car!" volumes as well as an old coffee "Well, I thought there was. I grinder which Sharon had found guess it was the way the sun was in an antique store and placed on shining on it." a center shelf as a decoration. It "So all right. Get some glasses. was a square wooden box, with a You got all the junk you want?" black iron grinder handle on top. "All but that book on the shelf. When it had been in use, ground The leather-bound, one, on rail­ coffee was removed by sliding roads. It isn't really a book, but open a drawer at the bottom I've owned it all of my < life. It's where it had been collected during something my mother gave me. If the grinding. Using the tips of his you'll please give it to me, I'll gloved fingers, Denny slid open leave." the drawer and saw what he'd ex­ , Swearing angrily, Beeker pected : a sheaf of currency. reached up to the shelf,, brought

A. PINK SUNSET 13

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the false book down, looked at the sand dollars were there. He tucked empty interior, slapped the cover, them into a well-stamped heavy shut and put it on the diploma manila envelope he'd prepared ear­ which Denny was again holding lier and read what he'd printed on tray-style. "Get out of here now, the front: Mr. John J. Coppel, will you?" General Delivery, Reno, Nevada.

Denny went back along alleys He licked the glue and sealed the until he reached his own'car. He flap. drove'off'and then stopped' again, He picked up a paper bag from farther away. He'removed'the bills the floor and rernoved the cbn- from his'pdcket-'and,counted themj-' teMs, which included a small old- finding^-fhat'a fiiir foVty-twd thou-' fashioned wind-up alarm clock, as

14 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE' LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED well as the object he'd taken from "Yeah, all right," Applehoff said, the basement trunk the night be­ getting on the elevator. fore: a grenade which he'd felt Denny turned the corner and compelled to smuggle through the walked down the corridor until he gates of his Army post years ago came to a small anteroom between as a souvenir, one of the very few the manager's large office and the minor indiscretions he'd ever com­ smaller one for the assistant man­ mitted in his life—until now. ager. Shirley, the plump and pretty His fingers worked deftly. Then girl who worked as secretary for he closed, the cover and put the both, looked up and said, "If I had fake book on the seat beside him. a day off I wouldn't be here, Driving on, he saw two police Denny. Didn't you hear?" cars speeding in the direction from "Well, that's why I came down, which he'd come. His heart was to see what's going on. Probably a pounding, and he could feel mois­ crank, huh.?" ture on his palms, inside his gloves, "We'd better hope." but he was smiling now. "Meantime Andy asked me to When he'd parked behind the wait in his office." hotel, he got out and put the book Shirley pointed to the door. "Be inside his topcoat, clamped under my guest." his arm, then walked toward the Denny stepped into the large building. He dropped the manila office with its thick rug and mas­ envelope into the employees' mail sive dark desk, bumping the door slot just inside. Then he went up nearly shut with his elbow. He to casino level and picked up a walked across the room and house phone to say. "This is secur­ quickly went around the desk ity. Send Mr. Applehoff down here where there was a small bookshelf fast." containing a few volumes Ap­ He hung up and got on one of plehoff had collected for office ref­ the self-operating elevators, punch­ erence—law statutes, hotel codes, ing the administration-floor but­ some others. Denny put his false ton. As he stepped, out on that book with its faintly ticking sound floor, Andy Applehoff came around on a shelf in a position that would a corner. be just behind Applehoff's head "Listen, Andy—" should he be sitting in his chair. "I'm in a hurry, Denny." Then Denny removed his gloves, "Well, I'll wait for you in your took off his,topcoat and,sat down office, okay.?" in a leather chair. He looked at his

A PINK SUNSET 15 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED watch. He took a breath. He outside. How. do you like that?" waited, listening to that ticking "He's wild, all , right. Why sound. would I have wanted to go out Minutes later Andy Applehoff there?" marched into • the office and sat "I.guess they'll want to talk to down, shaking his head. "I've had you, but that's what / told them. about as much as I can take! With him and Sharon there to­ Phony security calls. Those damna­ gether? Well—they can get him ble bomb threats Jack Beeker fairly good on the threat alone. made!" But if he'd actually tried to set off "Beeker.?" Denny said, trying a bomb, they'd put him away until very hard to look surprised. "He he gets old. I tell you—" was the one?" "Listen, Andy," Denny ordered "Yeah, they nailed him out at crisply. your house. I got the call just be­ "What?" fore I saw? you in the hall. I "Listen!" haven't even told Shirley yet," Ap- The room became silent except pjehoff said. for a soft ticking. Denny got up, "How?" Denny asked. pointing at the bookshelf. "That "If the fool had been half on his doesn't belong here! That's out of feet when he was working here, my house!'-' he'd have known the switchboard "What are you talking about?" can be rigged to trace a call, once a Applehoff said, flying out of his bomb scare is up. Takes the tele­ chair. phone company into the next day Denny went around the desk to do it, but they did. So that creep and removed the leather-bound phoned in another threat about book from the shelf to put it on twenty minutes ago, and they had Applehoff's blotter. "It's fake—hol­ him. He owned a beef against me, low—but there's something inside and there's the motive. But you now. Listen to it tick!" knew that tracer equipment could "You're right! Denny, let's get be installed, didn't you, Denny ?" out of here!" "Well," Denny said, "I guess I Applehoff was moving for the did, as a matter of fact. So they ar­ door as Denny opened the cover rested him?" and then took a penknife from his "He's wild, they say. He's so des­ pocket. perate he says yoM were but there , "Get away from that thing!" and made the call while he stepped Applehoff shouted.

16 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Denny worked the knife gin­ talk. What's on your mind, pray gerly. Then he nodded. "It's okay, tell?" Andy. I just put it out of busi­ "Denny," she said plaintively, ness." "Jack's sure you framed him. He keeps shouting at them that you A week later Denny sat behind did. At me, too, when I visit him. the desk in the assistant manager's But it doesn't help him, does it?" office, going over a shift schedule. "I think that's been gone over He was working days, this week, pretty well. I don't believe any­ and it was nearly time to quit. He one's put any credence in it at all." slipped the schedule into a drawer "Well, but, see, it's something as Andy Applehofl stepped in. else, too. It's that I didn't tell any­ "I've got to say it all over again, one else but you about that big Denny—how grateful I am. That win Jack had; «obody, and neither thing was set to go off in another did he. He figured the cops did two minutes!" ApplehofI shook his that—you know, got the money af­ head, paling. "Would have blown ter they hustled him into a police my head off, if you hadn't seen it. car. Like there was a whole gang And then, when you,deactivated it, of them swooped in on him after I saw a man I'd never seen before. they traced the call,' and they I'm sorry I took so long, Denny. searched the place. Well, I didn't I'll try to make up for it. I'm not tell him I told you about that going to be working too much money. He might have even tried longer. You know who'll take over to kill me through the bars, if he'd when I leave, right?" known that. Only now I'm glad I Denny smiled. "That's mighty did, because I know you remem­ nice to hear, Andy. But anybody bered about the coffee grinder and would have done the same thing I looked when you sent Jack^out to did." look at his car, and . . . Honey, "That's not true. Have a good you did, didn't you? For me\ I'm . night, Denny." so proud of you! If you want, when As Applehoff left him, Denny's you go home tonight, I could be phone rang. He lifted it. "Yes.^"' there again, too. Like it used to "Denny.? Is that you.? Is there be? Just you and me, Denny . . ." anybody else on the line? Can we He put the phone on its cradle talk?" and stood up, stretching. Then he "It's me, Sharon, and the secre­ slipped on his jacket and stepped tary's off now. And, yes, we can into the anteroom to see that Shir-

A PINK SUNSET 17

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ley had already gone. He looked modestly, thinking that he had into Andy Applehofl's large office, quite a lot of time before he was examining it, eyes shining. going to call for the manila enve­ Then he went • down to casino lope at the post office. "A man level and to the main bar where does what he has to do." Joey mixed his drink. He placed it "Well, you did. And I hear in front of Denny, saying, "One they're going to cut Beeker's heart double-dry for the new assistant out and fry it." you-know-what. Hot damn!" "Maybe not that bad." Denny smiled and tasted his "Bad enough. That guy had all drink. the luck in the world going. I "I'm telling you," Joey said, guess he figured it wouldn't quit. shaking his head, "that guy is But it did. It really gave out on really getting his. I hear his him." fingerprints were all over the "Well, maybe sometimes a man phone at your place, so they da;Tin makes his own luck, Joey," Denny well )(now who made that threat. said. All over the fake book, too. Had "Yeah, well . . ." Joey said, nod­ the sense to wipe clean the stuff he ding. "Maybe he does, at that." used to rig the thing inside, but he "Yes," Denny said positively, "I left his prints all over the leather think so." outside! I call that dumb." Then, when he'd finished the "My prints were on it, too." drink, he took an escalator down "Well, sure! Just from taking it to the parking lot. As he walked off the shelf and putting the thing toward his car, he saw that the out of commission. They say Beck­ sunset was beginning. P««^, he er must have sneaked it in during thought, and beautiful; more the night and Applehoff just didn't beautiful than I've ever seen it notice. It was fixed to blow, all before. right. That took guts, Denny. He strode along, a definite swag­ Plenty of guts." ger in his movement, and whistled "I don't know," Denny said a bright and cheery tune.

1 J 18 ALFRED HITCHCOCX S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED New math notwithstanding, again it is proved, beyond any doubt, that an arithmetical problem has but one answer, irrevo­ cable and accurate.

A-v. f Vi* piMiSiiiSS riS^y-'yy x,...... ?:. ^ ff^ k-...... -.

"Y^^W^

QIJAMES JAMES was a precise, nar­ James was a replete and satisfied row-shouldered man who Uved a man. If he had an ambition be­ precise, narrow-bordered life. His yond any already achieved, it could days were occupied with the busi­ only be to discover a problem ness of accounting and his eve­ greater than he had before encoun­ nings with the hobby of solving tered. tricky arithmetical problems in It was during an early twilight game books. He maintained a in the late fall of 1965 that James neatly modest apartment and James first saw her, or rather it, as drove a well-kept three-year-old- a problem in transportation. She compact. was standing at the side of the

THE..PR0BLEM- 19

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED road helplessly peering under the successful completion of a complex hood of her disabled car, a pretty calculation. young woman had she not allowed It was within the apartment and herself to appear so plain, and a under the blazing eyes of the ty­ passionate one, too, should a man— rannical old man in the wheelchair any man—arouse the hidden fire. , that James James became aware of James eased his compact care­ a confrontation with a paralogism fully to the shoulder of the road, rather than a postulate, and took it switched off the ignition, set his to himself for solution. The old parking brake, pocketed his keys, man did not liJ{e him. As a matter stepped to the pavement, in­ of fact, the old man hated him. troduced himself and took over The old man wanted him out of under the hood. . . this apartment. The old man While he was a mathematician wished his daughter for himself. and not a mechanic, he figured, James then gazed upon Helen geometrically, that a motor is, or Helinski and found her to be a should be an equation of parts to woman; and after backing from become functional once one entity the apartment into the hall, his equals another, and so he quickly coffee only half-finished, he asked found the loose wire, that had her for a date. caused the trouble. She looked confused, and flut­ The young woman, Helen He- tered. linski, fourth grade schoolteacher, He gave her a choice: an eve­ single, on her way home to an ning of viewing the chess tourna­ anxious invalid father,.gave thanks ment then in progress, or one of and purred her. now reactivated studying the new mathematical ex­ motor into life -and 'moved off hibit at the museum. down the highway. She chose either. James followed at a respectful What she really chose was the distance, not as an act of gallantry man—just any man—even Jarries but rather to .prove the lasting ac­ James, and under the plainness, curacy of his solution. Upon arriv­ her prettiness flowered; under her ing at her apartment building, he modesty, the passion flamed, for accepted her invitation to coffee, here was a potential, a wonderful not to further a hurrian relation­ possibility to snatch her from the ship, but because he was in the- spinster class into the glorious habit of rewarding himself with a safely-wed-and-into-bed area. slight cafTein stimulant after the She lowered her eyes as she

20 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED chose either, for she was choosing lem to date. His pencil fairly flew. only one, a man. James found it fascinating. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortu­ At least once a week, Helen nately, she was not to view the managed a parent-teacher meeting chess tournament or walk through and met him, instead, where they ' the math exhibit either, for upon had great fun over coffee. Now learning of her wanton evening's and then,' she conjured a student- abandonment. Father Helinski im­ assembly rehearsal for the benefit mediately became an instant-math­ of her father. At those times, they ematician on his own. Seeing the attended a movie, provided it writing on the wall, he threw a wasn't rated X. massive heart attack that involved After the first four or five spaced Helen, every tenant in the apart­ meetings, shy anrf almost speech­ ment building, two doctors and, less on Helen's part and bright finally, James. with the insouciance of numerical The problem became a classic. conversation on the part of James, Two entities who ought to be he kissed her! The kiss was plant- , added were unrelentingly divided ed briefly, partly because of pro- by the whim of an old man whc pinquitous conformity, a Httle of certainly should be subtracted. "^ atavism, and also because James The problem intrigued James, wanted that equation to come out who worked a linear equation that as he had planned. The kiss did evolved as Helen -)- James = Fa­ terrible and wonderful things to ther Helinski. He proceeded to a Helen. In it she discovered deep quadratic equation and came up churnings she had never before with Helen + Father Helinski — known, and great desires she James = Father. He thencontinued would like to know. to cubic equation where Helen — The kiss caused erotic dreams Father + James = Helen + James from which she awoke blushing — Father, and operated upon this and dissatisfied. computerized wavelength, con­ During the winter James asked niving telephonically to transpose Helen to marry him; not in those the denominator to the numerator, words, of course, but more accord­ thereby causing Helen to lie to the ing to the Pythagorean theorem integer and thus bring about, propounding that the square of the hopefully, a final hyperbola equilat­ hypotenuse of a right-angled eral for a mathematician working triangle being equal to the sum of on the solution of his biggest prob­ the squares of the other two sides,

THE PROBLEM 21

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the three of them ought to be able as she swayed ' yearningly toward to live together in harmony, pro- him, her back remained rigid, vided the father was placed in a "Daddy made me promise to take suitable nursing home. care of him for the rest of his life. "Oh, no!" cried Helen, and even . He says I owe him that much—to

22 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED stay single and take care of him." with a very unfavorable prognosis. From that time on, each meeting James' meetings with Helen dur­ began ^ with a question. "How is ing that month occurred at a coffee your father?" asked James, wish­ shop across the street from the hos­ ing the old coot would disappear. pital where she kept vigil during "About the same," answered her hours free of school. It was in Helen, wishing he would too. the coffee shop where James first James thought vaguely of anni­ learned that the old man was go­ hilation. Oh, nothing violent like ing to make it, and there he heard gun-shooting murder, that being the further news that was to too direct, and he might be found change his equation into one even out. He pondered upon more cir­ more complex. cuitous methods, like inflicting a While Helen spoke with down­ deadly shock by announcing to cast eyes—no, actually planned Mr. HeUnski that he planned to with lowered lids—James was marry his daughter, or even by just working out this new equation: stepping inside the apartment—but Helen — Father + James ^ Vz that would be cheating and James Helen + James — '/z Father, and James had never, in his life, while it was not a perfect solution, cheated on a math problem. still it halfway solved the problem. So the meetings continued to oc­ Daddy, Helen explained with cur through and into late winter,' veiled eyes, would now need full- beginning with the question, time care and had, by necessity, "How is your father.''" and ending consented to enter a nursing home with a chaste kiss that sent Helen but only providing Helen prom­ home to her bed and her erotic ised to visit him each weekend and dreams which extended so far but further providing that she drive no farther, because she had no him to their vacation cottage at an knowledge within her subcon­ Oregon lake each summer and scious with which to dream, and spend her three-month vacations in James wasn't giving her any. the proper care and spinster-vigi­ It was at the beginning of lance of her invalid father. spring, in March, when it appeared "So," said Helen with becoming that James' cubic equation, Helen — modesty, "I thought, James, that I Father + James = Helen + James could continue to be Daddy's — Father, was about to be solved. daughter, yet married to you," The old man, felled by another at­ which was all she wanted anyway, tack, was trundled to the hospital the opportunity of experiencing in

THE PROBLEM 23 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED actuality the conclusion to her half- she ^ was Miss Helinski, number. fulfilled-dreams. The fact that oth­ However, she quickly put such a ers wouldn't know of her com­ thought aside as being not only un­ pletion was unimportant, just so seemly but bordering on the ob­ that she did. scene. The turbulent promise deep in During the April and May of her eyes when she raised them to their union, Helen didn't actually James escaped him. He was too bloom with James' love, for his busy compromising the uneasy so­ love was too passive for blooming, lution to his equation. Not quite but rather she budded with deli­ satisfied, displeased with having his cate serenity. Her budding was no­ digits dangle, but even more dis­ ticed by her teacher co-workers pleased at the thought of a forever- who thought hers was the tran­ unfinished problem, James married quility of having her father off her Helen during a private civil cere­ neck, observed by her pupils who mony the minute Mr. Helinski took advantage of her patience, was safely ensconced in a nursings and only regarded by her husband home fifty miles from the city. All as being proof-positive of his judg­ that reniained, then, was to change ment at having selected a mate so the nameplate over his apartment tidy, so even-tempered and under­ mailbox to read: Mr. and Mrs. standing. James James. By June, with school over for Helen was recognized by that the year and Mr. Helinski at the name only on the mailbox. Since nursing home recovered enough no tenant in the building had for travel, Helen packed and read­ known James James as a bachelor, ied the station wagon she had except to nod to in the elevator, no recently acquired in a trade-in, and tenant now knew him as a mar­ took off for a summer with her fa­ ried man, except to nod twice in ther. the elevator. So with an imper­ James gave her a farewell kiss as sonal nod, and in a mailbox slot, he left for his office on the morn­ Helen was married. ing of her departure and didn't re­ At school, she remained Miss alize that the apartment "would feel Helinski, teacher. At the nursing so empty that evening with her home, which she visited each gone. weekend, she was Miss Helinski, The emptiness, rather than abat­ daughter. She sometimes thought ing, increased through the days that in the cool of her nuptial bed and weeks and finally the months

24 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED o£ the summer. His game problems his health foods, and once the mul­ hadn't the stimulation they had tiple vitarnins were gone, he failed once held for him, nor the absorp­ to reorder. tion they had once accomplished. With fall, the new year became a James cut down on coffee, went pleasant and ordered pattern. Each on a health-food diet and took morning, James off to his office multiple vitamins, thinking that he and Helen to school, tKey de­ must be sick, at least sluggish, to scended the apartment elevator to­ be so apathetic toward a hobby gether, nodding to their stranger- that had been the passion of his neighbors who, in turn, nodded entire adult life. back doubly. Once past the mail­ The summer passed with no let­ box slot that labeled her Mrs. ters (a letter, would upset Daddy) James, Helen became Miss He- and no telephone calls. There was linski—tidy, even-tempered and no phone at the cottage and be­ understanding, but with an inner cause she could not leave Daddy, flame that caused the faculty to re­ Helen must have someone from mark, one to the other, "I never re­ the mainland bring over her alized Miss Helinski was so pretty. weekly supplies, therefore would She fluffs her hair now, that's be unable to reach a phone to what, and she used to wear it make or to receive calls. plain. She smiles more often too." After closing the books of those All the teachers were women. Had clients with a June fiscal year, there been a man on the staff, he James' summer accounting busi­ could have-seen in Helen a bud­ ness was slack.. With remarkable ding sexpot, and would probably lack of interest, he attended a chess have sought to bring her,to flower. tournament, audited a math sym­ There were no other men in posium, read a new volume of cal­ Helen's hfe. There was only her culus, and that was about it. father who clung with weak tyr­ Then,.miraculously, once Helen anny, and James who looked up, had returned, having deposited her now and then, from his circles, his father in the nursing home, James' angles, and his parallelograms to interest in mathematical game find her comfortably and quietly books was suddenly revived, and there. the solving of problems again be­ "How was your summer.?" he came a fascinating pastime. He asked. drank rewarding cups of coffee as "Very pleasant," she said. before, allowed himself to forego "And your father.?"

THE PROBLEM 25 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "As well as can be expected." stored the coffeepot, stocked up on It was all very nice. The solution, health foods and bought a supply even though it had come out Vz of multiple vitamins. He was sure Helen and 5^2 Father, was most he was sick during that long, hot, satisfactory. It was satisfaction, de­ empty summer—but found he was cided James, that caused the full­ not with Helen's return. ^ ness of his chest and the occasional "How was your summer.'"' he quick and passionate breathing asked her. that sometimes troubled him. He "Very pleasant," she said. also thought it a reflection of that "And your father.?" satisfaction when he caught the "As well as can be expected." sometimes -flash of invitation in It was the third fall after the Helen's eyes. third summer after the third The year proceeded from fall spring of their marriage that through winter and into late Helen's answers seemed to be spring, when it again became time ruffled with smiles and sequined for Helen to pack and ready the with laughter. There was nothing station wagon for her trip with her . blatant about her attitude; that is, father to the cottage by the lake. the ruffles were narrow and the se­ "Does your father stand the trip quins^ did not glitter, but she was well?" asked James. different. Even James noticed, and "Yes," said Helen. . had there been a man on the fac­ "Is he difficult to care for ulty staff of the school where she through the summer.?" taught, he would surely have said, "Not too difficult," she said. "the bud is in full bloom." This year of their marriage had Their life and the seasons con­ proved to be a disappointment to tinued without change. Helen Helen, a matter which she did not taught her fourth grade pupils admit to herself, not knowing for while James continued his efficient sure what it lacked, only that it accounting service. In the evenings had never quite reached the shy ec­ he worked his problems while she stasy of her maiden half-dreams . tidied and sewed and remained in and fell far short of the whole- the background. Then later, occa­ dream she had anticipated. sionally, very occasionally, Jaimes' Once she was gone and James quick and labored breathing had closed the books on his June moved him to become passionately fiscal clients, he faced again his but precisely impulsive—so briefly lackadaisical game-playing. He that his impulse had about it a sub-

26 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED liminal effect, as one might guess. made a momentous decision. He Each weekend Helen drove, os­ would claim her. He would ride, tensibly, to the nursing home fifty like Lochinvar, on his now seven- miles away and back again. year-old wheels and snatch her for "How is your father getting his own. If the old man should die along?" asked James. with his arrival.? That was not She shrugged. cheating: Late in that fourth spring, James James actually beat his chest asked Helen, "Are you sure your with his fists at the thought. father can make that long trip this It was not cheating now that she •year.?" was his wife. His true wife, he "Oh, absolutely," she said with amended, feeling a pulsating immediate conviction, and began affection. to pack. The clients he was to serve dur­ The summer began hotter than ing that first week of August were usual. James closed all his June mildly surprised when he informed fiscal clients and faced the sticky them that their trial balances, their emptiness oi late July. He no general ledgers, their profit-and- longer had anything ' to sustain loss statements or whatever, rriust him, this man who, just four short be held in abeyance until his re­ years ago, had been immersed turn; as the service station atten­ within, held close, mesmerized by dants that serviced his car and had the romance of numbers. He re­ just serviced it, were surprised membered with nostalgia his once- when he told them to service it long evenings abridged by complex again for his trip. problems, his triumphs of solution, The trip was uneventful and he rewarded with coffee. arrived at the lake during an after­ He remembered with nostal­ noon of cool beauty. He parked his gia, and then with abrupt aver­ car and walked to the pier where sion. What man, he raged in­ there was a fish-bait house and a wardly, would embrace paper hamburger-soft drinks shack. He figures when he could hold in his selected the fish-bait house and arms the warm and pulsing figure told the man there that he would of a woman—his woman, he re­ like to find the Helinski cottage. membered, his by right of law. "Oh, yeah," said the man and Mrs. James . . . Didn't it say so turned to another. "That's the one on the mailbox ? on the other side, ain't it.-"'. It was then, at that moment, he "Helinski?"' • ' ^ .

THE PROBLEM 27 .•..A'O. LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Mr. Helinski," said James, "and asked him, trading more smiles. his daughter." "Yes," said James grimly, "I can "You'll find the daughter," said make it." the second man, "but not old Hel­ He saw the auxiliary oars lying inski anymore." on the bottom of the boat and "Not since last year," said the noted subconsciously, with the pre­ first. cise mind of a mathematician "The year before that, wasn't working out a problem, that they it?" said the second- "I remember were heavy and substantially lethal how it was. Joe took their supplies weapons. "I can make it fine," he over to 'em and came back with said. the body." It was "a beautiful lake that the "The body?" asked James. motor hummed across. James did "Helinski's body. The old man. not attend to its beauty, but then Heart. Joe and the girl brought he had never attended to beauty, him back to the mainland." beauty being variable and inexact, "Yeah. Joe and the girl." The as was emotion . . . fleeting; an il­ first man looked at the second and lusory delusion. they shared a brief and communal He cut off his motor and slid up smile. next to the outboard already in "So if you want to find old Hel­ place along the green shore of the inski, he's out at the cemetery," green lake. He hefted an oar and said the second man gravely, "but found his muscles straining with if you want to find the girl, she's the weight. He had a moment's , over at the cottage, all right." regret for not having exercised his "I want to find the girl," said body along with his mind, but the James, regret was only momentary for he "You got the outboard?" asked believed that the mind was might­ the first man. ier than the body—and set out to "Joe's got it." prove his point. "That figures." ' The cottage was back among the The two men found an out­ trees and quiet; quiet and ab­ board for James at last. They gun­ sorbed. ned the mot9r for him, showed He, too, was quiet—and intently him how to steer, pointed across absorbed. the water in the general direction He had never seen her body be­ of the cottage. fore; not exposed and bare, and "Think you can make it?" they certainly not so completely occu-

28 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED pied. It was very beautiful—^but he Helinski taught, and where Miss did not attend to beauty, beauty Helinski would soon be forgotten. being transient and undependable, as was emotion—an hallucination James took up his problems once of the senses. again, and gave himself small He brought the oar down, kill­ coffee awards with their solution. ing them both with one heavy He had solved, at last, the biggest blow. problem of his life. His equation They were so closely entwined, now read: Helen — Father -j- this Joe and Helen, that one blow James = 54 Helen -|- James — 54 was enough—but James was a Father — 54 Helen -(- James + 54 mathematician and a mathemati­ Joe — 54 Father = 0 Helen -\- cian leaves nothing to chance. He 0 Father + 0 Joe = James. struck again and again and again, Here was a definite and con­ not so much with fury as with clusive solution; one answer, one furious precision. irrevocable and accurate answer. He left then, and left the oar, his James James, that precise, nar^. weapon, knowing that he was just row-shouldered man again lives his a stranger looking for Helen He- precise and narrow-bordered life, Unski, swinging spinster to the his days being occupied with the lake people, known only to Joe, business of accounting and his eve­ who was dead with her; knowing nings with the hobby of solving that he was not Helen's husband tricky arithmetical problems in because she had been Mrs. James game books. only on a mailbox and but dimly Now and then he looks at his^ to elevator-neighbors who had solution: 0 Helen = James, and nodded doubly for four years and there is a slight fluttering of regret, who would nod now again but just a tremor of wishful thinking, singly, without wonder, without in^ but he quickly washes it down with terest; knowing that he was non­ a swallow of coffee, and opens up existent at the school where Miss his arithmetic game book. 1

THE PROBLEM 29

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED // becomes clear that integrity and dishonesty may enjoy a par­ ticular affinity.

JASON FLETCHER was a liar—an imaginative, shameless, and some­ times entertaining bar. jyuSffbaion. If he had ever written his auto­ son Fletcher would have revealed biography, it's almost certain it the names of hundreds of world would have been a best seller. He leaders who have depended upon had the high forehead we associate him for advice. He would have de­ with intelligence; the graying tem­ tailed travels far more hazardous ples we equate with wisdom; the than those of Marco Polo, Colum­ lean, evenly tanned features that bus, or the astronauts of Apollo spell manliness; and the unnatu­ Eleven. His list of accom­ rally perfect teeth that can only be plishments would have rivaled the the product of thousands of dollars genius of Einstein, the daring of paid to a talented dentist. His New York City cab drivers, and photo on the dust jacket would the luck of .Irish Sweepstakes win- have been a powerful promotional ners- asset---'-' . '•" ' ' "'The only truth his autobiogra­ The content of the book would phy might possibly have contained have'contributed to sales, also. Ja- is his name. There is a chance,

30 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED hough only a sUght one, that Ja­ the Double-damned Liars like my­ son Fletcher was his true name. self. We are the ones who have The old saying that it takes one made lying an art. Ours are not :o know one is valid here. I'm a spur-of-the-nioment creations, nor iar, too; but there was a huge are they detected very often. The difference between us in degree if Double-damned Lie is a careful not in kind. I've been a liar all my blend of fact and fancy, often built life. I learned the art from some of up over a long period of time until the world's most colorful and in­ even the liar himself has difficulty ventive experts—men and women telling which parts are true and who • lied almost every time their which parts are the truth of the lips moved. Jason Fletcher wasn't imagination. in my league. If someone simply tells you he The first lies I mastered were the went to school with the President Plain Lies. These are the lies com­ of the United. States, he may be monly found in obituaries and the telling the truth or he may be a type of lies lovers exchange. Be­ Damned Liar; but here's how a cause there is no intention really to Double-damned Liar might handle fool anyone, all lies of consid­ it: "Isn't it funny the way we bor­ eration fall into this category. A row things and never return Plain Lie—whistling at an ugly them?" he'll say. "I was cleaning woman, for instance—is actually out the attic this morning (he meant as a kindness. really was) and look at this old On the other hand, Damned book I found (he really did)." Lies are conceived with deception, At this point he'll hand you a confusion and misdirection as their dog-eared old textbook and let you goal. Damned Lies range from the discover the inscription: Stolen equivocal policy statements of poli­ from Richard M. Nixon. He won't ticians to the alibis offered by cap­ tell you he wrote the inscription tured criminals. As is the case with that morning, using tincture of Plain Lies, Damned Lies are usu­ iodine to produce the fading ally easily detected, though this brown script. And when you re­ isn't the liar's intention. The chief mark that the name is the same as difference between Plain Lies and the President's, he'll exclaim: "By Damned Lies is that Damned Lies gosh, you're right! You know, I are always told to benefit the never connected little Dickie Damned Liar. Nixon, who used to follow me By far the most skillful liars are around, and the President. Guess

THE ART OF LYING 31

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I'd better return the book to him." lie thinking far out of proportion It's careful preparation hke this to his true worth. that makes it possible for a That's why any liar worthy ol Double-damned Liar to finish a the name, whether he tells Double- long, involved story, then smile damned Lies or merely Plain ones, and say: "You can believe that if hates a Damned Liar; and that's you want to." why I hated Jason Fletcher. Jason But besides great artistry of tech­ Fletcher was that most foul of nique, the Doiible-damned Liar liars, a Damned Liar. has something else going for The first time I saw Jason Flet­ him—Double-damned Liars have cher he was playing tennis at a integrity. They use their skills to Beverly Hills country club late one give their Hsteners the pleasure of Saturday afternoon. I was standing an interesting story disguised as nearby, telling a carefully con­ truth, and they do it without any structed lie to one of the club's di­ thought of gain. Double-damned rectors, when Fletcher's opponent Liars make their livings in many complimented him on the speed ways, but never by prostituting and accuracy of his serve. their art. "Thank you," he said modestly. However, quite often a Damned "It earned me a gold medal at the Liar will develop a flair for lying, 1960 Olympics in Rome. I defeated but lack the humanitarian instinct . both Gonzales and Kramer, you of the Double-damned Liar. A know." Damned Liar of this caliber will Fletcher probably felt safe with invariably become a professional this spur-of-the-moment Damned actor, a confidence swindler, or a Lie. The Olympics does award fiction writer. Fiction writers are gold medals, it was'\\f\A in Rome all Damned Liars. in 1960, and Gonzales and Kramer Because of his self-centered rea­ are two of the most famous names son for lying and the ease with in tennis. Unfortunately for Jason which he is found out, a Damned Fletcher's feeble effort, tennis is Liar gives all liars a bad name. Just not one of the Olympic games. But as bank robbers have a difficult when this fact was brought to time overcoming the stigma of the Fletcher's attention, he just smiled Dillingers in their profession, and and said: "Tennis, anyone.?" bigamists all seem to walk in the It was obvious to me that such shadow cast by Bluebeard, the savpir faire could have been gained Damned Liar has an effect on pub- only from numerous other ex-

32 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED posures. He had revealed himself people here—that's my feeling." as not only a Dannned Liar, but a "Why's that?" I asked, making prolific one. conversation. Jason Fletcher had As Fletcher and a new opponent picked up his drink from the bar volleyed for serve, I nodded toward and carried it to a small table near him and asked: "Who's that?" the windows. He had a view of "Jason Fletcher," the club direc­ the parking lot from there, but not tor answered. miich else. I smiled. "That's a good name "There's been an epidemic of for an actor." burglaries in the last few months. "Oh, he's not an actor." Several of our club members "Well, writer, then." I was cer­ suffered heavy losses. The rest are tain I had Fletcher pegged. fairly reluctant to go out again uii- "Wrong again," the director til the man's captured." said. "He's a history professor. So we talked about the effect of He'll be teaching history at crime waves on the country club U.C.L.A. when the fall semester business and had several drinks. I starts." managed to inject half a dozen That was crazy. He might possi­ Double-damned Lies into the con­ bly write history, but teach it.? versation, spaced over the period of Never! That wasn't an occupation a couple of hours, and Jason Flet­ in which a Damned Liar could be cher didn't leave my sight. My host successful. offered to find me a dinner jacket I shifted the discussion back to somewhere if I wanted to go to the Double-damned Lie I had been the dance, but I told him not to telling, but kept my eye on Flet­ bother. . cher. Before long he finished play­ At a few minutes after ten, Flet­ ing and went to the locker room cher finished his last drink and left to shower and change. I kept the the bar. I said good night to the door under observation so he club director, told him I'd stop by couldn't leave without my seeing again soon, and followed Fletcher him. When he emerged and went into the parking lot. I watched to the bar, I followed along behind him move down the line of cars, him. The sun was beginning to pausing now and then to shine a set. tiny beam of light into one of "There's a dance scheduled for them; then he climbed behind the tonight," the club director said, wheel of a blood-red XKE and "but there probably won't be many drove from the lot.

THE ART OF LYING 33 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I followed at a safe distance in tip, had obtained a warrant to my car. In the next hour and a search the apartment of Jason Flet­ half I was a witness when Fletcher cher. The loot from the last three broke into two homes and an burglaries was found, but nothing apartment. He had one of the else. Under questioning, Fletcher most compact kits of burglar tools produced airtight alibis for the I had ever seen. Apparently, he times the earlier burglaries had had been watching the country been committed. club parking lot and spotting the Now, because of my dislike for cars of celebrities. When he shined Damned Liars, I suppose you be­ his light into them later, it was to lieve I'm the one who made the get the addresses from the registra­ anonymous call to the police.' You tion cards attached to the steering may also suspect that I know a bit columns. It was an old trick. Ob­ too much about the techniques of viously, he gave his burglaries no burglars to be completely pure of more preparation than he gave his heart. You're thinking I might lies, but he was a bit more success­ even be the man responsible for ful as a burglar. At least, no one that crime wave in Los Angeles. caught him at it. Well, you are wrong. Much as I I followed him to his apartment hated Jason Fletcher as a person, I and then went home myself. The could never have forced myself to next day the Los Angeles Times inform on him to the police. I gave front-page space to the story make it a strict rule never to in­ about the burglaries. The police volve myself in the affairs of oth­ linked these last three crimes with ers. The fact that he was a crimi­ the previous ones because a lock- nal made no difference. As for the picking machine, a small vibrating idea of me being a burglar, it's device," was apparently used to ridiculous. The accusation is too open the locked doors in all in­ insulting to rherit a detailed de­ stances. fense; however I will make one I stayed home, but kept my ra­ unequivocal statement: I am a liar dio tuned to a station with good and a good one, but I have never news coverage. At five in the after­ burgled a house in my life. noon it was announced that the You can believe me if you want police, acting on an anonymous to.

34 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Ingenuity may surmount more obstacles than may seem possible.

n ALWAYS SLOW UP along that stretch of Route 81 where Amos' barn burned. Dave Malcolm tells how one foggy night, when he and Kate were driving home from a clambake at Loon Lake, Old Amos stepped out in the right ane, waving a red lantern. Dave

YANKEE NIGHT RIDER 35 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED swung his car hard to the left, hearse. Then Old Amos climbed missed him. into the driver's seat. Dave probably had one too "We Peabodys do for ourselves," many for the road that night, for he said. Nodding toward the he had just helped bury what was young preacher, he flipped the left of the old Yankee after his whip across Dolly's rump and barn and house burned. headed down the lane toward the Anyway, there have been some family cemetery. strange accidents where the new "That's the way he wants it, highway dips deep into Benton folks," Clem Miller announced. Valley, cutting through what was "Let's all go back to our milk- once a dahlia farm. — -ing."" Amos was the last of a long line That summer the indignation of of Yankees. Shortly after the Revo­ the Ladies Aid over Matilda's in­ lution, his ancestors came across decent funeral faded, like the dahl­ the Poconos, driving their ox carts ias Old Amos put on the church from Connecticut. Ever since, these altar every Sunday in memory of pioneers had been taking potshots his wife. at anyone who tried to drive them My wife Elizabeth would bake a off the land they cleared of hem­ chicken casserole every Tuesday lock and oak. for the lonely old man. Jane Kovac When Amos' Matilda died, he had Pete leave an apple pie in the acted stubborn as ever. First he mailbox every Friday. Gradually, dressed her in the black satin she all the women took a hand trying wore to play the pipe organ in the to mother the lonely old man. Congregational church. Then he The year after Matilda died, laid her in the smaller of two pine state highway engineers mapped coffins he had stored in the loft of out the line for Route 81 through the old barn. He had built the Benton Township. Dave and I got coffins himself for what he knew the job of appraising the stretch of would happen to both of them farmland three hundred yards sooner or later. No kin was left. wide, that would be taken over. He wouldn't let Clem Miller • When Old Amos saw the survey embalm. Matilda, but he borrowed crew heading through his frost- Clem's hearse.. After the young nipped dahlia field, he thought it preacher had read the service for was some of us neighbors hunting the dead, four of us dairy-farmers grouse. He didn't ever object to lifted the light coffin into the that. But when strangers- set up a

36 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED transit and began sighting near more, so no use asking me again." his.house, he came out waving his Old Amos lifted his squirrel rifle squirrel rifle. The crew withdrew. off the wooden pegs over the fire­ Tim Henderson, the sheriff of place, as a hint it might be health­ Bedford County, drove over to ask ier for us to take off. Amos to please let the surveyors "You know, that old Yankee's run their line. Tim added that the got a point," Dave admitted as he new highway would benefit all of headed the pickup doWn the lane. us. "His farm won't be worth a "Sure, you dairy farmers want it. wooden nickel. The surveyor told, But it'll cut me off from my barn," me they're planning a rock fill a Amos protested, "ruin my dahlia hundred feet high between his business." house and barn." Tim explained about eminent Amos must have figured all of domain and how the state could us were to blame for running the take land it needed for better new highway right through his roads. farm. It wasn't long before he be­ "Not through my dahlia field, it gan to show us that no one was can't," Amos said, the corners of going to take any more Peabody his thin nose white with pent-up land. anger. "Charles the Second gave us I first heard of his night riding Yankees this land, my grandpappy that afternoon. I drove over to told me." Harry Erhardt's for a half ton of Tim phoned me, asking Dave 10-5-5 fertilizer for the back ridge. and me to drive over and tell I felt Harry had something on his Amos how much he would be. mind as he helped me stack the paid for the land the state took. bags in my truck. We did, but got no further than "Bill, I'm scared Old Amos is up Tim had—even after we told to something," he blurted out, dust­ Amos he would get three hundred ing his hands on his coveralls and dollars an acre for the forty-three heading back in to the office to acres. Surely a fair price for land make out the bill. that had only cost his folks sev­ "He'll come around," I said. enty-five cents an acre in 1790. "What else can he do ?" " 'Tain't for sale, not to the state Then Harry told me about the or anybody. You dairy farmers night riding. He had been unload­ have whittled me down to my best ing a car of fertilizer from the acres. I'm not selling a square rod Bedford siding Saturday afternoon

YANKEE NIGHT RIDER 37 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED to avoid demurrage. It was dusk and barn, the old man grinned, before he lugged the last fifty bags offered the adjuster a glass of hard onto his truck. cider. He seemed to think this Just as he was heading up the meant that the highway wasn't go­ hollow road, he heard a shot from ing through that way at all. the woods. Something glanced off The morning the first bulldozers the hood of his truck. moved into his meadow, Amos Harry hasn't fancied being shot rode in to Bedford to protest to at ever since the Battle of the Judge Trethaway. The judge took Bulge, when his platoon was pin­ Amos into his chambers and ned down for three days in a cel­ showed him in one of his law lar. He jammed the gas pedal to books what it said.about eminent the floor, tailing it for Benton. domain. Through the side mirror he saw 'You're in this with the dairy Old Amos in his floppy hat racing farmers," Amos said. "Your kind after him on his white mare. tried to drive us Yankees away "How can you be sure it wasn't when we first settled here right af­ some Halloween joker made up ter the Revolution. I'm not mov- like Old Amos and having some ing." fun.?" It was the next week that "Amos owns the only pure McDevitt's barn caught fire, white horse in Bedford County," burned to the ground. George had Harry said, jotting down the just cut the last of the corn, filled charge in his ledger. "I figure he the wooden silos and hoisted the blames all of us for putting this last of the dry alfalfa into the loft. highway through his place." This and twenty of his prize Here­ Fortunately for most of us dairy ford calves went up in smoke. farmers, the highway engineers de­ "Does George suspect Old Amos cided at this time that they would set 'the fire in the granary.?" I establish a cloverleaf in the valley. asked Dave. He had just brought But not so good for Amos. The back the hundred foot of hose the exits to Rush and Exeter would Bedford firemen had borrowed. run right smack, where Amos' "George spotted him on his barn and house had stood for over white mare riding along the upper a hundred years. road earlier that evening." Dave When one of the young adjust­ helped me hang up the hose in the ers called on Amos to tell him the milk shed. "I tell you, Bill, the old state would build him a new house man's plumb dangerous. Your

38 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED barn or mine could burn up next." We sat in the dark with our feet Most of us farmers felt it was up up on the porch rail, smoking, the to Sheriff Henderson to do some­ way every Benton farmer stalls for thing, and pronto. time, postponing a messy job like "I got to have me a warrant," hauling manure or shooting one Tim Henderson protested. "Just of his best milk cows that shows a because a man rides around the positive reaction to the vet's test countryside at night, you can't ar­ for foot-and-mouth disease. rest him for that." "I think I spotted him snooping "Then I'm charging him with around my place last night." Pete arson, burning my barn and my Kovac slapped a mosquito on his prize calves," George McDevitt wrist. said. - "Looking for a letter you lost?" Henderson was still • reluctant. Tim was always kibitzing Pete He finally decided he would need about leaving the mail in the about ten deputies to take Amos in wrong box. to the county jail, for trial. We "No," Pete said, rubbing where were to meet at his place Thursday the mosquito had stung his wrist. night, after supper. "My German shepherd got me Elizabeth was set against my awake, barking. I went to the bed­ getting into this. She kept saying room window. Old Amos on the that, after all, we have been neigh­ white mare was tailing it off down bors of the Peabodys ever since we the lane." bought the hundred acres upland The grandfather clock in the liv- from him for our dairy farm. To ingroom bonged nine times. Then tell the truth, I hadn't much stom­ a white spire shot up in the eve­ ach for it either—but something ning sky, and bent over like a wilt­ had to be done. ed leaf in a shower of sparks, to­ Seven of us rode over to Hen­ ward the ridge. derson's that night. Tim invited us "He's gotten wind of our plan." in for a drink. He had already sent The sheriff pushed back his chair, two men over to watch Old gave a hitch- to his belt and patted Amos' house, check if he was his holster. "Let's go, men." home. If they saw him ride out, "Which road do you suppose he they were to send up a Hare, point took?" Dave asked, picking up the it in the direction he took. Other­ carbine he had laid on the floor by wise we would move in to take his chair. him there. "You all know there's only two

YANKEE NIGHT RIDER 39

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ways he can go east," I said. a wagon road, but now was just "Down the Benton road or over wide enough for horse and rider. the ridge by my place." As we headed up the zigzag "Probably heading for my barn path, branches of the second again," Pete Kovac said". growth brushed my face, dragged "Look, you guys," Dave said, at my arms, as if warning me to "remember this old Yankee is sick. turn back. Moonlight filtered Go easy with him." through' the giant hemlock. "No crazier than I am," George Dave's roan knew every bend of McDevitt said. He had received his the old trail, padding through the insurance check and was rebuild­ pine needles. I hadn't ridden ing a bigger, more modern barn of White Star for a month. Soon she the quonset type. "He just blames was sweating to keep up. Except all of us for taking his land." for the creaking leather of saddle "Let's get on with it." The girth and hooves swishing over sheriff headed down the steps to­ slippery pine needles, the woods ward the hitching post. "Once we seemed to be holding its breath, bring him in, Doc Hetrick can waiting. find out soon enough whether he's It greiv lighter as we neared the off his rocker." escarpment. Then all at once I felt We swung into our saddles, set someone was watching us. The off in two parties. Dave and I back of my neck froze as I made were to head along the ridge. It out an upright figure on a white was the unlikely route Old Amos horse in a laurel thicket. would take. The rest of the posse Moonlight glanced off the barrel set off for the Benton crossroads. - of a long rifle, laying across the "Let's shortcut across Hender­ pommel of a Western saddle. son's fields." Dave swung his roan • Even as I spotted Old Amos, he horse to the right, jogging through swung the rifle to his shoulder. the corn stubble. Amos could have "Dave," I called, "look out." holed up in any of the tentlike In that same instant the shell ex­ corn shocks, to pick us off. ploded. I heard the bullet ricochet My saddle mare. White Star, fol­ off a boulder, go whirring into the lowed the furrows. Where hunters laurel. Before I could swing White had pulled down the old stone Star to head him off, Old Amos fence to dig out a fox, Dave dug his spurs into Dolly's ribs, was headed through to the Warrior off down the trail. Trail. It had once been cleared for Dave wheeled back. "Are you

40 ALpRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED hurt?" he called out anxiously. back to his barn. Waiting for. an­ "Just scared," I admitted. other night." "Then come on." "He blew a hole through my I couldn't keep up in the mad hat," Dave admitted. He ran a chase down the trail. Twice I finger through the hole, staring at heard shots, but wasn't sure which it in disbelief. man was firing. "Maybe the men that sent up the White Star refused to gallop. rocket saw him turn back," I sug­ She picked her way down the trail, gested. more like a mountain goat than a At the schoolhouse where the Kentucky walker. Probably it was road curves down frorri the Hol­ just as well, for if she had stum­ low, the sheriff reined in, raised bled in a wagon rut, we might one arm to halt us. Across the both have found ourselves rolling stake and rider fence, a body lay down the cliff. near a parked bulldozer. _Pave was waiting at the break It was Andy Lucas, one of the in the stone fence at the cornfield. scouts who had sent up the rocket "That mare of his sure can ske­ flare. A soft-nosed bullet had rip­ daddle." He was leaning over wip­ ped a hole the size of my fist in his ing the white foam from the roan's chest. neck. "The old devil put a hole "One of us had better ride through my hat." around back of the barn, see if Old "We better tail it for the cross­ Amos is in there." The sheriff rub­ roads," I said. "He would have to bed his sleeve across his brow. head that way to get back to his "I'll slip along the creek, come barn." up back," Pete Kovac, the mail­ At the crossroads Sheriff Hen­ man, said. "He just missed burn­ derson and the rest of the posse ing my barn tonight." were waiting for us, manning a Kovac cantered across the pas­ roadblock in the bright moonlight. ture, disappeared along the bank Dave told of our brush with Old of the creek, behind the willows. A Amos. minute later, his horse mounted "He was probably expecting me the bank, with Kovac crouched up there," McDevitt said, "waiting low in the saddle. Just when I to pick me off the way he burned thought he had put Old Amos' my barn, damn his hide." barn between him and the house, "Somehow he gave us the slip," there was a flash from the barn the sheriff said. "Probably headed loft. Kovac leaned farther forward,

YANKEE NIGHT RIDER 41

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED as if the veteran mailman was sud­ grabbers," came the quavering denly too tired ever to deliver an­ voice from the old man. "Or you'll other letter.' Then he toppled into pay in blood." the milkweed stalks. His horse "Amos, listen to me," the sheriff bolted down the creek bed, head­ called. "You're a sick man. Come ing toward Bedford. out. Let us take you to a hospital." "Plain enough Amos was holed For a full minute all was silence, in," the sheriff said. "Tie your except ,for the chirping of the mounts. We got to move in on crickets in the weeds. foot, commando-like." "He's, stopped firing, at least," "Bill and I will ride around Dave whispered. "Maybe he's de­ back," Dave volunteered, "in case cided to come out, peaceful-like." he makes a break for the hill." "Look," I pointed to the ridge­ "Look alive," Henderson pole of the barn. "Do you see what warned. "He's a crack shot with I see?" that old rifle." A blue wisp.of smoke was rising Dave and I rode farther down from the top of the old barn, the road, beyond the pasture, then drawing a wavy streak across the moved through the woods to the face of the full moon. creek bed. I knew Old Amos "Great balls of fire," Dave said, couldn't spot us, as long as we more to himself. "The crazy fool's' stayed under the bank of the dry burning his own barn." creek bed. Dave took off on the double, At the edge of the dahlia field, heading for the entry door to the we tied our horses to saplings. stalls. Inside the barn I could hear Then, crouching low, we followed the old mare whinnying. In the the bank to opposite the barn. By lean-to shed, Dave grabbed a bur­ now I could hear Old Amos firing lap sack, wound it around his head from the loft. and shoulders. ^ Once over the bank we found "You can't go in there," I the going rough, crawling through shouted. the dried stalks of the dahlias, "I've got to," he yelled back. moving in closer to the old barn. "He'll burn." - Suddenly I heard the sheriff call­ He yanked open the entry door. ing through the bullhorn. Black-red flame lapped out. Dave "Amos, this is Sheriff Hender­ jumped back. son. Come out, hands up." Sheriff Henderson had spotted "Get off my property, you land- us, came running. But before the

42 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED first bucket brigade could tote a in smoke. The young preacher pailful from the pump, the whole read the service of burial of the front of the barn slid down like a dead right and proper at the grave loose curtain. The dried hay ex­ we dug for Amos in the family ploded with a roar. Soon the inte­ cemetery, beside Matilda. rior of the barn became a giant The next spring, when they torch, its heat driving us back. I were pouring the cement for the watched the threshing floor col­ east lane, someone discovered that lapse, and heard the death whinny the old cemetery had been buried as Dolly was pinned in her stall. In under a hundred feet of rock fill. the billowing smoke, no one saw No one thought to complain to the hide or hair of Old Amos. highway department. Soon the hickory pins that held That's why, on foggy nights, I the frame, of the old barn burned always slow down over that sec­ through. The other walls collapsed. tion of Route 81. I've never seen Flaming shingles voluted high in Old Amos' ghost, the way Dave the air. Some landed on the roof of claimed he did the night he was the old house: driving back from Loon Lake. ' Someone had spotted the glow But every now and then, on a in the night sky as far away as foggy night, some stranger drives Bedford, but before the pumping od the road here and is found the engine could reach the farm, both next morning, dead in his over­ barn and house were twisted, turned car, right where Amos' smoldering timbers. , The house Yankee ancestors laid up the tim­ that Amos' great-great-grand­ bers for a house and barn. father had built here to replace the With Yankee stubbornness. Old pioneer log cabin sank into the Amos had opposed our taking drystone foundation. away his last acres. At last, in des­ The next day Clem Miller, the peration, he had destroyed his undertaker, raked through the property and himself—but at a ashes until he uncovered Old price in blood he warned us he'd Amos' leg bones and charred continue to collect. I guess Yankees skull. These Clem buried in one of don't take kindly to being done his own coffins. The one Amos out of things, especially their last had built for himself had gone up acres.

YANKEE NIGHT RIDER 43 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Many are the reasons for an accident-and murder is one of them

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i\AT TWELVE-FIFTEEN that night the A few blocks away on the south­ car was placed on the dark grade west side of town the ringing tele­ crossing, in Valley View, popu­ phone awakened McCabe, chief of lation 2534. Two minutes later the the three-man police department. engineer of Number 57, the fast The hurried call was from Dono­ freight, spotted the obstruction in van, one of his regular patrolmen, . his headlight's gleam. He blasted reporting the crash and needing the diesel's horn, then snapped the help at the scene. air release. McCabe phoned the elderly "Watch it!" he shouted to his woman who baby-sat his three fireman, staring at the man behind motherless children, pulled on his the wheel of the car. With brake uniform and hurried out to his shoes screeching, the train crashed, official station wagon. On the way mangling and scattering parts of to the grade crossing he heard ra­ automobile and human body for a dio traffic, ordering county and third of a mile. state units to assist. They were 44 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED needed, he saw upon arrival, for trying" to figure how many people despite the hour a crowd had gath­ might have been in the car." ered and some were seeking grisly "Maybe the train crew saw," souvenirs, broken and twisted McCabe began. metal, a bit of bloody bone. Donovan shook his head. "I McCabe spoke briefly to a highway haven't been able to question them ^patrolman. yet. They began puking when they

"Thanks for coming in. When you're getting them off the right- of-way on this side, see if. you can locate any eyewitnesses for me." Hurrying along the cinders, or­ dering people back, he made his fl^^. way toward Donovan near the head end of the motionless freight. started back, looking under. I He reached Donovan as the patrol­ don't blame them." man played his light under a box­ "Maybe they should be blamed," car. McCabe saw a leg stripped of someone said. Turning toward the' clothing. voice, McCabe saw Harry Randell, Donovan grimaced. "Left one," a wiry local realtor whose sport he muttered. "The right one's jacket and cream felt hat looked as down the line. So that's one person though they'd,,, been carefully at least. I've been counting parts, brushed. Randell looked coldly at

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED McCabe. "I've been saying for a law applies to the other guy, too long time these trains come much when it's close to home. through here too fast." Keep on with what you were McCabe's gray gaze went to his doing. I'll see if the engineer can wristwatch. "I'd say it was right tell me anything now." on the dot of the new slower The engineer's face was grayish- schedule." . green. "All I saw was the driver. Randell shifted the direction of His window was open. No, I his criticism. "Someone said, there couldn't tell whether there was were beer cans scattered among the anyone beside him or in the back. wreckage. Probably a drunk driver At least I didn't see any movement whom you^hould have gotten." like people trying to get out in McCabe answered evenly. "If panic." that should be the cause, too bad "He wasn't trying to get out, ei­ we didn't see him in time to pre­ ther," said the fireman, gagging vent an unfortunate situation." slightly. "As far as I could see, he "Like the one we prevented the wasn't even trying to get the car other night," Donovan added. moving or anything. Just sat there, Randell gave them both an icy didn't even look at us with the look and turned away. light blazing at him, the horn "Maybe," Donovan murmured, blasting, the brakes screeching. He "I shouldn't have brought that must have been passed out. Drunk, up." heart attack, or . . .or hurt." "It didn't help public relations," "Hurt.?" McCabe questioned. McCabe said mildly. "Why do you suggest that.'"' Two days ago Randell, arriving "Maybe I shouldn't have," the home from a trip to Hawaii, had fireman said. "But I saw some­ been quite put out to learn that thing dark down the side of his McCabe and Donovan, on the face. At that instant I thought it signed complaint of a neighbor, was blood, but maybe it' was a had raided his home because Ran- shadow." dell's twenty-three-year-old son had "A shadow from what.?" been staging a beer party for high McCabe asked. He spoke to the school and college kids, mostly un^ engineer. "You . said the window derage. •'•. • • was open. Was .there any uphol­ McCabe, turning .toward the stery or weather stripping hanging head end of theireight, shrugged. down.?" "We don't do enough when the "I dunno. Chief. But one thing's

46 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED for sure, you ain't going to be able The train had been on schedule to ask him." into Valley View at 12:17. McCabe McCabe got their names, the . frowned at the dead man's watch, conductor's, and other pertinent showing all of thirty minutes' details. By the time he finished difference. McCabe exchanged a with them, the medical examiner glance with Donovan. had arrived and departed, giving "Get this cleaned up here so the his okay for Parker, the mortuary train can be on its way. I'm going man, to forage under the train to Bramley's." with the canvas body bag. It was a new colonial with • tall Donovan approached, carrying a white pillars. Lights shone softly remnant of coat. "His wallet and through drawn drapes. As identification were in this, Mac. McCabe's tires crunched on the His name is . . . was Jerald Bram- gravel drive, coach lights came on ^ ley." by the front door. Petite Katharine "Former city attorney," McCabe Bramley, in green stretch pants said. That negated the beer cans. and matching blouse, rushed out, Bramley was a teetotaler. McCabe then stopped abruptly. also recalled that the Bramleys had "Oh! Hello, Mac." She sounded been to Hawaii with the Randells. flustered. "What brings you here.?" He peered along the railroad right- When McCabe asked if they could of-way, but didn't see Randell. step into the house first, her dark "Mac." It was a sheriff's deputy, eyes looked enormous in her small climbing over the coupling be­ face. "What is it, Mac?" tween boxcars. He carried some­ Inside, he tried to break it thing wrapped in newspaper. "The gently, then waited uncomfortably mortuary man said this might in­ while she sobbed and huddled on terest you." . , a settee before the fireplace. Her The train crew moved curiously streaked face lifted suddenly. forward with McCabe, then drew^ "Itwasn't. . .suicide?" back hurriedly from the sight of a "No," McCabe said, frowning. hand and forearm in the paper. "What reason might he have The wrist bore an expensive watch had.?" She just sobbed. He waited with a -smashed crystal. McCabe a few moments more. "I hate to put his light on it. The hands were bother you at a time like this, Mrs. jammed at 11:45. He looked over Bramley, but there are some things his shoulder at the engineer, but it is important.for' me, to know. there was no need of asking again. Did your husband have a business

CRASH PARTY 47 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED appointment this evening?" She low him to see where he went?" shook her head. "Where' did he "No. Why do you ask that?" go?" "Because," he said gently, but "I. . .don'tknow." with an undertone of grimness, "I "What time did he leave ?" have reason to believe your hus­ She was very busy wiping her band was murdered." eyes. "Late. After eleven." "Oh, no!" Heir eyes became Going out that late, McCabe larger, frightened. "You don't thought, a man like Jerald Bram- think that I—" ley would give his wife some ink-: "You quarreled with him, Mrs. ling. Then he recalled how she had Bramley. Why?" rushed out of the house, and her She stood up, facing him. "I told question about suicide. you—it has no bearing. And if I "Did you and he have a spat? Is had killed him—which I didn't— that why he went out ?" then why would I have rushed out He let the questions dangle. A to welcome him back?" She sensed clock chimed once. Mrs. Bramley the question he was debating. finally nodded slightly, without "Don't you dare ask me if I were • looking up. expecting someone else!" "What did you quarrel about?" He offered to call Mrs. Randell McCabe inquired. for her, or some other friend or "Just ... a domestic difference." relative. Sobbing, she shook her Color crept up her neck. "It head. needn't be your concern." He drove a few short blocks. "What was it about?" McCabe Most houses were dark, but lights persisted. were on at the Randell ranch-style "Just a silly, childish attitude on home. He swung over abruptly my part . . . about something that and went to the door. It was an­ . . . happened in Hawaii." swered by,the son, Barry Randell, She wouldn't tell him anymore, whose thin pale features tightened except that she should not have at sight of McCabe. jumped to conclusions after all "So it's you again. I thought we the years of knowing that Jerry - settled everything about that party never drank, gambled, or chased you broke up the other night." other women. "I hope we did," said McCabe, "So," McCabe said resignedly, wondering about the strong smell "you stayed up, waiting for him. of spray deodorant. "I didn't come When he went out, you didn't fol­ here aboujt that. Are your mother

48 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED and father in, or are you alone?" scarf about her head. "Whatever it "She's on the phone." is, can it wait until tomorrow?" "I'll wait," said McCabe, but he she cried to McCabe. She wore a wasn't invited in. drab brown housedress which In a few moments plump Mrs. made her lumpy figure look sacky. Randell came hurrying, tying a "I have to hurry over to Kathy

CRASH PARTY 49 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Bramley's. She just phoned me the ing to say that Kathy might have—" most horrible news." "I haven't said that," McCabe McCabe nodded. "About Jerald corrected her. "But when there are Bramley. May I have just a mo­ unanswered questions . . ." ment, Mrs. Randell.'"' He glanced She glanced back in the house, at her son. "Privately." then stepped outside, closing the Barry Randell sneered. "Noth­ door. ing's private in this town." "Please don't breathe a word of His mother sighed. "I'm sure this to anyone." She lowered her that complaint the other night was voice. "Kathy told me in a mistake. Anyway you should-be confidence that she caught Jerry glad, Barry, that people and the coming from the room of a very police are anxious to protect you flirtatious divorcee in the hotel at from bad influences." Waikiki. He denied anything im­ "Qh, for cripes sake, let's not proper, said it was a confidential have those platitudes again!" He business matter. On his vacation? gave McCabe a hard look and She couldn't believe that. They've sauntered away. both been miserable ever since. I've Mrs. Randell smiled tautly. been telling her he's not that kind "He's really a good boy, Chief. It's of a husband, and I'm sure she'll just that some of the company he's forgive him, if she hasn't done it taken up with lately—" already." Mrs. Randell nodded. "I met them," McCabe re­ "So it's absurd for you to have any marked, and felt like asking her thought that she might have who was influencing whom, but killed—" McCabe saw her face that was another matter at the mo­ blanch abruptly. "Or did you come ment. "I'll be very blunt so you can here to ask questions about my— be on your way, Mrs. Randell. On for some other reason ?" the trip to Hawaii, what caused the "Such as your husband.''" rift between the Bramleys.?" McCabe asked quickly. "I saw him Her face tightened again. at the scene. What was he sup­ "Whatever on earth gave you—" posed to be doing tonight.'"' "If Mrs. Bramley didn't tell you She looked past him. He blocked on the phone just now," he said, her way. "That's an absurd noting a sudden tinge of embar­ thought, too. He and Jerry Bram­ rassment,- "I believe that Jerald ley were best friends." Bramley was rnurdered tonight." "Then why are you reluctant to "And," she retorted, "you're try- answer my question.'" McCabe

50 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED asked. "Where did your husband the Randell Realty office. Except go tonight ?" for the night light, it was dark. An She hesitated, then spoke with alley cat slunk across the adjacent rapid finahty. "He got a phone call deserted parking area. from Jerry late this evening. I McCabe drove to Parker's Rest­ don't know what about. He just ful Sanctuary and rang the night said it was Jerry, got dressed, and bell. The mortician shook his pre­ left." maturely bald head. "Late this evening. Just what "I thought I was toughened, time, Mrs. Randell ?" . Mac, but I can do without another "About . . . ten minutes past one like tonight's." eleven-thirty." "Second the motion," said Very close to eleven forty-five, McCabe. "I've been wondering if I the time that Bramley's watch had should ask the medical examiner to been smashed, McCabe thought. give everything another check— He let the realtor's wife hurry off particularly on the head." The to Kathy Bramley. Driving around mortician stared. "One of the train the corner he stopped to radio crew," McCabe explained, Donovan, who had nothing new "thought he might have seen signs to report. Then a car, accelerating of blood before the crash." rapidly, crossed the intersection be­ "And plenty more was spilled hind McCabe. Turning, he got a and cranial bones were battered. glimpse and was certain it was So who can find anything now.?" young Randell's. He'd often Parker shrugged, sighing. "But stopped it for traffic violations. wait. I didn't give anything a close McCabe U-turned quickly and look because there's nothing I can swung around the corner. Two do except make it a closed casket blocks ahead he saw taillights turn­ affair. Want to take a look with ing south on Main Street. When me.?" . he reached that corner they weren't McCabe hesitated, then followed in sight. He radioed Donovan him. again, ordering him to the south Twenty minutes later McCabe end of town. used the phone in the mortuary "Don't intercept, just tail him." office. He spoke to the medical ex- They met at the south end. . aminer. Donovan shook his head. McCabe "We found tiny particles of rapidly backtracked northward brick, possibly red brick, imbedded and whipped off Main Street to in a gash by the left temple. The

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED injury is severe enough to have dell had still been up, then had caused death if it happened before gone out again. the crash." "Where was this party ? " The medical examiner said, "I don't know, Mac, or even if it "Hm!" Then he remarked there took place. My daughter's would- could have been some broken be date called her 'chicken' when brick on the right-of-way, also. she turned him down. She got the However, he'd hold his report impression that most of the other open on the cause of death, pend­ young people from the other night ing further investigation in an weren't going to attend, either. effort to pinpoint the time to 11:45 They probably had some sense p.m.or I2:17a.m. scared into them by your raid." McCabe said wryly, "I have a "Good, I hope it lasts," said feeling it's going to be my job to McCabe. decide on either end of that half- He radioed Donovan again, but hour." the patrolman hadn't noticed any "Good luck, Mac,'-' said the collection of cars or signs of a M.E., hanging up. party. McCabe thought about the Closing up, Parker iaccompanied thirty minutes he had to justify. McCabe outside. He drove past the Randell house. "Thanks, Mac, for breaking up It was dark. He went on the short that party a few nights ago." He distance to, the Bramleys'. There caught McCabe's questioning look. were lights on, and Harry Ran- "My daughter was there, but left dell's car and his wife's bug were before you arrived. She had a date parked in the drive. McCabe whom I didn't approve of, but you frowned at his watch, going on know how it is if you sound off' four a.m. Then he saw Harry Ran­ too hard. Anyway, when she saw dell step outside to light a cigar. what she was getting into, she McCabe got out and started up the feigned illness and made him walk. bring her home. He phoned Randell glowered. "Do you have tonight, wanting to take her to an­ to bother her again.?" other party, but she turned him "It's you I want to see," McCabe down. Made me feel good as a par­ said. ent that she did it on her own." "Whatabout.?" . • - McCabe nodded, recalling that, "Why did you see Jerald Bram- though the hour had been late a ley just before he died ?" little while ago, young Barry Ran- Randell's nostrils snorted cigar

52 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED here earlier. Nor did you appear at or phone your own home." "You just said it," Randell snapped. "He was my best friend. immmm I'd just come home from a trip I'd nmmm shared with him. I was badly shak­ r'i'^iliil en by his death. I went to my office. I ... I just sat there ... S.1 wp pulling myself together." McCabe couldn't imagine Harry Randell coming apart. Not that piece of ice. "What kind of trouble," he asked suddenly, "did you and Bramley get into on the Hawaiian trip?" "What business is that of yours? It's out of your bailiwick." "But the' people involved are now in my bailiwick," McCabe countered. "And one of them is dead. Murdered. So what about Hawaii?" The realtor shook his head sadly. "Man, you're fishing, aren't you?" McCabe nodded. "Sometimes police work is like that. Usually we deal only with facts, not gossip. But we can't avoid hearing gossip smoke. "I didn't see him and I either, and I've heard plenty about didn't know he was going to die." you over the years which appar­ "He phoned you and you went ently has never reached your wife's out to see him," McCabe said. years." "You were at the railroad crossing. "Now what the hell, you going You must have heard in the crowd in for blackmail?" Randell de­ that the victim had been identified manded. His eyes failed to match as your best friend. Yet you did his angry tone, and they flicked at not phone or come to stand by his the door to make certain it was wife in her sorrow while I was closed.

CRASH PARTY 53 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Not blackmail from me, Mr. try it himself, calling Randell out Randell, though I think it was at­ tonight to press his demands? No, tempted on you by a very flir­ not Bramley. tatious-appearing divorcee at Wai- Then there was the rift between kiki." He could tell his fishing the Bramleys. Maybe, before leav­ had hooked deeply. He went on ing the house, Bramley had hinted with more confidence. "But your the truth to his wife in an effort to best friend, Jerald Bramley, a law­ save their marriage. He wouldn't yer, went to yoiir rescue by seeing necessarily have had to reveal that her and warning her off. Unfortu­ to Randell, for it was just between nately his wife became aware of him and Kathy Bramley. But sup­ that visit. But he kept silent, still pose Kathy had let it slip to Mrs. protecting you at the risk of his Randell, who seemed never to own married happiness. That rift have an inkling of her husband's with his wife caused him to leave goings-on, or her son's for that his home tonight. Then he called matter? Then again, maybe Mrs. you to meet him. You went out Randell was aware and, like some just before eleven forty-five, the ac­ wives, preferred to take a closed- tual time that he was killed." eye attitude for the security of her "I told you I didn't see him." marriage. Anyway, why would "Why did he want to see you?" Mrs. Randell kill Bramley rather "It had . nothing to do with than her husband? Hawaii." Another fragment that wouldn't "What else then?" McCabe in­ fit with the others: obviously sisted. Bramley hadn't been killed at the Randell's face was as rigid as ice. railroad crossing. That meant he "I told you I didn't see him. Try to had to be lifted into the car and prove that I did." Turning, he taken to the railroad, then his inert went into the house. form had to be placed behind the McCabe went home to bed, but wheel. McCabe doubted if either sleep eluded him. It was as though of the women were capable of that he were at the railroad crossing physical effort. again. He had a collection of frag­ Fragments. Did he have all of mented clues. Tossing in bed, he them? Or were some beyond his tried to rebuild them . . . reach, like souvenirs picked up at Bramley had undoubtedly pre­ the crossing? McCabe tried to vented blackmail from the divorcee sleep, but gave up when dawn be­ in Hawaii. Had he then decided to gan poking fingers into the shad-

54 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ows of the night. He shaved, Turning, McCabe called to his showered, niade coffee and got in daughter, a junior high student, to the morning paper from Allen- hurry dressing and take care of the town. The front page had a photo breakfasts. "Okay, Jake, what is and three-column headlines about it.?" Bramley's death, more photos on Five minutes later, after a phone Page 3, and a portrait and obituary call to the home of Parker, the on the vital statistics page. The mortician, he hurried out to his main story, carefully avoiding the car. A little later, in the one-room word "murder," hinted at the mys­ station in city hall, he made some terious circumstances involved. more phone and radio calls, then The phone rang as McCabe was drove to Randell's office, arriving making breakfast for his three chil­ just ahead of the realtor. dren. "Thanks for coming down," "Mac? Jake Dorsey. Hope I McCabe greeted him. didn't get you up." . "Why not?" Coldly. "I've got "No, Jake. What can I do for nothing to hide." you.?" McCabe prayed it wasn't a "Fine," said McCabe. "Let's go report of a break-in at Dorsey's in your office a moment." drive-in, something that would Puzzled, Randell unlocked the diffuse his attention because, being door. "Well?"he demanded. a small town chief, he lacked man­ McCabe gestured toward a panel power and had to be and do al­ of tagged keys on hooks. "We'll most all things himself. want the key to the house where "When I opened up," Dorsey the Bramleys used to live." said, "I only had a glance at the Randell's manner became wary. headlines because I had to get "It. . . it's not—" ready for breakfasts. But now that "It must be here," said McCabe, I've read more ... I got some­ moving to the panel. "You're the thing I can tell you about Jerry agent to sell or rent the place for Bramley last night." him. It's a very distinctive key. I McCabe suddenly felt no lack of saw it many times when Bramley sleep. Thank God for people who was city attorney. Here it is." didn't want to hang onto their Randell stared at it. "souvenirs," who were willing to McCabe nodded toward the become involved by cooperating door. "We'll go in my car." with the police. The old house on the east side of "Hold it a moment, Jake." town, not too far from the railroad

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED crossing, had a musty odor like all figure there were two of them. He unoccupied places. There was also probably became very angry when a smell like burnt rope. Ignoring it he spotted those . . ." McCabe for the moment, McCabe went waved toward a litter of beer cans directly to the raised hearth o£ the to one side, ". : . and also because, fireplace. It was red brick, and the as a former city attorney, he recog­ corner of an end brick was slightly nized the burnt rope odor of mari­ chipped and stained. McCabe faced juana. Either he was going to Randell. make a citizen's arrest or was go­ "There's where your best friend ing to leave to get me. Instead, died last night." they roughed him up, knocked Randell spoke tensely. "How him down, and he was killed . . . did you know it was here?" when his head struck the corner of "I could ask you that same ques­ the raised hearth. The fall also tion," McCabe said bleakly. "But broke his watch at eleven forty- to save time and prevent your eva­ five." - sions, I'll answer it for you. Bram- Randell's face was becoming ley drove by here last night, cool­ haggard. McCabe went on curtly. ing off from the spat with his "They lugged his body out to his wife. Recalling happier times, he car and took off with both cars. By must have strolled around back the time you got here, there was and saw a car parked there. He nothing to see outside and you went down the street to Jake Dor-r didn't have the key to get in. They sey's, from where Bramley phoned were down at the railroad, waiting you. Jake heard him. You ob­ to put the car on the crossing. You viously told Bramley the place was were probably still in the neighbor­ still unoccupied. He asked you to hood, wondering where Bramley come down here "and see for your­ was, when you heard the crash. self. He must have gotten tired of You went there. Later, when waiting for you—" Bramley had been identified and "I was just turning in while my you learned about it, you began wife watched the late show," Ran­ putting it all together. You went dell muttered, scowhng at the fire­ to your office, as you told me, but place. "I had to get dressed." only to see if the key was there. McCabe nodded. The fragments Right.?" were rebuilding. "So Bramley Randell didn't answer. McCabe's drove back here and confronted voice hardened. the unauthorized occupants. I "You were surprised when I

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED found the key this morning. I keeping strict watch on him, too." should have had my hands on it Randell just glared. McCabe last night. I wasn't thinking, or' sighed. maybe I didn't have enough facts "Get your lawyer, Randell. But I yet to go on, but I came very close promise you, when I back all this to catching your son returning the up with solid evidence for the key to your office." D.A., it will be a tough case for The statement was no surprise any lawyer to beat. I doubt if even to Randell. His head jerked up Jerald Bramley could haive beaten finally with cold defiance in his it." He met the worried eye of the eyes. killer's father. "When you come "You can't prove any of this. I'll right down to it, Randell, the time get him the best lawyer to—" to have prevented this mess was McCabe interrupted. "I got the with the flat of your hand when name of your son's pal from he was a, child. But I suppose you Parker's daughter, who turned him left that to your indulgent wife— down last night. I've already since you were too busy pursuing picked him up, and he's talked." other interests." Outside the door there was a McCabe went outside into the sudden scraping of feet. Then a clean morning air. commanding shout by Donovan "Take him to the station," he and sounds of a scuffle. McCabe told Donovan. ' "I'll be there dashed out to find Donovan and shortly." two auxiliaries subduing and He drove off to perform a bit­ handcuffing Barry Randell. tersweet task. Bitter because, being McCabe went inside to Randell. a widower, he knew how it was "I thought he might give himself for the widow of Jerald Bramley. away by keeping tabs on . the in­ But he could also reassure her vestigation. He must have listened about Hawaii, that her memories in on the extension when I called of her husband .could be as sweet you this morning. But we were as those McCabe had of his wife.

CRASH PARTY 57 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED When the issue is decided, the yeas should have it.

nw^^^

gentleman who carried a malacca walking stick and had fifteen or twenty million dollars in Texas oil—had just stepped out of one of the chrome-and-walnut elevators directly in front of me. The girl appeared from the direction of the curving marble staircase, walking rapidly and with elaborate pre­ occupation, and collided forcefully \l WAS SITTING in a ponderously with him. She excused herself, heavy baroque chair in the Hotel dimpling prettily. Bowing in a gal­ Poole's genteel lobby, leafing lant way, Stuyvesant allowed as through one of the plastic-encased how it was perfectly all right, my magazines provided by the man­ dear. She got his wallet and the agement, when the girl in the..dark diamond stickpin from his tie, and tweed suit picked Andrew J. he neither felt nor suspected a Stuyvesant's pockets. . .; thing. She worked it very nicely. The girl apologized again and Stuyvesant—a silver-haired old then hurried off across the thickly

58 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED padded indigo carpeting toward pletely still. Then she turned and the main entrance at the lobby's regarded me as if I had crawled opposite end, deftly slipping the out from one of the potted plants. items into a tan suede bag she car­ "I beg your pardon .i'" she said in a ried over one arm. Almost imme­ frosty voice. diately, I was out of my chair and "You and I had best have a little moving quickly but unobtrusively chat." after her. She managed to thread "I am not in the habit of chat­ her way through the potted plants ting with strange men." and the multitude of dark furnish­ "I think you'll make an ex­ ings to within a few steps of the ception in my case." doubie-glass doors before I caught Her brown eyes flashed angrily up with her. as she said, "I suggest you let go of I let my hand fall on her arm. my arm. If you don't, I shall call "Excuse me just a moment," I said, the manager." smiling. I shrugged lightly. "There's no She stiffened, becoming com­ need for that." "I certainly hope not." "Simply because he would only call me." "What?" "I'm chief of security at the Ho­ tel Poole, you see," I told her. "What was once referred to as the house detective." She grew pale, and the light dimmed in her eyes. "Oh," she said very softly. I steered her toward the arched entrance to the hotel's lounge, a short distance on our left. She offered no resistance. Once inside, I sat her down in one of the leather booths and then seated my­ self opposite. A blue-uniformed waiter approached, but T shook my head and he retreated. I examined the girl across the

A DIP IN THE POOLE 59 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED polished surface of the table. The imbedded in the leather, lay on top diffused orange glow from the of the various feminine articles in­ small lantern in its center gave her side. I removed them, glanced at classic features the impression' of her identification long enough to purity and innocence, and turned memorize her name and address, her seal-brown hair into a cascad­ reclosed the bag and returned it to ing black wave. I judged her age her. at about twenty-five. I said quietly, She said softly, "I'm . . . not a "Without a doubt, you're the most thief,- I want you to know that. beautiful dip I've ever encoun­ Not really, I mean." She took her tered." lower lip between her teeth tremu­ "I . . . don't know what you're lously. "I have this . . . compulsion talking about.'- to steal. I'm powerless to stop my­ self." "Don't your "Certainly not." "Kleptomania?" "A dip is underworld slang for a "Yes. I've been to three different pickpocket." psychiatrists during the past year, She tried to affect indignation. but they've been unable to cure "Are you insinuating that / . . .?" me." "Oh, come now," I said. , I shook my head sympathetically. "There's no purpose to be served "It must be terrible for you." in further histrionics. I saw you lift "Terrible," she agreed. "When Mr. Stuyvesant's wallet and his . i . when my father learns of this diamond stickpin. I was sitting episode, he'll have me put into a directly opposite the elevator, not sanatorium." Her voice quavered. fifteen feet away." "He threatened to do just that if I She didn't say anything. Her ever stole anything again, and he fingers toyed with the catch on the doesn't make idle threats." tan suede bag. After a moment, I studied her. Presently, I said, her eyes lifted to mine, briefly, and "Your father doesn't have to know then dropped again to the bag. She what happened here today." sighed in a tortured way. "You're "He . . .he doesn't.?" right, of course. I stole those "No," I said slowly. "There was things." no real harm done, actually. Mr. I reached out, gently took the Stuyvesant will get his wallet and bag from her and snapped it open. stickpin back. And I see no reason Stuyvesant's wallet, with the for causing the hotel undue embar­ needle-point of the stickpin now rassment through the attendant

60 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED publicity if I report the incident." she was, of course, was an accom­ Her face brightened hopefully. plished professional pickpocket— "Then . . . you're going to let me her technique was much too pol­ go?" ished, her hands much too I drew a long breath. "I suppose skilled—and an extremely adept liar. I'm too soft-hearted for the type of I smiled to myself, and stood position that I have. Yes, I'm go­ and went out into the lobby again. ing to let you go. But you have to But instead of resuming my posi­ promise me that you'll never set tion in the baroque chair before foot inside the Hotel Poole again." the elevator bank, or approaching "Oh, I promise!" the horseshoe-shaped desk, I veered "If I see you here in the future, left to walk casually through the I'll have to report you to the po­ double-glass entrance doors and lice." out to Powell Street. "You won't!" she assured me ea­ As I made my way through the gerly. "I . . . have an appointment thickening late-afternoon crowds— with another psychiatrist tomor­ my right hand lightly resting on row morning. I feel sure he can the fat leather wallet and the dia­ help me." mond stickpin in my coat pocket— I nodded. "Very well, then." I I found myself feeling a little sorry turned to stare through the arched for the girl. But only just a little. lounge entrance at the guests and After all, Andrew J. Stuyvesant uniformed bellboys scurrying back had been my mark from the mo­ and forth in the lobby. When I ment I first noticed him, entering turned back again, the street door the Hotel Poole that morning— to the lounge was just closing and and after a three-hour vigil I had the girl was gone. been within fifteen seconds of dip­ I sat there for a short time, ping him -myself when she ap­ thinking about her. If she was a peared virtually out of nowhere. • kleptomaniac, I reflected, then I Wouldn't you say 1 was entitled was Mary, Queen of Scots. What to the swag: 1

A DIP IN THE POOLE 61

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Dedication to the truth is said to be its own reward, but cer- \ tain circumstances may prompt an unforeseen bonus.

U ou COULD HEAR the old man screaming above the sound of the storm, the shrill' cry emanating from a toothless mouth. "And what's that, Doctor Cas- Roy McAlbin, medium-sized well?" and slightly overweight, ,took, a "I'm not a doctor, Mr. cigarette out of. his trench coat McAlbin,". said the lean, middle- pocket and leaned against the ve- aged Caswell, standing straight on randa. rail. The. rain .was faUing the doormat outside the entrance heavily, just missing his back, to the office building.

62 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Okay, Mr. Caswell, why is that curious as to why Granny Good- old guy yelling in his cottage over waller moved out of her apartment there?" up the hill in your Paxville Village Caswell, rubbing his left palm three months ago. I wonder why on the glass doorknob of his office she's now here in your Paxville door, frowned, across the wooden Woods in a cottage nobody can get veranda. "Mr. McAlbin, I can ap­ into. I'd like to interview her." preciate the fact that as a journal­ "Yes, I understood you when ist, .even a free-lance journalist you first presented yourself and unattached to any actual publica­ your case," said Caswell. He tion, you are curious. But I can't stopped rubbing at the glass knob begin to answer every question and moved closer to McAlbin. which comes to mind." "Paxville is a wonderful place for "You're not a-psychologist either. older people. Up there, beyond the are you ?' woods, we have houses and apart­ "No, I myself am not, though ments where our old-timers, singly we have both qualified doctors and or in couples, can live out their au­ accredited psychological personnel tumn years in well-ordered com­ here at Paxville Woods." fort. Down here in the hospital "You've also got one of the best and cottage area we have, ob­ known primitive painters in Amer­ viously, more medically oriented ica." McAlbin puffed on his facilities. We even have put in an filtered cigarette, then rubbed his intensive-care cluster of private fingers over his damp, plump bungalows." cheeks. "A lot of people are inter- "Then Granny is ill.?"

OYV— ested in Granny Goodwaller, Mr. Caswell said, "Granny is ninety Caswell." years old. She is, as you say, a ma­ "Yes, we know that, Mr. jor American artist. We were hon­ McAlbin," rephed Caswell. "You ored when she decided, nearly five keep putting an odd emphasis on years ago, to come and live in our the word got." then just starting Paxville complex. "Well, I'll tell you,-" he said. "I'm She is very old, Mr. McAlbin.- She

GRANNY 63 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED needs much looking after. She can­ short-cropped grass near the porch. not be interviewed." "She sometimes paints at the cot­ "But she's still painting.?" tage, yes," said Caswell. "She has, "Yes. Granny conserves her in addition, a large workshop here strength and continues to be quite in our main building." productive. If you stop in either of "Could I see that.?" the fine art galleries in Paxville "It is merely a large room, full Village or at the Gallery, in Brim­ of stretched canvas, smelling of stone you'll see her latest work on paint and turpentine." display. The original oils may be a "Seeing places where artists , bit costly for someone in the free­ work helps me," said McAlbin. "I lance writing game, but you'll also still intend to do a piece on find many lovely greeting cards Granny Goodwaller and her work. and prints." Since you won't allow me to visit "I've already seen the paintings with her, you can at least let me in Paxville," said McAlbin. The see where she creates her paint- old man in the brown shingle cot­ ings." • tage down the hill had stopped Caswell said, iiter a sharp crying. The rain still fell cold and sniffing, "Very well. Come around hard. The afternoon was already this way." He went striding off growing dark. "The display of along the porch, frowning back. Granny's paintings at the Marcus "Don't strew any more cigarettes Galleries in New York—those are on the grounds, please." recent, too.''" Fifteen minutes later McAlbin "Yes," said Caswell. "The Mar­ left the place. Under his coat, cus Card Company helped to make wrapped in a paint rag, were a pal­ Granny famous and she insists ette knife and a teacup he had they get her best work. WeW, I grabbed in the chill studio while really can't give you much more Caswell was lifting down an al­ time, Mr. McAlbin. Thank you for bum of greeting-card proofs. your interest in Granny. I'm going McAlbin fisted his hands into his to tell her you called and I'm sure trench coat pockets as he walked it will bring a sad, sweet smile to down the flagstone path toward her face." the parking area. Some two dozen "Where does she work now? In cottages were scattered around the this cottage of hers.?" asked ten acres of Paxville. The grass McAlbin. He dropped his cigarette and shrubs were neat and trim, butt over the veranda rail onto the most of the flowers beginning to

64 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S, MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED fade and brown. McAlbin had "You're reassuring," said come here to Connecticut on a McAlbin. "I never had a pony as a hunch. "I'm right," he said to him­ boy, but I did have a bicycle. My self. He got into his car and drove uncle painted it the same color as off toward town. that ugly horse." . Dry leaves swooped and dipped, "You don't seem to care for clattering against the small leaded Granny's work." windows of the Brimstone Art "Nope. If this area had to de­ Gallery. McAlbin put one pale fist pend on people with my kind of into the pocket of his coat and taste, your whole Granny Good- made a sound with his tongue that waller industry would collapse." was a faint echo of the sound the "It's not my industry exactly," wind and the dead leaves were said the girl. "I'm co-owner of a making. "Nope, nope," he mut­ gift shop near Paxville Village." tered. He was standing toward the "My name, by the way, is Roy back of the big one-room gallery McAlbin," he told her. "I'm a free- and he'd been going carefully from larice journalist. Who are you.'"' one Granny Goodwaller painting "Nan Hendry." She smiled qui­ to another. He was stopped now etly. "You didn't come to this part in front of a bright scene of little of Connecticut to see our famous girls saddling a pony in a summer paintings, then.i^" field; tiny figures and a stiff-legged "Well, yes. But not exactly to ad­ dirt-brown pony. "Nope," repeated mire them." McAlbin. Nan touched her cheek with her "Not at all," said a gentle voice left hand, tracing the arc the just behind him. freckles made. "I don't quite un­ McAlbin turned and noticed a derstand." very pretty auburn-haired girl "Look, Nan," he said, "\yould standing there, her face still you be interested in dinner.?" slightly flushed from the morning "Yes, that might be nice. wind outside. "Beg pardon?" he Tonight, did you mean.'"' said. "You were looking negative and McAlbin refilled his glass, set the I wanted to assure you little girls wine bottle near at hand on the do have ponies that color." checkered tablecloth. "I like this Freckles made two dim arcs be­ little inn," he said to Nan, "and neath her bright eyes. "I did, for this little inn restaurant. There's an instance." almost European feeling about the

GRANNY 65

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED place." The logs in the nearby fire­ nitwits and not much else. By the place crackled and shifted, and he time a man is thirty, which is what paused. "Though they shouldn't be I just was three weeks ago, society serving this New York wine. No, thinks he should be settled down. I the only good domestic wines can't see any reason to settle down, come from a few of the lesser- though, especially with a nitwit." known California vintners." "Obviously you aren't married." "You've been to most places.?" "Nope. Most women wouldn't asked the pretty girl. "To Europe put up with the roving pattern of and ail of the United States.?" my life," he said. "I've been at this "Sure. One of the great advan­ for six years now, almost seven, tages of the free-lance life is travel. ever since I got out of the service. I I need to pack only, my camera have this, and I'm telling you be­ and some underwear, plus my por­ cause you seem to be an ex­ table typewriter. Actually I don't ceptional sort of girl and one who even need that because I can write understands, this real drive toward shorthand and just rent a type­ finding the truth. Finding the writer someplace or cable in a truth, digging it out. Sometimes story. Depends on whom I'm jhe truth will hurt people, some­ working for." times even destroy them. You can't "Who is it this time ?" let that worry you. The truth is "Nobody yet. I'm keeping this like a torch, sort of, and you have one quier until I get more mate­ to keep it burning." rial. Then I'll hit one of the news "Yes, I can understand that, weeklies or some picture mag. Sell Roy." Nan touched at her cheek, them the whole package for a flat smiled. "A lot of men don't have fee." the kind of courage you do. It "What, exactly, are you in­ reminds me of my father." vestigating.? I mean, I don't want McAlbin laughed. "Really? Not to pry into your methods. Still, I of my father. Well, I can't really am interested." say. My parents never amounted to McAlbin sipped his wine. "That's much. Now, I'm more or less an good. Nan. I'll tell you, you meet a orphan anyhow." lot of girls, here and overseas, who "I'm sorry." don't care for what a guy does at "It's' just the truth. Nothing to all. Any sort of shop talk bores be sorry over." them. Not that they're particularly Nan said, "I really am interested domestic, either. No, they're just in your work, Roy. If you want to

66 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED talk about this current project of carefully and quite subtly, asked' yours, I'd love to listen. Sometimes the gallery people some questions. your kind of work can be pretty This was a very sedate art setup on lonely, I imagine." Post Street and I found out they "Well," he said, "this is no mar­ got their paintings from Paxville, riage scandal or crime-syndicate Connecticut, from the gallery up stuff. It's not even political. I in the retirement town that's been think, however, there is a nice handling Granny's output for sev­ Uttle yarn here and I'm going to eral years." follow through. See, I was out in "But, Roy," said the lovely girl, San Francisco a couple weeks back "what would that mean?" and I saw a show of new paintings "If I'm right," he answered, by your Granny Goodwaller. I was "and I know enough about paint­ only passing through Frisco, not ing to be fairly sure I am, it means even in the mood to look up the something odd is going on in Pax­ friends I have there. For all they ville. See, Nan, I've covered a know, I'm still over in the Pacific couple of art-fraud cases before, or some such place. Anyway, Nan, though those involved fake old I got to looking at those paintings masters. I'm certain the dozen and something struck me. I don't paintings I saw out in Frisco are know why nobody else has no­ fakes. So are most of them on dis­ ticed. Probably because Granny play in Paxville and so are ten of Goodwaller occupies a rather pecu­ the fifteen in the Brimstone Gal­ liar place in American art; not a lery .where we met this morning." real artist and yet not merely a Nan inhaled sharply. "What ex­ commercial painter. A primitive, actly do you think is going on, yes, but a very successful one. Very Roy?" rich." ' "It might just be Granny, being "What," asked Nan, bending to­ in her nineties, can't crank that ward him, "did you notice?" stuff out as fast as she used to and "The paintings are fake," said has an assistant to help fill the or­ McAlbin. ders." He leaned back, comfort­ Nan sat up and frowned. "You able, and the firelight glowed on mean somebody out there is selling his plump face. "However, Nan, I forged Granny Goodwaller paint­ came here because a nice counter- ings.?" notion occurred to me. I'm check­ "That was the first thing I ing it out." thought," said McAlbin. "So I, "Your theory is what?" .

GRANNY 67

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "The whole Paxville setup is pri­ said McAlbin softly. "Not usually." vate," said McAlbin. "I looked it "Well, I - appreciate your up. I also found out Granny Good- confiding in me. It's a pretty un­ waller has no close relatives. Sup­ settling theory you have." pose the old girl had a stroke and -"Not only a theory," he said. couldn't paint anymore?" He rub­ "When I was out at Paxville a bed his wine glass across his chin. couple days ago I swiped a palette "Or suppose, which is what really knife and a teacup that are sup­ intrigues me, suppose the grand posed to belong to Granny. After I old lady of the American primi­ finish up here I'm going to have tives had up and died. It might be the prints checked out in Washing­ to the advantage of the people ton—and there are fingerprints." around Paxville to keep her alive." "Well," said Nan. "And how "That's dreadful," said the girl. much longer will you be here ?" "Why would anyone pretend "I still want to get a look at Granny was alive if she were Granny's cottage on the Paxville dead?" grounds," said McAlbin. "And, "As long as Granny paintings since I try to keep an open mind, keep coming off the assembly line I'll even try to get a look at a lot of money keeps coming into Granny herself." Paxville. Caswell and a couple of ' "Maybe I can help out." his buddies are partners in a com­ "Oh, so?" pany that handles the selling of She frowned again. "I'll think Granny's work, as well as the about it and let you know," she merchandising of it. You know, said. they license the use of her paint­ "I've been talking too much ings for greeting cards and calen­ about myself anyway," said dars." McAlbin. "Let's shift gears. Nan. "Yes, I sell them in my gift Talk about you." shop." Nan let her slender hands The girl looked down at her rest on the tabletop. She shook her hands, biting her lip. Then she head. "I suppose what you suggest smiled across at him. "Very well, is remotely possible, Roy. Still, it Roy ..." seems like an awful thing for The next day was dry and clear, someone to do. What do the other At ten in the morning Nan called people with whom you've dis­ him. McAlbin had been sitting on cussed your theory say?" ^' the edge of Kis bed in his room at "I'm not the confiding type," the Brimstone Inn, making notes

68 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED in one o£ the dimestore tablets he "I'll get in touch with Ben and liked to use. try to set up something for tonight "I think I can help you," the girl or some night soon," the girl said said. in her soft, gentle voice. "If you McAlbin doodled her name in don't mind, I'd like to drive you the margin of the pad. "With there." what, Nan? I don't want you get­ "I'm not sure that'd be safe for ting yourself tangled in this Pax- you." ville business." "Roy, I want to help. Please." "What you told me last night He nodded again. "Okay, Nan." was very unsettling. I just don't "I'll call you back soon as I like to see something Uke that go­ know something." ing on here," she said. "Okay, you "Thanks, Nan. I appreciate you." say you're not absolutely sure. I She called him back in a little think you should make sure. I may under two hours. be able to help you find out more." That evening, McAlbiri stood in "I appreciate that. Nan. Still, the thickening twilight and lis­ there are risks . . ." tened. There was a chill quiet all "Don't let me foul up your around. He reached out and plans, Roy. But I have an idea." touched the wire gate in the big "Go ahead, tell me." hurricane fence. Then, very slowly, She said, "I know one of the at­ he turned the handle. The gate tendants at Paxville Woods. No opened and no alarm sounded. He matter what you may think is go­ gave a.coughing sigh. Nan's friend ing on out there, Ben is an honest, had done as promised. McAlbin man." eased through the gate and closed . "Ben, okay. So?" it after him. There was woodland "You said you wanted to get in­ here, stiff straight trees, crisp side, to get a look at the cottage mounds of fallen leaves. He where Granny lives." walked slowly downhill, moving "I sure do. You mean this friend as silently as he could. of yours, honest Ben, can get me After a few descending minutes inside the place?" he could see the lights of the cot­ "I can ask him. I wanted to tages he wanted. Three of the six make sure, first, it was okay with in this sector had lights, on. you." McAlbin halted, still in the woods, McAlbin nodded into the phone and took a penciled drawing from mouthpiece. "Sounds not bad." his coat pocket. Granny's cottage

GRANNY 69

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was the. third from the left. He rection, not the same way he'd come. Hfted his glance from the tablet The last of the daylight sank page to the view of the cottages. away, thin blue darkness filled the There were windows glowing in forest. The trees grew black. There the cottage that was hers. He was a quiet, ominous clarity all folded the paper away, slid out his around him. McAlbin pressed his miniature camera. spread-fingered hands hard against There were no attendants near his soft chest, chewed in the chill the cottage. He stayed in the shad­ air through his mouth. He tried to ows of the trees and made sure. breath silently, but he had devel­ Then, while night began to drop oped a dry wheeze while climbing slowly down around him, slowly uphill through the wood. McAlbin advanced across the He listened for pursuit and grounds. He bent low when he heard none. A thin, chill mist was was near Granriy's and approached moving through the sharp, bare parallel to the hedge around the trees. He continued to work his cottage. He eased very carefully to­ way upward. Leaves crackled at ward the lighted window. every careful step, noise of his A radio was playing old music progress went rippling down inside. A rocking chair rocked. through the dry brush. McAlbin McAlbin adjusted his camera and stopped again, listening hard. He walked to the window. He heard no sounds but his own. Pain stretched to his full height and was was growing up through his ribs, able to see inside. There was an ea­ squeezing at his lungs. He sighed sel in the knotty-pine room. A and resumed his climb. half-finished painting of tiny McAlbin couldn't keep track of people on a sleigh ride showed on the trees; He got the impression the easel. McAlbin saw a gray they were changing their positions. head and a wool-shawled back. A Halting, he squinted into the cold hand was weakly brushing muddy darkness. He gave a quick, startled brown paint onto the flanks of a inhalation. There was someone tiny horse. He clicked a picture. standing, still and waiting, at the The hand placed the brush aside crest of the hill; someone waiting and then lifted off. the grays wig. patiently, dark and straight as one Caswell stood up, cast off the of the dead trees. McAlbin was shawl and pointed a pistol straight certain there was a man up there, at the window. to his left; one of the attendants McAlbin spun, ran—in a new di­ probably, a big, wide man, antici-

70 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED •.'••••S-fefe-.'.'v "T^"} f**^^^tt.)V.

GRANNY 71

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED paring him. McAlbin crouched, ran for the car. He grabbed the dropped to his hands and knees passenger door and jumped in. and began working slowly away "Get away from here," he said, from the'waiting figure. He kept and then stopped. low, scuffing his palms and his soft Caswell was behind the wheel, knees on thorns, scraps of fallen the same small revolver in his right tree limbs. He raised himself up hand. With his left, he reached long minutes later, scanning, then down and clicked off the car radio. quickly dropped. There was some­ "Trying to catch a weather report. one else up there on the horizon Looks like we may have some waiting for him; another man, snow tomorrow. Feels like it, too, standing with arms folded and feet don't you think .f"' \yide apart, blurred by the growing McAlbin got his breath, gasping. mist, but certainly there. "Where's Nan.?" He began to crawl in a new di­ "One of my associates drove her rection, even more quietly, slowly. home." He tried to make' no sound, to "You can't get by with all this, move and breathe without attract­ Caswell; tracking me like some ing any attention. The mist thick­ kind of wild game and kidnap­ ened and the chill of the deepen­ ping Nan Hendry. This is subur­ ing night increased. McAlbin ban Connecticut, not some feudal looked at his watch. He found kingdom." he'd been in the forest only thir­ "She isn't kidnapped, she's in teen minutes. He sighed again, fine shape." said Caswell. "Nan moved ahead. simply happens to be on our side, A long time later, about eleven as are many people. You yourself, minutes of actual time, he came to Mr. McAlbin, pointed but how the edge of the wood and saw be­ many of the residents in our area low him the small clearing ofT the are dependent on Granny for their roadway where Nan had parked living. With one thing and an­ the car. She was still there, her car other, the old broad represented shadowed by the low, spiky roughly a million and a half a year branches of an evergreen. Not car­ to us. When she died this spring ing about alarms now, McAlbin we decided to ignore the fact. Her ran for the wire fence, leaped for a dreadfully simphstic style is quite hold and climbed over. No bells easy to imitate. A young artist rang. friend of Nan's paints the Granny He hit the outside grpOnd and pictures for us. No one but you has

72 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED tumbled to our little operation." often cruel, dedication to the "I made a mistake confiding in , truth," said Caswell. "Letting you Nan, huh?" go, no, that won't work. You can't "Never confide in anyone you be bribed, nor trusted to keep don't have to," replied Caswell. "I quiet. That teacup you got away wish nearly two dozen people in with upset me, too. My prints may and around Paxville didn't have to be on it and they are on file in cer­ be in on the Granny venture. tain places. No, you simply can't However, a complex plan often be let outside for the time being." means a large number of partici­ "What kind of arrogant talk is pants." this? You think you can kill me "Granny Goodwaller is already because I found out your game?" supposed to be ninety. How long "We're not going to kill you, can you pretend she's alive?" Mr. McAlbin," said Caswell. "Sim­ "Five more years at least," said ply keep you here and out of Caswell, "which will gross us well trouble." over five million dollars; perhaps "How do you think' you're going even more if a couple of merchan­ to keep me in,an old folks' home?" dising plans now in the works "Quite simple," said Caswell. materialize. Then we can afford to The door behind McAlbin let her die. Greed would enter in if opened and someone put a hand we tried to keep this up forever, over his mouth and yanked him suspicion might grow. Fortunately from the car. Granny, much like yourself, has no Within a week they had pulled immediate relatives, no one to all his teeth, bleached his hair cause us trouble. She, too, was an white, roughed his skin, put him independent free-lance person." in an intensive-care bungalow and "I'm not completely without fed him drugs. They told him he connections. What are you think­ was a very sick old man—and, for ing of doing?" quite a long time, he believed "I know you have a stubborn. them.

GRANNY 73

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The fable of the lamb following the wolf in sheep's clothing is universally known, but a striped rabbit . . . ?

I CASED the loan shark's operatio^WIWn ^ of? and on for a week, then madme ^J r—r my move at eleven in the morning, .&^J!^ just ahead of the noon rush of clerks and sales personnel. The The flunkie behind the desk was place figured to be loaded with overly solicitous until we were in­ cash and short on customers at that side the cubbyhole that 'served as hour. I was wearing a four-day his office. When the forty-five auto­ beard, dark glasses, and had the matic appeared in my hand, he customary gold foil around my sagged boggle-eyed into a chair. I two front uppers, the dental gim­ grinned, giving him a good look at mick that had caused the news­ my gold-plated teeth. papers to dub me Goldtooth, I'd "Up easy, sonny," I said and made maybe a dozen heists using handed him my small briefcase. it, and it was worth its weight in "Take this to the safe and fill it to gold, no pun. intended. Imme­ the top. Be quick about it, and diately the heist was over, it could don't get any stupid ideas of call­ be dropped in any refuse can or ing for help or giving an alarm be­ storm sewer. Once, when I'd cause I can • drill a tomato can at figured the time elerrient too • one hundred feet. Besides, you'll closely, I'd even swallowed the never be out of my sight. Just gold foil as the law threatened to make like you're granting a loan scoop me up. to another sucker."

74 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED The clerk swallowed with the door for a good five minutes or difficulty, then took the briefcase in I'll blow it off." As soon as he'd his shaking hand and moved to­ closed the door behind him, I ward the safe. He paused once to stood up and sauntered outside to look back but a flash of my gold a hot convertible around the cor­ teeth sent him on toward the safe. ner. I don't usually play it so When he returned, I took the classy, but the doctor who owned money from him and tilted my the car had flown east for a med­ head toward the rest room. "Get ical convention. I usually swipe a lost. And don't stick your head out nondescript compact.

When I reached the car I slid to a halt and did a double take. A beat-up sedan was snuggling bumper-to-bumper in the back, and a black pickup was doing like­ wise in the front. My getaway car was squeezed in like a sardine. I tried the doors of both vehicles with a hope of getting inside and

STRIPED RABBIT '. 75

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED shifting them out of gear so I pected him to go out to Twenty- could ease them out of the way first and then swing over to Sandy with the convertible, but it was a Boulevard, but he kept right on lost cause. They were both locked. going until he was at Eightieth Time was running out, I was in and Sandy. Then he slid the cab a strange part of town, and the up to the curb before my hotel. outraged clerk would soon be "No sense in getting out at standing in the middle of the side­ Twenty-first and then calling an­ walk screaming bloody murder. I'd other cab or catching a bus," he had it—and then a cab wheeled said indifferently. "Now "you're around the corner. . . . home safe." / The cabby was a lanky individ­ I had a strange feeling in the pit ual who appeared to be a bit on of my stomach. Nobody knows the sleepy side. I waved as he ap­ where I live. In my business, such proached me, but it was only by a precaution is merely part of my jumping into the street nearly in way of life. "What makes you so front of him and slapping my sure I live here.?" I growled gruffly. hand on the window that I man­ The cabby turned in the seat aged to stop him. I'had no more and grinned.. "I've seen you com­ than crawled into the hack and ing and going lots of times. Not to closed the back door when the mention the other times when you clerk from the loan office came were sitting in the lobby with a into view in the rear-view mirror. newspaper or magazine, usually in He was waving his arms like a the corner chair." He pointed to madman, and from the way his my briefcase. "Better get that up to big yap was opened he must have your room, or wherever it is you been screaming at the top of his intend to take it. The streets will inadequate lungs. be crawling with cops looking for Not that it bothered me. The an unshaved character in smoked (cabby slid the hack back into the glasses and carrying a briefcase . . . flow of traffic without a moment's, But don't worry about it. I haven't hesitation. "Where to, mister.?" seen you." I peered over my shoulder at the "You're outta your tree," I agitated loan-company flunkie. bluffed inadequately. "Twenty-first and Sandy;" The cabby shook his head toler­ The cabby nodded, but instead antly from side to side, a faint grin of heading directly east he swung on his face. "I'm a true-crime buflf. the cab north on Broadway. I ex­ I read maybe twelve or fourteen

76 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ' different magazines a month on matter of fact, I've been tailing you the subject. It intrigues me no end. on and off ever since. There was a I first spotted you when you supermarket, another liquor store, heisted the liquor store out in Bea- and twqjoan companies. . ." verton about six months ago. It "You're a nut," I managed to was a real neat job." croak. "A genuine fresh-off-the-tree I had difficulty swallowing. filbert." The guy had pegged me "Beaverton? A liquor store, six right down to my shoelaces. "You months ago?" could get killed following people The cabby's grin widened. that way. And how did you know "That's right, and when you left I was going to knock off that li­ the place you cut across a vacant quor store?" lot. Only when you came out on The cabby held up his trip sheet. the far side you'd switched your re­ "I went to that store every after­ versible coat from bright red to a noon to pick up a fifth of Scotch dull green, got rid of the shades, for a dingaling broad who's been and swapped the cap for a hat. on the sauce for the last five years. Nobody would have connected In fact, I still go there for her. You you with the heist. Then you got were in the vicinity for a week— into a maroon car, drove to Powell close, but not too close—and you and Thirty-third and abandoned it. never bought but one bottle. It From there you caught a bus back figured you were up to something. downtown and transferred to an­ I sat in my hack and watched the other one that delivered you right whole operation." over there on the corner." I curbed^ the almost overwhelm­ I had the feeling I was in a day- ing urge to run. "And you went type nightmare. "If you knew so to all this trouble just because true much about me why didn't you crimes interest you?" blow the whistle .i"' "They don't just interest me," The cabby fished a cigarette out the cabby said. "I find them down­ of his shirt pocket. "I'm a hackie, right fascinating. Take yourself; I not a ^cop, and like I said, my checked you out from every angle hobby is true crimes and criminals. in the book because you were part I'd always wanted to watch a real of the picture. You're Joey Bond, artist at work, and when I spotted thirty-two, six feet, blue eyes, one you casing the liquor store I hundred and seventy pounds. You couldn't resist the urge to tail you seldom drink, but you can't pass and see how you worked. As a up a gamble."

STRIPED RABBIT 77-

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "What's the gimmick?" I the cab, anxious to be rid of him. growled. "How much am I sup­ "I'll see you around," he called posed to shell out to keep your cheerfully as I reached the hotel mouth shut?" door. The cabby looked hurt. "I'm not He was a man of his word. He looking for a payoff. If I was I'd showed up three days later, all ex­ have been after you when you cited about a bank robbery in.Sa­ knocked off the supermarket. That lem. The next week it was another was a beautiful job. Four of you bank job, only in Sacramento. knocking down nearly fifty grand." "Foolish," he muttered with a I could feel my jaw sagging stu­ shake of his head. "They not only pidly. "You didn't sit down the didn't get enough loot to make it street in your hack and watch that worth their while, they got their job, too?" I knew before I asked pictures taken in the process. Stu­ that that was exactly what he'd pid is probably a better word." done. "You could do better?" I The cabby held out a hand. "I'm grunted. Harvey Plock. I own two cabs, "At midnight, in a tomb, with and drive the relief shift. Since my eyes shut," Harvey said firmly. we're going to be friends, we He reached inside his jacket and might as well start getting ac­ produced a folded paper. "Take a quainted." look at that. As a professional, you I shook his hand. "Ai^d you do should be able to spot any weak all this strictly as a hobby of spots in a plan." sorts?" As I studied the paper, he filled Harvey grinned. "My big dream in the picture with a running com­ is to set up a foolproof job, say one mentary. The plan was well laid in the hundred thousand dollar out, bespeaking a .great deal of bracket. Not that I want any of work and a thorough knowledge the action. It's just that so many of banks and law-enforcement guys foul, up on what should be procedure. "What about the geta­ easy heists it makes me wonder way vehicle?" I asked. what kind of nuts they are. What "That's the real gimmick," Har­ I mean is, I'd like to see if I can vey said, his eyes twinkling. set up a perfect job." "When you come from the bank, "Everybody should have a I'll be there in my cab. I'll pick dream," I agreed weakly. I gave you up, deliver you across town, Harvey a ten-spot and eased out of and go on my way. There's abso-

78 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED lutely nothing unusual in that. If hack sounds like something out of the law does follow the scent to a television script." me, I simply tell them I hauled "So it's different," I said agree­ you to Union Station. The case ably. "But that doesn't mean it should make the front pages all ' won't work. Actually, the stolen- over the country. That is, if you car bit has been run into the can get three more men to help ground. Anymore, when a bank you . . ." gets knocked off, the first thing At first, Fingers Fenshaw the bully boys do when they con­ thought I was kidding. Then he verge on the scene is check all the eyed me dubiously. "You mean cars in sight against their stolen-ve- you're really going to, take a cab hicle list. It's getting to be a sensi­ away from the bank after the tive area and sooner or later some­ heist.?" He made it sound like I'd body is going to get knocked off slipped my gears. because of the stolen car. With a I'd sent for him, Monk Adams cab,'- we can be cruising quietly and Homer Rolfe so I could lay through town while the law hunts Harvey's plan out before them. for a stolen car that hasn't been • Fingers works his expertise on stolen." stubborn vaults and strongboxes. Fingers chewed his lower lip du­ Monk worked in Hollywood in biously. He was ready to tip either the makeup department once, and • way with a good nudge. I played his ability along those lines is in­ my trurnp ace. "Think of the head- valuable. Homer is just a good all- Hnes, Fingers: Thugs Rob Bank; around heist man. Call Cab To Haul Loot Away. It'll Monk and Homer had met be the caper of the decade." head-on^in their usual gaine of gin A gleam crossed Fingers' dark rummy as soon as they reached the eyes. If there was one thing that motel on the outskirts of town. appealed to his weird nature, above Monk had lost twelve dollars to and beyond a highly profitable Homer at our last get-together and heist, it was the attendant public­ he was trying to win it back. Fin­ ity. "You've got a good point," he gers was interested in two things: admitted reluctandy, "but I'll with­ the bottle in his hand and the up­ hold judgment until we run it coming heist. "Why the change in " through rehearsal a few times." procedure.? We've always done all "It'll work," I promised. "And right by using a hot car and dump­ the beauty of it is, I know a cabby ing it right after the caper. Using a who'd give his eyeteeth to be part

STRIPED RABBIT 79

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED of a big heist. Even better is the on. That ain't a name. It's a de­ fact he doesn't want any of the scription of some barefoot broad take." tripping through the cotton fields . Fingers had risen to add some of Alabama or Mississippi." water to his drink. Now he sat "She's from Oklahoma," I said. down gingerly and let his eyes stab "But come to think of it, she was clear through me. "The cabby barefoot the night I was out at the \nows about the heist.'' And he house and it seemed kinda natural doesn't want any of the ta\e? for her. Maybe she really isn't used Man, you've gotta be puttin' me to shoes. All her kids were wear­ on."' ing them, though." "Oh, but I'm not," I said. "Wait "All her \ids}" Fingers asked till you meet Harvey." fearfully. Fingers shook his head "All five. Three boys, two girls." hopelessly. "Harvey . . . With a "Aha," Fingers choVtled victo­ name like that he might even be a riously. "So the rabbit really is a rabbit. Eight feet tall, yet. How rabbit." He took a slow sip of his well do you know this Harvey.?" drink. "But, what the hell, every­ I told him all about Harvey, his body should have a hobby. Does mania for true-crime books, and this dingaling, Harvey, know of how he'd hauled me away from the risks involved.? There could be the loan-company heist. "All the a slipup and maybe some fire­ guy wants to talk about is rob­ works." beries and heist men, if you can Fingers was leaning in my direc­ imagine it." tion but I gave him an extra tug Fingers sipped his drink. "I've just in case. "We've talked it over got an imagination that won't and he knows. Like I said, it's his quit. Keep talking." life's ambition to be a small part of "He's real solid," I said. "I even one really big heist, something he went out 'to his house the other can lie to his grandchildren about night and had dinner with him in his old age. It's like an obsession and his wife." with him, and I sort of owe him Fingers arched a brow. "The the favor. There were times he rabbit has a wife.?" could have blown the whistle on I rose to pour myself a glass of me." orange pop. "Elly May." Monk looked our way as Homer "EUy May?" Fingers gurgled. shuffled the cards. "He sounds like "Now I know you're puttin' me one of them nuts who plague the

80 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED movie stars. If they can just see Fingers probed. "The name of it?" them or touch them or be near Harvey beamed. "The Tiger them, they're in seventh heaven Taxi." . . . really in orbit." A glazed look came into Fin­ I nodded. "That's Harvey ex­ gers' eyes. "The Tiger Taxi," he re- actly. Only his hangup is holdup • peated slowly. "I suppose ' that men. It isn't exactly the dream of means you're a real ball of fire. every red-blooded American boy You chew up the competition and but, as the old saying goes, it takes spit them all over the country." all kinds. Hell, I've even read Harvey grinned sheepishly and about people who were gaga over •spooned his coffee noisily. "Not executions and funerals." really. My dad called me tiger "Have this Harvey drop by to­ when I was a kid in the hills of morrow," Fingers said. "After all, Arizona, and when I got the fran­ if I'm going to stick my chin out chise it seemed like a good name. for a rabbit that's married to a cot­ Actually, the big taxi companies ton-patch Elly May, I want a good are real stiff competition." ' long look at him first." Fingers Fingers pursued his questioning could be very cautious when the at length, hitting on all the per­ occasion demanded. tinent angles of the upcoming Harvey stopped in at the motel heist. I'd .worked on several jobs the next afternoon. He was a bit with him and Monk and Homer, nervous, never having been in the and if he missed anything I company of four top heist men be­ couldn't figure out what it might fore, but he controlled himself ad­ be. The four of us enjoyed some­ mirably. thing of a reputation among both Fingers was openly skeptical, the lawmen and the lawless. but his skepticism was an in­ "The plan is the thing," Fingers valuable asset. If there was a flaw said finally. "There is no such in the setup he would find it. He thing as a really successful caper on began sniping right off. "You own the spur of the moment, nor are the cab?" sloppily planned jobs any better. Harvey was flattered by the at­ The jails and prisons are loaded tention. "I own the franchise, and with idiots who thought otherwise. I've got two cabs with full-time This caper calls for a lot of hard drivers. Elly May and I take the work but, properly done, it should relief shifts." , be a real gasser." "Whadda you call the business?" Harvey's eyes lit up with pride.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I sure hope so. I worked on those vey was the mastermind behind plans for a long time." the caper. <• "Yoii worked on the plans.'"' "It's every bit as good as I could Fingers grunted. He swiveled have done," I said. "Maybe better." around in his chair to glare at me. "It seemed like a good plan," I'd neglected to mention that Har- Harvey offered defensively.

82 ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Do you have any other hopes or of people around. In our business, dreams or nightmares?" Fingers a crowd is a form of insurance. growled sarcastically. Bank officials are rarely willing to Harvey missed the point com­ risk the health and welfare of their pletely. "Oh, I like to run down to customers. That gave us from Sat­ Reno or Vegas once in a while. urday through Tuesday for rehears­ You know, roll the dice, play a al. few hands of twenty-one or knock We got together, the four of us but some keno tickets; but my big and Harvey, and began going dream is what you might call way- through the routine. When Harvey out. I've always wanted to take had to leave for his stint behind Elly May and the kids to Monte the wheel of the hack, we contin­ Carlo for the winter. They could ued without him. When he re­ swim and fish, and I'd putter turned he'd fall into the pattern as around the casinos. If I had the though he'd never been gone, and money, I'd buy into some business we'd go through it again and over there. The taxes don't amount again. Fingers could be a harsh to anything, the cost of living is taskmaster. way down, and it's got a beautiful The rehearsals were always the year-round climate. Someday may­ toughest part of the heist; the be I'll make it." working out of the actual robbery, Fingers upended the bottle and the secondary moves to be made in spiked his drink lavishly with a case the unexpected suddenly arose. shaking hand. "Oh, you'd be a real With the floor plan of the bank smash at the big casino in Monte pinned to the wall before our Carlo. I can just see your barefoot bloodshot eyes, we went through wife, your five rug rats, and you the routine until we were ready to with a bottle of moonshine stick­ scream. No drinking was per­ ing out of the back pocket of your mitted during this time, and Fin­ blue jeans. No doubt about it, gers grew, increasingly short-tem­ you'd be a real sensation." He pered and irritable. On booze, he emptied his glass in three fast was mellow and happy-go-lucky; swallows. on straight black coffee, he was We set up the caper for the fol­ critical, sarcastic and shrewd. He lowing Wednesday, an hour before drove us through the rehearsals un­ the bank closed. An extended til we were like automatons, con­ study had shown that to be the trolled by some mastermind on a time of heavy depositing, with lots remote switch.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED We met in a hotel lobby a block tions. And you will please remem­ from the bank at H-hour minus ber that if any of the bags is set ten miftutes. There was the usual down or dropped the contents will exchange of wisecracks to show explode in exactly thirty seconds. how blase we were, but it was That will give the three men strictly an act. Deep inside we sufficient time to reach safety. were all up-tight. Harvey handed About your customerSj I'm not so me a voluminous briefcase. "The sure. Also, should anyone be fool­ note demanding the one hundred ish enough to try arid pick up one grand is inside." His eyes were ac­ of the bags after it has been placed tually sparkling. Fingers checked on the floor, it will explode in­ his watch one last time and nod­ stantly. I hardly have to tell you ded toward the door. what forty-five pounds of dyna­ Inside the bank I was forced to mite yvill do to your magnificent wait while the president, an obese structure, not to mention the em­ and balding slob, wound up a con­ ployees and customers. Follow my versation with some character in directions and there will be no vio­ an expensive suit. When the guy lence. Play it stupid and you will in the fancy threads, departed, I definitely have cause for regret—if made my move. you survive. Take the briefcase I'd barely introduced myself as J. frorn Mr. Southwick, the gentle­ Dutton Southwick when the presi­ man-seated by your desk. Remove dent's telephone rang. I knew the note from the briefcase and, without looking aroun^ that Har­ without reading it, pass it and the vey was in the phone booth briefcase to one of your subordi­ around the corner. I was close nates." enough that I could hear his voice Mr. Bright had been caught off clearly. guard, but he was still a tryer. He "Mr. Bright.? You will please no­ cast his eyes about desperately, tice three men wearing dark top­ hopirig for a miracle. coats >and carrying satchels. They "Cool it, dad," I growled in a are standing between the tellers' low voice. "Just take the bag and windows and ostensibly filling out do like the man on the telephone deposit slips. The bags they are car­ said. Try playing it cute and you'll rying contain fifteen pounds of have meat hanging all over what's dynamite each! Please do riot be left of the joint." alarmed as there is absolutely no . There was a metallic snap to my danger if you obey my instruc- voice that got through to Mr.

84 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Bright. He slumped resignedly in under the knob. Monk, Homer his chair and summoned a colle­ and Fingers fell casually in behind giate type who halted obsequiously me as I crossed the lobby and beside his desk. When the flunky moved out the front door. With headed for the vault with the brief­ the exception of the president, case and the note, Mr. Bright stud­ there wasn't a soul in the bank ied me from beneath his veiled who even suspected a heist had ang;er. taken place. Monk had done his usual mas­ Harvey had eased around the' terful job on my homely mug. I corner after making the telephone looked a full ten years ^older, gray­ call and was waiting quietly at ing hair and all, and the phoney curbside in his cab. contact lenses had changed my We'd gone a block when Fin­ blue eyes to a mellow brown. On gers sighed relievedly. "It worked. top of that, my ears had been en­ It worked like a charm!" larged and given oversized lobes. I Monk sat licking his lips in an­ noted with satisfaction that Mr. ticipation. Homer's eyes were shin­ Bright was duly memorizing all ing like diamond chips. the fictitious details of my appear­ "The way you guys operate is ance. I bared my two gold teeth in sheer beauty," Harvey said rever­ a grin, just to help him out. When ently. He turned on the radio and the flunky returned and placed the fiddled with the dials. The news bulging briefcase on the desk, it came on with a sudden blast. took an effort for me to control ". . . five men, four of them in myself. One hundred grand does dark topcoats, bare seconds ago. things to me. When the messenger Three of the men are carrying was out of earshot, I smiled at Mr.' satchels believed to contain dyna­ Bright again. "It's time you paid a mite. The fourth man is carrying a visit to the rest room." briefcase containing one hundred He licked his lips, looked at the thousand dollars in cash. They are briefcase, and then to where Monk believed headed north in a taxi. and Homer and Fingers^still stood Barricades are being thrown up along the cages. It was easy to see within a ten-block radius of the he didn't like the odds. I was right scene. The alarm was phoned in behind him all the way to the rest by Mr. Kinder Bright, president of room. As soon as he stepped in­ The First National, who recently side, I grabbed one of the chairs had telephones installed in the along the hallway and jammed it bank's rest rooms and at other

STRIPED RABBIT 85

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED strategic locations in anticipation once and explained to a battery of of such an eventuality . . ." reporters that the cab used in the "Zowie!" Monk howled, panic- heist was nothing more than a stricken. He'd done one jolt in stir gimmick employed by the robbers. and the thought of a return bout He'd been at home at the time, did things to him. eating an early dinner. Elly May, "Stash the bags and your coats barefooted and pigtailed, tripped under the back seat," Harvey before the cameras to vouch for snapped suddenly. "I'll let you out him. The law bought the story and at the next corner. They won't be released Harvey . . . with apol­ looking for a cabby without a fare, ogies. so if I go it alone I've got a good I waited until ten o'clock Satur­ chance of getting through. Scatter day night before heading for the and make like tourists. I'll see you motel. Homer was waiting when I at the motel Saturday night." got there. Monk showed up an It made sense, and since we hour later, and Fingers thirty min­ didn't have time for a studied eval­ utes behind him. While we waited. uation of our position, we jammed Monk and Homer began their the coats and bags under the back rummy game and Fingers nipped seat and bailed out. From there we on a fifth of bourbon. split, four men going-in as many He offered me a drink, but I de­ directions. clined. "I^rink only on special oc­ For the next three days and casions. Fingers,,remember? Very nights the newspapers and televi­ special occasions." After a while I sion stations blared forth the de­ stretched out on the bed. Monk tails of the daring heist, only now and Homer were good for hours, they were citing the amount taken and Fingers was already dozing in as two hundred thousand- dollars. his chair. Sometime past midnight That didn't surprise me, though. a knock at the door brought me to The loss was covered by insurance, my feet. and if the bank could convince the It wasn't Harvey. It was a mes­ insurance company they really had senger with a beer case in his lost two hundred grand, somebody hands. "Joey Bond.?" When I nod­ would be home free with one hun­ ded, he handed me the box. "Com­ dred thousand. The procedure is pliments of Mr. Plock." Then he surprisingly popular among the al­ moved back along the walk. legedly honest people. Homer eased in close as I Harvey appeared on television opened the box. "Instead of one

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED hundred grand we get this con­ on it! Oh, if he was here Bow . . . traption. What is it?" The note to Fingers was brief "A tape recorder," Fingers said and' to the point: Fingers, you blankly. ' "Harvey's sent /us a were wrong. The demand for two recording?" hundred grand didn't make any­ I plugged the cord into a wall body suspicious. And you_^ were socket and flipped the switch. At also right; first-class planning does first nobody got it. Then it clicked. pay off." Wc were listening to the police re­ Fingers slumped into a chair, port that had come over the cab ra­ eyes glazed. "I told him a dozen dio right after the heist. times that going for two hundred, "It wasn't a newscast at all," grand was putting on the gouge, Fingers wheezed. "The rabbit was bound to make somebody sus­ playing this recording, and we picious. Only he went for it any­ bought it and ran . . ." He stared way." hypnotically at the spinning reels. I finally had the whole picture. "We've been had! Four of the best "And I accused poor Mr. Bright of heistmen in the business have just trying to head south with a hun-. been heisted." dred grand, never suspecting dear, "I'll murder him, so help me," dear Harvey really did have two Homer hissed. hundred thousand." "Just murder half of him," After a bit Fingers dug a bill out Monk grated angrily. "The rest is , of his pocket and shoved it at mine." Homer. "Go get me a fifth of Along with the recorder was a bourbon. In fact, get two fifths." picture of Harvey, addressed to The numbness and shock were me, and a note for Fingers. Har­ just wearing off when Homer re­ vey was leaning against a black turned with the booze. "Take a pickup, a broad smile on his face. look at that," he growled dis­ In the window was a vague gustedly as he threw the morning reflection of Elly May holding a paper on the bed. camera. Behind the pickup was the We looked. From the front page convertible I'd stolen for the loan- Harvey smiled back. Beside him company heist . . . Harvey had stood Elly May—with shoes on— pinned the convertible in so I and the five rug rats. The picture couldn't move it! Then he'd just had been radioed in from Nantes, happened along and rescued me, France. The caption related how and his barefoot bride had been in the Plock family, late of Portland,

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Oregon, was realizing a lifelong tangle-footed hack driver! Ouch!" dream. The former owner of Tiger A half hour later Fingers opened Taxi, through shrewd business the second bottle. Then he began dealings, and the sale of his taxi to laugh again. The humor of the business; was spending the winter situation was contagious. All four with his family on the Riviera. of us roared until we were gasping There was a mention about the for breath. bogus cab being used in the recent "We can't go after him, either," robbery, but due to Harvey's ster­ Fingers said thoughtfully. "We ling character and spotless reputa­ could try, but sure as hell word tion, he had been quickly absolved. would get out about what had Fingers reached for one of the really happened. We'd be the bottles. "So the rabbit really was a laughingstocks of two continents tiger." He downed a healthy shot and probably never get the money and immediately poured himself anyway ... So long, image . . . another. "Or was he a cross be­ Nope. We've always been good tween the two—like maybe a sports. We put this one down to striped rabbit. That's it. He was a experience." striped rabbit; a real freak that no­ "There's a moral to this story.?" body had ever seen before. How Monk asked blearily. were we to know.?" After a few Fingers tiked his head back and more drinks Fingers began to let a swallow of whiskey trickle, laugh, quietly at first, as if at some over his tonsils. "The moral is: Be­ private joke, and then louder and ware of striped rabbits." He raised louder.. Finally he stopped and his glass unsteadily. "As true gen­ palmed the tears from his eyes. tlemen, the least we can do is toast "Ain't this the damnedest thing.? the ingenuity of the striped rab­ The four of us have driven a bit." dozen police departments and the Fingers was right, which made FBI right outta their skulls . . . it a t'lfry special.occasion. and we get taken for a ride by a I reached for the bottle ... 1

ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Glory is where one finds it or, as Chaucer expressed it, "Myn be the travaille, and thyn he the glory]"

VAYHEN the buzzer buzzed at the front entrance, Homer Doyle set down his mug of lukewarm tea— he never drank coffee after mid­ night—and rose from his chair be­ hind the desk. He crossed the lobby to the heavy glass door and clucked disapprovingly at the "I thought my sister might have young man smiling in at him. He turned up," the young man said released the latch and pushed the eagerly. "I know it's late, but—" door open a few inches. "Almost three o'clock in the

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED morning," Homer Doyle said with the building after midnight, when some asperity. "Your sister isn't the front door was locked. here. Perhaps she went to some "Propriety" and "Cragmore" were other hotel." synonymous. The young man's sandy brows Doyle nodded. After all, the boy puckered in a frown. "No. She was obviously only concerned with was definitely supposed to come locating his sister, and there was a straight here from the airport. I phone booth just inside the lobby. don't understand it." Inside, the young man waited "She might have met someone while Doyle shut and locked the on the plane—" door. The rather large lobby was "Oh, no. Betty isn't that kind of in shadow; the only lights on were girl," the young man said, looking Doyle's reading lamp behind the a bit shocked. registration desk, and the tiny yel­ Doyle grunted dubiously. He low bulb above the elevator. had been night-clerking at the "Certainly different from when I Cragmore, a small hotel for was here before," the young man women, more than long enough to said. "The place was swarming decide that almost any girl was with girls then." that kind of girl. He said, "Well, Doyle nodded vagiiely. The boy I'm sorry, she just hasn't shown had come in around ten or ten- up. In fact, no one has checked in thirty last night, inquiring for his since you were here earlier." sister who had supposedly arrived He started to pull the door shut. in the city earlier in the evening. "Could I come in long enough Perhaps she had, but she hadn't to use the phone.''" the young man checked in at the Cragmore. The asked. He gestured to the dark, young man, who had given his deserted street stretching into the narne .as Bob Ed Lambeth, had hot summer night on either side of hung around for several minutes the Cragmore's lighted entrance. with a sort of polite but dogged "There doesn't seem to be another persistence until Doyle had gone place open along here. I want to through the registration cards call the—the police. I really am twice with the same result. Finally, worried about Betty." after a long look around the then Homer Doyle hesitated. busy lobby, the young man had The Cragmore was run very left. much like the nearby YWCA; no Now Doyle said, "The phone's male visitors were allowed inside over there. I suppose you've

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED checked to make sure your sister's something. I had to play it safe." plane arrived on schedule last "Gun?"Doyle said dazedly. night?" "After all, you are down here on "What? Oh, yes." Lambeth fum­ the ground floor alone, and there's bled in a pocket of his sports no house detective or anyone like jacket. "I think I'll need change." that in the hotel; just you and the Doyle sighed and turned toward manager, Mrs. McVey, and of the desk. He took two steps, and course she's fast asleep in her room then his head suddenly exploded in up on the top floor." a great burst of white light fol­ Along with the throbbing in his lowed by a shower of sparks that head Doyle began to feel anger, died into nothingness. most of it directed at himself. This He woke to find himself in his kid with his guileless air and fresh- familiar chair behind the registra­ scrubbed face, and his tale of a tion desk, but with a most unfa­ missing sister, had taken Doyle v in miliar pain throbbing in his head. completely. He groaned and tried to lift his Doyle swore under his breath. hands. He could not move. He Then he glanced toward the small blinked dazedly up into the con­ safe set into the wall behind the cerned face of the young man who desk. The safe had been closed, but had wanted to use the phone. not locked; now its door was ajar. "Thank goodness," Lambeth Doyle snapped, "I see you've said. "I was afraid I'd hit you too cleaned out the cash box. I hope hard, Mr. Doyle." the fifty bucks you found in there "What—" is nough, because that's all there "Would you like a drink of wa­ is.'^ ter?" Lambeth didn't appear con­ Doyle shook his head, winced, vinced. "I don't—" and again tried to lift his hands. "Of course, I might have all of Then he saw that his arms were five dollars in my wallet," Doyle bound securely to the arms of the added bitterly, f chair, with some kind of heavy "Six, as a matter of fact," said cord that also encircled his chest, Lambeth, with a deprecating smile. holding him firmly against the "I searched you while you were back of the chair. unconscious. I also found a gun in Lambeth was saying, "I'm sorry this little drawer under the counter I had to slug you but I couldn't be here. I'll just take that along . . . sure you weren't carrying a gun or But I'm really not interested in

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED money, or guns. This is what I ject. He said, "Do you like this was looking for." job?" From the desk he picked up four "Now, listen—" sheets of stiff paper, floor plans of "It sounds like it would be—in­ the hotel, one for each of the foUr teresting. Night clerk in a hotel for upper floors. Small removable tags women, one man, alone with all indicated which rooms were occu­ these girls. I'll bet you could write pied and which were not. a best-selling book about your ex­ Doyle stared. periences, huh? Even at your age, Lambeth said lightly, "No, I'm it must be interesting." not still trying to find my sister. "Are you kidding?" Actually, I imagine Betty's sound Lambeth shrugged, his pale gaze asleep at this hour, in her own bed again flicking to the clock. He at home. Way out in Seattle, took off his jacket and folded it Washington. She really did stay neatly over a corner of the desk. here once, though, when she came There were large blotches of sweat east on a visit. She told me all on his blue shirt. about this place. Thought it was He said, absently, "I suppose if very nice. Very quiet and respect­ you were the lecherous type, you able." wouldn't have this job in the first Doyle frowned uncertainly at place. Not in a respectable place the young man. He noticed that in like this is supposed to be . . . spite, of Larribeth's casual chatter Well, it's almost time. I'll just—" and outwardly calm manner, there "Time for what?" Doyle cried. was a sheen of perspiration on his "What the hell is all this?" face, • and his hands holding the As he spoke, Doyle struggled floor charts were trembling spas- against the cord that bound him to miodically. the chair and discovered that there "You've got all the cash in the was a certain amount of give in place," Doyle said. "Why are you the loops encircling his left arm hanging around.''" and the arm of the chair on that "It's not quite three-thirty yet," side. He immediately stopped his said Lambeth, nodding toward the efforts; Lambeth didn't seem to wall clock. "There's nothing to do notice. but wait." Lambeth was busy. He had "Wait for what.?" taken off his shirt, and Doyle saw Lambeth made an abrupt ges­ that the,young man's naked, hair­ ture, as if brushing away the sub- less chest was covered with curious

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED designs done in greasepaint; jag­ barrassed grimace. "It's the kind of ged streaks of red and green radi­ thing that goes over big in the ating from a bright yellow spiral. newspapers." Now Lambeth took a tiny mir­ "Sure. Uh huh," said Doyle ror and a stick of yellow soothingly. Until now he had been greasepaint from his trousers pock­ more annoyed at his own gullibil­ ets and carefully drew crude stars ity than afraid of Lahibeth. The on his clean-shaven cheeks and a kid was hardly the type to inspire sunburst on his forehead. He ex­ terror, but if he was a psycho, that amined the results and nodded. was something else again. Doyle watched, his eyes bulging. Lambeth eyed the clock. "Three- "Just an added touch of busi­ thirty. Good. That's the time my ness," Lambeth said, with an em­ father died, some years ago. Three-

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED thirty on a hot summer morning and with a casual nod walked . . . He died of acute alcohoHsm, around the end of the desk and Mr. Doyle. Driven to it by my started across the lobby. He was mother. How does that grab you.?" humming softly. Doyle tried to moisten his dry "Wait," Doyle croaked. "Listen, lips with a tongue that felt like you can't mean—" parched leather. "I—I'm sorry—" "Sure I do," Lambeth said, his Lambeth burst out laughing. face shining with sweat and "Don't be. Just between us, my old greasepaint. "What the heck, I'll man died of a coronary, but the soon be twenty-four, and who's other way sounds much more in­ ever heard" of Robert Edward teresting." Lambeth.? Nobody. But in a few "Sure." hours, Mr. Doyle—in a few hours "Well, to work," Lambeth said I'll be the most famous man in the briskly. "I've looked at these floor country—in the world." plans. I believe the top floor is best. "But—" I see there are seventeen guests on "I'll be down as soon as possible. that floor, most of them in single Then I'll untie you,, and we can rooms. That'll make it easier, you call the television stations and the know." newspapers^and the cops, I sup­ "What are you—" pose." Lambeth grimaced. "Don't "See, I can go quietly from room worry about a thing, Mr. Doyle. to room, using this master key I After all, you'll be the man who found in the safe. With just one took my surrender. Wish me girl to deal with in each room— luck." except in a couple of cases where Lambeth reached the elevator there are two—there won't be any and slid open the door. He stepped unnecessary uproar or bother." inside and, with a last cheerful Doyle shook his aching head. He nod, punched the button and the wondered if he might be having door slid shut. some kind of weird hallucination; Whimpering, Doyle strained and but the pain was real enough, and tugged at the cord; almost at once so was the needle-pointed ice pick his left arm was free. that Lambeth had taken from a "My God," he panted. "Sev­ sheath attached to his belt. enteen—he'll kill. . ." Doyle sat there, frozen, while Now his right arm was free, and the young man tucked the chart of only the cumbersome loops of cord the top floor under one bare arm around his chest held him in the

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED chair. If he could free himself be­ and there was only 4—and then 5, fore the elevator reached the top the top floor. floor, there was an emergency There was still time, though. switch that would override the The switch was on a panel in an controls inside the elevator itself, alcove behind the desk, only a few stopping it between floors. If steps from where Doyle .was Doyle could just reach that switch struggling to push the last loop of in time ... the cord down past his hips so that He glared across the dim lobby " he could step out of it. at the indicator above the elevator Famous? Lambeth would be door. The hand of the indicator more than famous. There would was moving slowly past 2 and on be hours of television about him, toward 3. miles of newsprint devoted to him, Doyle tried to stand up but he magazine articles, books—if Ho­ was still entangled in the stiff new mer Doyle didn't stop him in the cord. He groaned. next few seconds. That psycho would kill those And what about the man who women, one by one, entering their caught Lambeth? Right now it rooms and stabbing them with would mean nothing. But after­ that ice pick before they knew wards, after seventeen murders . . . what was happening, and Doyle That man would be almost as fa­ had, no doubts remaining that mous as Lambeth! Lambeth meant to do just that. Doyle stood there in a sudden Seventeen ... blinding agony of indecision. It would be the most horrible Then, slowly, he sank back into crime . . . the chair. He stared in fascination Lambeth would be famous, all at the elevator indicator. Then he right. Oh, yes! slowly pulled the last loop of the At last Doyle was able to stand, cord back up around his waist. up partially, his eyes glued to the After all, not only the young elevator indicator; it had reached 3, have dreams of glory.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Perverseness, wrote E. A. Poe, is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart.

U BRUSHED AWAY pcsky rivulets of sided grin to put them at ease. desert-hot sweat trickling down Serving for the first time, they into my eyes, rapped the gavel; and were all scared stiff. faced my twelve good neighbors in Off to the right of the jury box, •the jury box. "An inquest," I ex­ a chair scraped with squeaky impa­ plained, "is a judicial inquiry con­ tience and cantankerous old Jake ducted by a coroner—that's me. Tobey, representing the insurance Together with a jury—that's you- company, leaped to his feet. "Let's all—we look into the cause of the get on with it!" Jake squealed. sudden or violent death of a per­ "Everybody here knows Miles son." I paused to throw out a lop­ Rigby committed suicide."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Mebbe so," I growled. "And Big Chief Many Hats. I was as then again, mebbe not." My fist much a chief as a forty-year-old, tightened on the gavel I would redheaded Irishman born in Butte, dearly love to jam down his Montana could be, having been checker-cheating throat. "But even handed the honorary title because out here in the wilderness, we do of my various official and self-im­ have certain formalities that have posed duties. For one thing, I was to be observed." the only doctor between Indian Jake Tobey mumbled something Springs and Fort Defiance. As a nasty and sat down. I turned away result, I'd been appointed coroner. from him and faced the jury again. When I wasn't doctoring, coroner- Like them, this was my first ex­ ing, or trying to catch Jake Tobey perience with a coroner's inquest, cheating at checkers, I was a vol­ and I meant to make the most of unteer coach, teaching the kids it. In my dozen years in the com­ different sports. On Sunday morn­ munity of Indian Springs, the only ings, after the Bible class in back of Jake Tobcy's trading post, I en­ tertained the kids with a moth-eat­ en old ventriloquist's dummy I'd picked up somewhere. "Well, how about it?" Doke Tinney insisted. "It won't take no longer than it has to, Doke." I gave him a^ dirty look, banged the gavel, and went • on with my instructions to the jury members. "In an inquest of this deaths had been from natural type, witnesses may be summoned causes; from old age or, too often, and may be compelled to give testi­ malnutrition in some of the Na­ mony as to the cause of death. It's vajo youngsters. our responsibility to determine if From the jury box, leather-faced the death in this case was acciden­ Doke Tinney stood up and tal, self-inflicted, or otherwise." shouted, "Is this gonna take long, Red-faced and shifty-eyed, Jake Chief Many Hats? I got me a Tobey was on his feet again like a flock of sheep needs lookin' after." shot. "I move to have the jury I smiled at the nickname the polled right now!" he shouted at Navajos had bestowed upon me— me. "After all. Miles Rigby made

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED no bones about his intent to com­ at the Rigby place to investigate." mit suicide. He told you about it, I held up my hand to silence and he told his wife." him momentarily, and grinned at "Mister Tobey," I said, aiming the angry glare I got from Jake the gavel at his bullet-shaped bald Tobey. "Just for the record," I said, head, "if you don't shut up and sit deliberately slow, "the Rigby place down, I'll have you removed and referred to is some ten miles from barred from this inquiry! Is that here, up toward the main highway. clear.'"' It consists of a curio shop and art Tobey nodded and sat back gallery specializing in Indian down, muttering to himself. I crafts. In back of the main house is wasn't about to bar him. I needed a small, kidney-shaped swimming him too much, but he didn't know pool. Several hundred feet beyond that. Crazily, I could understand that is a one-story studio where his impatience, and even feel a tiny Miles Rigby did his painting—and twinge of pity for him. Besides sulking." running the Indian Springs Trad­ Tobey was on his feet again. ing Post, old Jake represented sev­ "We already hjiow all that!" he ex­ eral big mail-order houses, and a ploded. "Why are you stalling.?" large insurance firm in Phoenix. Ignoring him, I nodded toward His company stood to lose fifty the nervous patrolman. "What did thousand dollars if Miles Rigby's you find when you got there, Bo.?" death was not officially listed as a "The place was a mess!" Cla­ suicide. jinnie exclaimed. "The Httle house Order restored, I banged the ga­ in back—the studio—was all in vel a couple of times just for the flames, and Miles Rigby was in the sheer joy of it, then called the first swimming pool, floating face witness. Bo Clajinnie. "Patrolman down." Clajinnie," I began, "will you tell "Did you attempt to aid and as­ the jury in your own words what sist Miles Rigby in any way.?" happened on the night of Miles Clajinnie grimaced, then looked Rigby's death?" sheepishly down at his highly pol-, Black-haired and pearly-toothed, ished cowboy boots. "No, sir, I the handsome young Navajo buck didn't." He looked back up then, grinned nervously. "I was out swallowed hard, and said, cruising in the patrol car," he said, "Xhere'd been an electrical storm, "when the shortwave radio noti­ and I thought the place'd been fied me there was some trouble struck by lightning."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED There was a low murmur from the cause of death, nothing else." the crowd, and I waggled my head "Are you hinting at murder.?" knowingly. Navajo chindee, or I shook my head. "I'm not hint­ taboo, concerning lightning was as ing at anything. I'm merely trying old as the tribe itself. I'd known to cover all the angles. Now then, the Indians to avoid a desperately Clajinnie, were you aware of the needed road because an object on discord in the Rigby marriage.?" it had been struck. In the event of The Navajo's black eyes blazed. a death by lightning, the body "Miles Rigby was a loudmouthed could not be touched for four days. braggart and a sadistic bully. He "I understand, Bo. What hap­ was born mean as sin and getting pened then .'"'" meaner every day. I don't know Clajinnie gulped gratefully and how that sweet little Faye Raven went on. "Faye Raven—Mrs. put up with him as long as she Rigby—pulled Miles out of the did." pool and gave him artificial respi­ "And yet, would you say that ration. But it wasn't no use. He Mrs. Rigby did everything in her was cold dead. Then we called power to save her husband's life?" you." "Yes, sir! I don't know why, but "You mean, that little woman, she sure did." weighing all of a hundred pounds I rubbed my stubbled chin and soaking wet, pulled Rigby out all tried to look owl-wise. "I guess by herself.?" that will be all, Clajinnie. Oh! In­ Clajinnie nodded. "Yes, sir. I cidentally, is it true that you once don't know how in hell she done asked Faye Raven to be your it—but she sure did." wife.?" I stalled for a full minute, not The muscular young buck wanting to ask the next question, leaped to his feet. For an awesome but knowing I had to. "Were you moment I thought he was going to aware that the Rigbys' married life rush me. Then he regained his was not, ah—harmonious.?" composure. "Yes," he admitted. Jake Tobey was on his feet, yell­ "But I was a wild young punk in ing, "What kind of a damn fool those days. She turned me down." question is that?" I looked over at Jake Tobey. "An inquiry like this," I "Do you have any questions to ask snapped, "cannot overlook the pos­ this witness?" sibility of foul play. The sole pur­ "Not this one," Jake snarled. pose of this inquest is to determine "Let's just get on to the meaty

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED stuff. That's why we're here." "I've seen burros fall down the I excused the patrolman and Grand ' Canyon and look better shuffled some papers on my desk, than you." I patched her up then remembering the first time, Httle and soft-talked her. She took to Faye Raven, frightened and shy, my gentle words like an orphaned had come to my office. Long be­ kitten to a saucer of warm milk. fore she'd married Miles Rigby, "Miles did this to you, didn't he.?" she and her widowed mother man­ I asked when she was calm. aged to scratch out a meager living She'd nodded, dropping her eyes with only a few puny sheep and in shame at informing on her hus­ some scrawny chickens. Once in a band. Angered, Td asked, "But while, when she sold some of her why.?" excellent weaving to the tourists, "He complains that I am a nag," Faye Raven bought painting sup­ Faye Raven, said, her voice on the plies and poured out her proud In­ near edge of breaking. "But it is dian heritage on canvas. Miles not so! I respect my husband very Rigby had put some of her work much, and it pains me to see him on display in his shop and sold it suffer. He has many blinding right off. To my way of thinking, headaches, and a terrible racking the only reason he married her in cough that threatens to choke out the first place was to keep from his very life, yet he smokes con­ paying her the commissions she'd stantly. Whenever I suggest that earned. he give it up to improve his health, I never could understand her he gets furious and immediately reason for marrying him, unless it smokes more than ever." was a search for security, and an "And that" \ asked, incredulous, outlet to show off her artistic tal­ "is why he beat you}" - ents. Whatever it was, she'd picked "There was more," Faye Raven a hard row to hoe. said. "I.was very unwise. For his •Anyhow, Faye Raven had stood own good, I told my husband I in my examining room that day, wished him to stop smoking be­ her lustrous brown doe's eyes cause it fouled the air in the house crinkled with pain. She'd been and—and made him offensive to beat up something awful, but she me." denied it. "I fell down while vis­ Thunder and lightning! I could iting my mother's hogan," she'd just see the conceited, self-styled la- lied. dykiller, Rigby, being told he was "That's nonsense!'' I snapped. personally offensive to a mere

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED woman. Faye Raven's stock went "Aren't you coming in?" I asked up ten points in my mind. "Do as he turned away. "I may need you want to make a complaint some help in there." against him for what he did to "I've moved all my things to the you?" studio," he snapped. "I'm staying Her pretty little face went white. there from now on. If you want "Oh, no!" she gasped. "He has anything, call me on the inter­ the right. He is my husband." com." With that, he whirled and "Would you like me to talk to stalked away. him about it?" Faye Raven was conscious when Faye Raven just shook her dark I got to her, but just barely. She head and fled from my office. . wasn't seriously hurt, but painfully I treated her twice more after and thoroughly beat up again. My that, the last tirhe in answer to a blood boiled at the sight of her, so frantic phone call from Rigby, small and pitiful and helpless. Af­ some months later. "You gotta get ter I'd cared for her hurts, I took out here quick!" he yelled. "Faye her in my arms, smoothing back Raven is in a bad way. She took a her gleaming black hair, and gen­ nasty fall while out hiking." tling her like you would a skittish I dressed quickly and aimed my mare after a barn fire. jeep toward the-Rigby place. Even "What brought this one on?" I before I got out there I was con­ asked when she was able to talk. vinced she had no more hurt her­ "Are you still nagging Miles about self hiking than a mountain goat his smoking ? " would slip in the Rockies, but I She nodded and managed a wasn't prepared for his cold atti­ weak little grin. "As usual," she tude when he met me outside. said, "it was my fault. I not only He'd recovered from his first panic nagged my husband, I displeased on the phone. him in another^ way. There was an "The nagging old squaw's in art exhibition in Phoenix that he there!" he snarled, pointing with was eager to win. I sent in his en­ his shaggy head toward the main tries and included one of my house. Rigby was a big man, about own." She paused, making a vis­ my age, with an unruly shock of ible effort to square her slim shoul­ tangled steel-wool hair greying ders and to hold up her proud slightly, and prominent upper head. "My entry won third prize. teeth protruding like brown, to­ Miles' work was rejected." bacco-stained fangs. Thunderation! I could just see

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Rigby's inflated ego being punc­ That was just like old Jake. He tured like a pin-stuck balloon. did everything .exactly like he "You're a fool to stay with him," I played checkers—moving recklessly told her. "One of these days he'll ahead, furiously impatient if I kill you in a terrible temper tan­ stalled the game to plan my future trum." moves. Still, instead of being angry "I have asked him for a di­ with him, I felt hopeful. Perhaps I vorce," Faye Raven said softly, could put his impatience to some "but he refuses to discuss it. He good use. I shook my head to clear does not want me, but letting me away the cobwebs of memory, go would make him lose face." then said, "Just what did you have "MISTER CORONER!" in mind. Mister Tobey.? It's your Snapped out of my musings, I move." looked up to see Jake Tobey, his "You mean, you're gonna let me beefy face turned tomato red, glar­ talk for a change.?" ing at me. "Iffen you're finished "Of course," I said. "After all, with your little siesta," he said, real this is more or less an informal sarcastic, "can we get on with this hearing. I believe every dog should here inquest.''" have his say."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Tobey stood up, looking as Miles Rigby's days were num­ pleased and smug as if he'd just bered." jumped two of my kings. "I'd like "When he found out for sure he to get right to the heart of this was dying, did he continue to here matter," he said pompously. come to you ?" "Since you. was Miles Rigby's per­ "Yes. I administered certain sonal physician, as well as being pain-relieving drugs regularly." coroner, I'd like to question you. Is "What was his attitude about his that okay.?" coming, dea—demise?" "Fire away," I said. "He was, naturally, very de­ "Just what was the nature of the pressed. Too, he was mighty curi­ illness you was treating Miles ous about how the end would Rigbyfor.?" come. When I told him the drugs "In addition to a bad case of em­ would be of-little use in easing his physema from too much smoking, pain toward the final stages, he he was suffering from increasingly said he'd rather get. it over with frequent headaches." then and there." "Did you determine the cause of "You mean, he wanted you to them headaches.? And if so, please put him out of his misery?" explain it to.us." I pumped my head up and I nodded. "I could give you the down. "Naturally, I refused. Then details in four-bit medical terms, he said he'd find his own time and but I'll "break it down so's even place to end it all." you can understand it without Jake Tobey grinned like he'd straining. Miles Rigby was somehow outwitted me. "Then suffering from a malignant brain there is no doubt in your mind tumor that was in an inoperable that he meant to commit suicide?" position." I held back, not wanting to an­ "Which means—?'' swer it, but finally I said, "No. "Which means that Miles Rigby There was no doubt. Miles Rigby was dying. It was just a matter of meant to kill himself." a few months." "Thank you!" Tobey cried, "What was his reaction when flushed with success. "I don't see • you told him?"' no purpose in going on with this "He didn't believe me. He here inquiry, do you ?" ^. stormed off to a specialist in Phoe­ I shook my head. "Slow down, nix and had tests made. The city Jake. You're jumping the gun. We doctor confirmed my diagnosis. have to have more than that to

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED base our verdict on," I told him. "My husband and I were no Jake glared at me. "Is it okay if I longer living as man and wife," question Mrs. Rigby.?" Faye Raven said. "He had moved I shrugged. I didn't really want into his studio. On the night of his to put her through the wringer of death, he called me on the inter­ Tobey's fumbling questions, but I com and told me he was even then didn't see how it could be avoided. in the process of doing away with "Go right ahead," I told him. himself." "We're here to determine the Tobey's eyebrows shot up. "Did whole truth." he say why he was doing this ter­ My heart bled a little as Faye rible thing.?" Raven came up to take the witness Faye Raven nodded calmly, then chair. In her wide-flared skirt and dropped her bombshell. "He said dark peasant blouse, with her he was killing himself so that I black-black hair caught up in a would not receive payment of the beaded mourning headband, she insurance policy he held with your looked so tiny and helpless. company." "Mrs. Rigby," Tobey began, "I Jake Tobey's big, flabby mouth know this must be painful to you, dropped open. There was an but we gotta ask some personal uneasy stir and a murmur of gasps questions." He paused to clear his from the crowd. When he found throat and I felt a bit more kindly his voice again, Tobey blurted, toward him, seeing he had some "You mean, he didn't have any­ sensitivity I'd overlooked before. thing else to say in his last mo­ Mona Lisa calm, Faye Raven ments—only that he didn't want said, "Ask anything you like, Mis­ you to benefit from his death.?" ter Tobey. I have nothing to hide." Faye Raven lowered her head Reverting to type, Tobey slightly. "I knew, of course, about plunged right ahead. "Did you his illness, and that his death was know that your husband planned inevitable. I also knew that his in­ to kill himself.?" surance carried a suicide clause Faye Raven winced slightly, which nullified the policy if he did then drew herself regally erect. away with himself." "Not until the night of his death," Even loudmouthed Jake Tobey she said. was temporarily speechless at her Jake Tobey leaned closer to her. frankness. Seconds later, he asked, "And how did that come about, "Why would he want purposely to may I ask.?" cut you off like that.?"

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Faye Raven shrugged. "I had "Did you," I persisted, "together done many things to displease my with Bo Clajinnie, conspire and husband," she admitted. "He con­ plan to kill your husband.?" sidered me a nag and an inferior "No, sir!" she said, loud and person. I had asked him for a di­ clear. "I did not!" vorce, but he refused me." "// you don't mind" Jake Tobey I spoke up then. "Mrs. Rigby, snapped, glaring at me, "I'd like to did he give any reason for refusing get my two cents' worth in here you the divorce.''" somewhere!" She lowered her brown eyes and "I thought we'd pretty well cov­ her gentle voice was a mere whis­ ered everything with this witness," per. "It was his conviction that I I argued. was in love with someone else, and "Not quite!" Tobey said. "I do was meeting him secretly. He have one, more question. Mrs. swore that my lover and I would Rigby, did your husband tell you never enjoy his insurance money,^ straight out that he was going to or any alimony I might demand." kill himself?" "What about the rest of his es-, Faye Raven met Tobey's un­ tate?" I asked. "What were his blinking gaze. "While we were plans for the house and curio speaking on the intercom, Miles shop?" told me that he had sealed all the "He told me he'd left them to a windows and doors, and had sister in California." turned on the unlighted gas "Then," I said, "deprived of his heater." insurance, you would be left penni­ "Then there's no doubt in your less, is that correct.''" mind that he meant to kill himself, Faye Raven nodded. "Miles told right?" me that I had nothing when I en­ "Yes," Faye Raven said. "That is tered the marriage, and that I right." would have nothing when he Jake Tobey leered at me. "I died." guess that just about skunks you. It was like pulling teeth, but I Mister Coroner!" he bragged. "All had to ask it. "Are you, in fact, in your highfalutin theorizing about love with someone else—and is murder and such, is so much hot that someone Bo Clajinnie.''" air. There should be no question Faye Raven's face turned twelve in anybody's mind that Miles different shades of red. Then she Rigby committed suicide." held up her head and said, "No." I waved Faye Raven back to her

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED seat in the audience. Then I a batch of papers, "the sworn state­ looked at Jake Tobey. "You really ments of Mrs. Rigby, Patrolman should come in for an eye exam­ Clajinnie, and six others—in­ ination," I told him, purposely cluding myself—who swear there baiting him. "You can't even see was no other debris in the swim­ beyond your big nose." ming pool." "I resent that!" Tobey flared. "I Jake Tobey's mouth dropped was just trying to dig up the real open. He scratched his head and and true facts." asked, "What does that mean.?" "All right," I said, looking at "That means," I pointed out, him but talking for the jury's "that if Miles Rigby did as you benefit. "Let's look at the facts. I say—that is, if he lit a match and agree that Miles Rigby meant to • blew himself into the pool—that commit-suicide. Mrs. Rigby's testi­ some unbelievable quirk of fate mony verifies that fact. But do lifted him, and. him alone, and you, Jake, recall how he intended blew him into the pool! I mean, to do it.?" you'd think that something else "Of course!" . Tobey shouted. would have blown right along "He was gonna gas himself!" with him, now wouldn't you.?" "That is correct," I said. "But "It could happen," Jake Tobey how do you explain the fact that said, but there was no real con­ he was found in the swimming viction in his voice. pool? My autopsy fixed the cause I shook my head. "It could not of his death as drowning." have happened that way. I have "You ain't, gonna snooker me that on the authority of the police with that kind of reasoning!" To­ and military experts. The explosion bey yelled. "I figure Miles Rigby was too slight, and the pool too far chickened out as he waited for the away from the studio, for anything gas to overcome him and he de­ to have blown into it." cided to do it a quicker way. I "Then how in hell's name," figure he lit himself a match and screeched Tobey, "did Miles Rigby blew himself to perdition." get there.?" "And landed right smack in the I shrugged, then waited for middle of the swimming pool," I what I thought was just long said. "Is that how you figure it?" enough. "Mister Tobey," I asked, "That," Tobey snapped, "is ex­ "how do yoM figure he got there.?" actly \iOVi I figure it!'! "He ran there!" Tobey cried. "I "I have here," I said, holding up figure he did just as I said. He lit a

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED match and caused an explosion. correct, Doke. Miles Rigby did in­ His clothes caught fire and he ran tend to kill himself. He did turn to the pool!" on the gas in his studio with that I dropped it on him then. "For thought in mind. Then, for some what reason, Mister Tobey.?" unknown reason, he did light a "Why, to put out the damn match in the gas-filled room. His flames!" Tobey yelled. Then he clothing did catch .fire. Dazed and stopped, his mouth flapping rapidly confused. Miles Rigby did dash to as he searched for words to cover the swimming pool in an effort to up, but it was too late. He'd made put out the flames. Unfortunately, his usual impulsively impatient he hit his head on the side of the move—just as I'd planned, and pool and drowned!" hoped, he would. Doke Tinney scratched at his I felt a small twinge of con­ grey-thatched head. "If that's the science for using him as I had, but case," he said, "then Rigby wasn't if I'd presented my theory to the tryin' to kill hisself—he was doin' jury, they would have said it was his damnedest to save hisself!" the craziest notion I'd ever come I pumped my head in agree­ up with. I had to have the opposi­ ment. "You're right. Mister Tin­ tion plant the thought in their ney. Miles Rigby's last act was one minds. of self-preservation. No matter I stood up then and faced my what his intentions might have twelve good neighbors in the jury been only seconds before, his last box. "We all," I began, "owe a and final act on this earth was an large yote of thanks to Mister Jake attempt to preserve his own Hfe. In Tobey for clearing up this per­ my official opinion, that rules out plexing puzzle for us. With his suicide." usual keen thinking and shrewd Jake Tobey's face was a study in analysis of the situation, he figured scarlet frustration. It was plain he it right." I finished up with a didn't know whether to bask in slight bow toward Jake. the praise I'd heaped on him, or to Leather-faced Doke Tinney go on sticking up for the insurance stood up in the jury box. "Mebbe company. Finally he cried out, you know what's goin' on," he "Now wait a damn minute—!" said, "but I don't understand a But nobody paid him any mind. blamed word of it!" The jury didn't even have to leave I threw him a patient smile. the box. They took a vote then "Jake was one hundred per cent and there. The unanimous verdict

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was Death by Accidental Drown­ mare." She stared straight ahead. ing. I gathered her up into my arms Later, when Faye Raven and I and soft-talked her. "Don't you went to Jake Tobey's office, he fret your pretty little head no stuck out his hand and forced a more," I told her. "Nobody'll ever weak grin. "You sure cleaned my mistreat you again. From now on, board with that last move," he ad­ it's just the two of us." mitted. "But I guess that fifty "I was so frightened," Faye thousand dollars won't break the Raven said, gently nuzzling my insurance company." right ear lobe. "I thought sure Mis­ "You'd -best study the board ter Tobey would question me fur­ again," I told him. "As per usual, ther on my last conversation with you're moving too fast. That's one Miles . . ." hundred thousand dollars." "Mister Tobey," I said, "is an Jake Tobey spluttered, ~ then idiot. Besides, what could he possi­ screamed, "You're out of your bly have'learned by further ques­ mind!" tioning?" "Read the policy," I advised'him. "Nothing, I suppose," Faye "There's a double indemnity clause Raven said. Then she paused and in there in the case of proved acci­ blushed prettily. "Although I dental death." would have had to admit that I'd Faye Raven came up on her toes fallen back into my nagging ways and kissed old Jake lightly on the with Miles." cheek. "I'd appreciate it," she said, "What do you mean.?" "if you would speed up the pay­ Faye Raven smiled. It was an ment. I have many plans for the odd sort of smile. I couldn't rightly money my husband left me." tell if it was one of regret, or one When we were alone, Faye of great personal satisfaction. "Be­ Raven slumped down into my fore Miles turned off the intercom office chair and began to sob qui­ that night," she said, "I couldn't etly. "I'm so glad it's all over," she resist warning him for the last said. "It—it's been such a night­ time, not to smof(e!" 1 108 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

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vviGMORE, executive . vice-presi-. dent of Great Greengrocers, Inc., addressed his secretary over the in- .tercom."Miss Dryson." "Yes,A.C." "Has that fathead of a detective appeared yet?" . "He's coming along the corridor now." "Sober, I trust. At any rate, show him in immediately." "Yes, sir." "And those figures that came in last night from Store Sixty-six, I want those, too." "They're right here on my desk, A. C." The voice went a bit of? focus. "Good morning. Mister Horner. We've been expecting you." A moment later Miss Dryson, holding a manila folder to her meager chest, entered Wigmore's office in tandem with Lewis J. Horner, head of Confidential Re­ search Associates. Horner was hardly anyone's con­ ception of a private detective. Short, portly; with a dozen strands of brownish-gray hair distributed sketchily across his round head, he

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED had the bland look one sees in your purpose here is to plug a leak paintings of medieval monks given or to create another." to cheerful sessions with the grape. Horner chuckled quietly. "To al­ The only emphatic feature of his lay all such future specuJetion, face was the nose, shaped some­ Wigmore, I think I can now safely what like a plurn and of similar promise an imminent solution of coloration. your problem." Wigmore wasted no words. "We "Good. Give me an inkling." don't seem to be getting anywhere,. "In short order. But first I sug­ Horner. It's seven damned weeks gest you send for a floor plan of since you and your alleged staff the store under surveillance—an started this investigation, and not a operational floOr plan." single result apparent to date." "Miss Dryson." "My dear man," Horner said in "Yes, A. C, I'll call Engineering a surprisingly low, mellifluous immediately." Handing her boss voice, "what is not yet apparent to the manila folder, Miss Dryson you may be quite apparent to us.". left. "Don't give me that line again, A brief silence descended like a Horner. The president and the blanket woven from chain mail. board of directors aren't buying it. Horner bettered the moment by All they see now—and I can't help^ finding and sitting in the second but agree—is that Store Sixty-six is most comfortable chair in the being systematically robbed of room. Wigmore, appearing uncom­ thousands of dollars a week and fortable in the best chair, finally you and your men are unable to opened a copperish humidor on his find the leak." desk, took out a long fat cigar and "We may give the impression of wordlessly offered another to Hor­ inactivity," Horner said, smacking ner. his lips, "but beneath this illusion "I don't smoke," Horner said. we are extremely thorough. Our "But I'll accept a glass of cream reputation is proof of this." sherry if you have it." "Your weekly statement for ser­ . "I don't drink during business vices rendered is thorough," Wig- hours," Wigmore said, biting the more said. "And mighty prompt end off his cigar. Then he turned too. As for the expense account his full - attention to the manila that accompanies it, a few of its folder. "These are the latest profit outlandish items are causing cer­ and loss figures from our newest tain board members to wonder if and largest market—with a strong

112 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED accent on loss—as you will see." dollars. As you know by now, all Horner had closed his eyes and specials are assigned a code symbol seemed to be dozing. which appears opposite the amount "Would you like to hear a few of the sale on the cash-register salient facts.'"' Wigmore asked, tapes. In the case of the turkeys the vexed. symbol was an asterisk." "I'm listening," Horner replied Horner dozed oh. from behind shut lids. "If we ever needed additional "Well, this week our loss leader evidence of the ineptitude of your was a special on frozen turkeys. so-called investigation," Wigmore Twenty-nine cents a pound." continued in a voice barely under "I bought one myself," Horner control, "we have it in hand now. said with quiet satisfaction. The tapes from the twelve registers "Good for you. Anyway, we at the checkout counters show a shipped fifteen hundred of these sale of only one thousand three birds to Store Sixty-six. The retail hundred and thirty-two birds. Are value was estimated at six thou­ you able to draw a conclusion sand, five hundred and twenty-five from this figure. Mister Horner."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "The most obvious conclusion is cover the trick he's been pulling." that a hundred and sixty-eight "Who is this magician? Can you birds are unaccounted for." tell me that?" ' "Precisely." "The manager." "Of course they weren't in the "Jorgenson. I can't believe it. remainder inventory?" He's been with us for nearly "There was no • remainder in­ twenty years." ventory. The special was a sellout. "Perhaps that explains some­ Not a turkey was left. But one thing," Horner said. hundred and sixty-eight were not "Meaning. exactly what, Hor­ paid for, Horner. How do you ac­ ner?" count for that?" "Twenty years is a long time to "Quite easily, I believe." wait to become a store manager." "Is that so ? Well, edify me a bit. "He wasn't really ready until Explain to me, if you can, how now." anybody could walk out with, "The personnel files contradict more than a ton of turkeys and you there, I'm afraid. For a long not be observed by one of your time Jorgenson's immediate superi­ eagle-eyed operatives?" ors have been rating him as fully "Also easily explained," Horner qualified for store management. In said, opening his eyes. "As soon as fact, he was first in line for the last Miss Dryson returns with the floor several openings until you inter­ plan, I think I'll be able to verify vened in behalf of your deserving my deductions." relatives." Wigmore peered narrowly at the "You're a sassy cuss, Horner." detective. "You mean you really Mirth twinkled in the detective's think you know who's behind this eyes but he said nothing. systematic thievery?" "Anyway, when I finally made "We've known that almost from Jorgenson manager I seem to have the beginning," Horner said. made a mistake. How did he think "Then why in hell didn't you he could get away with it? Going nail him?" into a new store and stealing at "We didn't know how he was that rate right from the begin­ doing it. After all, when a than is< ning? He must have known he'd consistently stealing about three be suspected and watched." thousand dollars a week, and right "His method gave him under the noses of three of my best confidence. He felt it, would be undercover men, we like to dis­ foolproof for a certain period of

114 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED time, I imagine, and he wanted symbol on the cash-register tapes." only enough time to amass a Httle "How's that?" capital for a venture of his own. "You always referred to twelve Within a few more weeks, I think, registers, twelve checkout coun­ Jorgenson's resignation would ters." have been forthcoming, based "What's wrong with that?" probably on the very fact that he "Nothing, if we go by this floor was under suspicion and found the plan. For here, too, I see twelve suspicion intolerable." registers and twelve checkout At that moment Miss Dryson counters. But yesterday morning, reappeared with a roll of blueprint. as I stood in a line of housewives Horner got to his feet, murmur­ with my frozen turkey, I began an ing politely, and took the roll and idle count of the checkout counters unrolled it on Wigmore's desk. He and they added up to thirteen. Im­ studied it for half a minute, then mediately I realized where the leak grinned happily. "Ah, clever. Most was. Sometime and somehow, be­ simple and clever." fore the grand opening of Store "Out with it, man," Wigmore Sixty-six, Jorgenson had set up his said impatiently. own register and checkout coun­ Horner continued to grin. "One ter." of the ironies here, Wigmore, is "Well, I'll be a blue-eyed obscen­ that you held the key to the riddle ity," Wigmore said. every time you told me about the "I dare say."

•fflnp^^^^ j:tstjf=::^ faSS^g:!^^' OQPJC^^ &ssao§ f&m^j^^

Dear Fans: It is always a pleasure to welcome new members into the ALFRED HITCHCOCK FAN CLUB, and it is very rewarding to hear from our enthusiastic and loyal present members. Membership dues are one dollar. (Please do not send stamps.) Fan Club members will receive an autographed photo of Mr. Hitchcoc^, his biography, and a bulletin of current news issued four times a year. All mail should be addressed to: ALFRED HITCHCOCK FAN CLUB, P.O. Box 5425,Sherman Oa{s. California 91401 I want to than\ all of you for your interest. Most sincerely, Pat Hitchcoc\

THE LEAKAGE 115

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Man decrees that awesome forces are to be harnessed, but such a force may have a will of its own.

HT IS MOST DIFFICULT to know to Victor Rafferty looked up from whom we are speaking; in this the milky-blue water in time to see troubled world the Civilized and a squat, balding man with a limp the Savage wear identical trap­ emerge from the locker room at pings." ^e-w tor Thaag, speaking be­ the opposite end of the pool. The fore the UN. General Assembly. man knelt clumsily in the gutter and grunted as he splashed hand- It was starting again; sorneone fuls of the cold water into his arm­ was near. pits and across his hairy chest.

116 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Rafferty frowned with dis­ ing buzzing sound that seemed to pleasure and stared down into the ernanate from a vast, dark abyss water at his own legs with their somewhere behind his eyes. large, jagged patches of fish-white The man was swimming in Vic­ scar tissue that registered neither tor's direction, struggling through heat nor cold. He knew, of course, the water with a ragged crawl. He that the athletic club was open to drew closer, and Victor pressed his any of its members at any tirne; fingers hard against the chlorine- yet this man had chosen a piece of bleached tiles as the noise and pres­ the afternoon that Victor had sure were suddenly transformed come to think of as his own. The into a needle-strewn veil that pool was usually deserted at this seemed to float beneath his skull, hour, enabling Victor to swim lancing his brain as it closed endlessly back and forth rebuilding around his mind. // is so much his damaged body, savoring the si­ worse with strangers, he thought lence in his mind that came only 'as he waited for knowledge of the man, which he knew would come next. "Swimming," the man said, spewing water and blowing hard. He was hanging onto the edge of the pool, a few inches away from Victor. "Best all-'round conditioner there is. A man can't do enough of it." Victor smiled and nodded through a haze of pain. The man when he was alone and at peace. pushed off the side and began to There wasn't any pain yet. The swim back toward the shallow man was still too far away. Now end. Immediately the pain began there was only the familiar pres­ to recede until finally there was sure in Victor's ears as if he were only the residue of pressure and ascending in a plane, an agoniz­ buzzing.

STRANGE PREY 117

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Rafferty knew the man was an with the tips of his fingers, first accountant, suffered from hyper­ gently and then with increased tension, and had a headache that pressure. There was no pain; there had been with him since early in was hardly any sensation at all. the morning. He was also worried Roger and his team had done a about his wife. beautiful job inserting the steel Madness, Victor thought grimly, plate. rising and reaching for his towels. No, it was not the wound or the He paused inside the locker piece of metal that was causing the room and stared at his naked im­ agony. He was fairly certain of age in one of the full-length mir­ that now. Other people; they were rors that lined the walls. At forty, the source of his pain. In which he was neither exceptionally hand­ case, Victor mused, he must indeed some nor vain. It was not narcis­ be going mad. sism that held him motionless be­ He stepped back but continued fore the glass but rather fascination to gaze at his flat, scarred with the structure reflected there, reflection. Perhaps it would have the structure tha't housed his been better to die; better that than being; a body that should have to suffer this ruptured con­ been, by all the laws of probability, sciousness that warped his senses destroyed in the automobile acci­ and rnade even the close physical dent four months ago. His hair presence of his wife a fount of un­ was grayer now, and he was still bearable discomfort. Too, it was too thin, but the swimming should getting worse; his awareness of the remedy that; Roger had said so. At man in the pool had been sharper, least he was alive. more distinct than ever before. But was he well? He knew now he should have Rafferty stepped forward so that told Roger about the pain and the his face was only a few inches images from the beginning. Why from the glass. He reached up hadn't he.'' Victor wondered. Was with his hand and slowly separated it possible that he was so afraid of the hairs on the right side of his discovering the truth that he scalp to reveal a long, thread-thin would wrap himself in his own si­ scar that began an inch above the lence before allowing himself to be hairline and snaked down and told that his brain was per­ along the side of his head and manently damaged ... or that he around to the base of his skull. He was dying.' Or was it a different touched the wound, pressing on it fear, this ten-fingered hand that

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED clawed at the inside of his stomach and tried to focus his attention on every time he even considered de­ the lead article while waiting for scribing to anyone his symptoms? the man who could hold the key Victor forced himself to walk to his sanity—or his life. He had away from the mirror. Then he barely enough time to finish the dressed quickly. He lighted a ciga­ first paragraph before there was rette and was not surprised'to see the soft click of a door opening that his hand was trembling. He and Victor looked up at the tall, was due in Roger's office in half an lean frame of the man who had hour and he had decided to tell put his body back together after Roger everything, ignoring the the accident; Roger was studying possible consequences. him through large, steel-rimmed Victor wondered how the neuro­ eyeglasses that made his thin face surgeon would react when he was seem all out of proportion. told his famous patient thought he "Come in, Vic," the doctor said, could read minds. at last, motioning Victor into a It came as always; tongues of huge, book-lined office." "It's good molten metal licking the scorched, to see you; first interesting case exhausted sands of his mind; dag­ I've had all day." ger thrusts that bled into a psychic Victor strode quickly into the. pool of images and sounds that he office, avoiding the other man's could feel as well as hear as he ap­ eyes. He automatically stripped to proached the woman behind the his shorts and sat down on the desk. long, leather examination table. He "Dr. Burns will see you in a few studied Roger as the doctor moments," the- receptionist said in glanced through the reams of her most professional tone. She'd charts and other papers that were spoken those words to him at least the record of Victor's recovery. forty times in the last four months He'd known Roger Burns for and her tone never changed. "If some time, even before the acci­ you'll be .kind enough to go in and dent. In fact, he had designed the sit down . . ." award-winning house in which Victor thanked her and walked Roger and his wife lived. He the few paces down the corridor knew Roger to be—like many into the large waiting room with great men—lonely and estranged, its magenta walls and overstuffed, the victim as well as possessor of red leather chairs. He selected a prodigious skills. Victor could un­ magazine from a mahogany rack derstand that. Still, he resented the

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED cold, clinical detachment which Victor grunted as the surgeon's Roger brought to this new doctor- long, deft fingers probed andi patient relationship, an attitude pulled at the muscle and bone be-* which he knew was prompted by neath the fresh scar tissue on his Roger's concern about his condi­ arms and legs. Roger was bent tion. Victor would have discerned over him, following the path of this even without the flood of anx­ the thin, bright beam of light that iety that flowed from the other was lighting the interior of his man's mind; it was written in his eyes. eyes. He'd probably been talking Victor reached out and touched to Pat. a thought. "Why are you thinking, "How was your walk.?" Roger that my intelligence may be im­ had risen from the desk and paired?" walked across the room to a huge There was a sudden wave of bank of filing cabinets. He drew anxiety that flowed across his mind a bulging file from one of the slid­ like a cold wave as Roger shut off ing drawers and began clipping X- the light and straightened up. ray negatives along the sides of "What makes you think I con­ a huge fluoroscope suspended from sider that a possibility.'"' Roger's the ceiling. voice was too tight and controlled. ."I didn't walk." Victor stared hard into the other Roger's eyes flicked sideward man's eyes, very conscious of the like a stroke from one of his scal­ .beads of sweat that were lining up pels. "You should walk. The ex­ like soldiers across his forehead. ercise is good for you." There would never be a better "I've been swimming." time. "Just guessing," Victor said Roger nodded his approval and at last. The words tasted bitter on walked toward Victor, who lay his tongue and he felt empty in­ back on the table and closed his side. "What do you think?" eyes against the sudden onrush of The light came back on and the pain. examination continued. Victor "Elizabeth is giving a cocktail fought to keep his mind away party Friday evening for one of from the pain and the noises. the new congressmen," Roger said, "You're a walking miracle," Rog­ glancing back over his shoulder at er said, resuming his probing, and one of the X rays. "You and,Pat Victor swallowed a bubble of hys­ be sure to be there. I'll need some­ terical laughter that had suddenly one to talk to." formed in his throat. "I don't have

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED to tell you how lucky you are to be . . . with her since the accident." alive. How many men do you "You need a record of my love know who've had half their skull life?" crushed and lived to worry about "No," Roger said, suddenly their intelligence?" He paused and slapping the. folder shut. "I need seemed to be waiting for some re­ information. That is, I need infor­ ply. Victor said nothing. '^ mation if I'm ever going to answer "Your most serious injury was your questions. Have you lost the the damage to your brain," Roger desire to make love?" continued matter-of-factly. "You're "No," Victor said, searching for obviously aware of that." the right words. How could he ex­ "And.?" plain how it hurt his mind to be so "I don't know. Really. There's so close? "I've been . . . upset . . . little that we actually know for worried. You can understand certain about this kind of injury. that." He hurried on, conscious of It's still much too early to know the rising note of impatience in his for sure how any of your functions voice, eager to leave the subject of are going to be affected." Roger his relationship with his wife. hesitated, trying to read the ex­ "You must know what parts of pression on Victor's face. "I'm not my brain have been damaged. And putting you off," he said very qui­ you must know what happened to etly. "I really don't know. Every others with the same kind of in- rule in the book says that you jury." should be dead or in the terminal Roger was preparing to take X stage of coma." rays. Victor rose from the couch "I owe my life to you," Victor and walked to the machine. said evenly, noticing the slight "Much of the left cortex has flush that appeared high on the been destroyed," Roger said. His cheeks of the other man. In a mo­ voice was low, muffled by the lead ment it was gone. "I think there's shield and punctuated by the inter­ something you're not teUing me." mittent buzzing of the machine at "Pat tells me that you seem . • . Victor's head. "Usually, the patient distracted lately." Roger had re­ dies. If not, there is almost always turned to his desk and was writing a loss of coordination and speech. something on one of the charts in For some reason that I don't pre­ his folder. "She says you've become tend to understand, you don't very absentminded. I understand seem to have suffered any appre­ you haven't even been . . . close ciable loss of any kind. Of course

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED there's no way of knowing what his disintegration; cold, dis­ damage has been done farther passionate men examining him like down in the brain tissue." a worm wriggling beneath a mi­ . "You mean I could drop dead at croscope. The machine had any moment. Or I could be losing stopped. "Roger, I think I can read my mind." people's minds." The machine continued to .click, His voice seemed swallowed up recording its invisible notes. "I can by the large room. There was the tell you this: neurosurgeons all sharp click of a match as Roger over the world are following your lighted a cigarette. The surgeon's case. You may or may not be the face was expressionless. world's greatest architect but "I tell you I can hear people you're certainly the leading me­ thinking," Victor said too loudly. dical phenomenon." He took a deep breath and tried to Victor swallowed hard. "I—I fight the panic he felt pounding at wasn't aware that many people his senses like some gigantic fist. knew anything about it." He searched Roger's face for some Roger came out from behind the kind of emotion, but there was shield and repositioned the ma­ nothing;,.the other man was star­ chine. "I haven't published any­ ing intently at a thin stream of thing yet although, eventually, I'd smoke that flowed from his like to if you'll give your consent; I mouth. "It's true. I know it sounds need your permission, of course. crazy—maybe it is crazy—but I can I'll need more time to run tests feel you inside my mind right and chart your progress." now." "How did it get so much public­ "Can you tell me what I'm ity.?" thinking.?" Roger's tone was flat. Roger looked surprised. "Vic, He had not raised his' eyes. there isn't a major city in the "It's not always hke that" Victor world that doesn't have one of said quietly. He knew . . . and your buildings. You're like pubUc then he didn't know; not for cer­ property. Then there was the fan­ tain. He knew it seemed as if he tastic way you recovered from the had been challenged and was com­ injuries. Didn't you suppose people ing up empty. Still, he felt more would be interested?" relaxed and at peace than he had "It never occurred to me . . ," for months; at last he had invited Victor's voice trailed off, stifled by someone else to peer into his pri­ the thought of a world watching vate hell. "It's not always definite

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED words or sounds. Sometimes it's that would suddenly spring up just a jumble of sensations. But from nowhere. Sometimes there they're not a part of me. Can you were words, but mostly it was just understand that? It's like I'm lis­ noise, almost like . . . static. And tening-in on other people's conver­ it hurt. sations with themselves!" Victor "It took me a while to realize paused and waited until Roger's that I experienced the pain and the eyes were locked with his. His noises only when I was near other voice gathered strength. "Right people. I'd walk up to people and now you're fascinated; you'd like immediately there'd be pressure in to pinpoint the damaged area of my ears and behind my eyes. I'd my brain that's causing me to hal­ walk away and it would stop. lucinate. You don't believe a word Lately, I've seen whole strings of I'm saying." words in my mind, words and There was the slightest flicker sounds all floating around in my of surprise and consternation in head. And pain that I can't de­ the doctor's eyes. It was quickly scribe to you. And I feel things— masked. emotions—that I know come from "Let's not worry about whether somebody else." or not I believe you," Roger said. "Has there been any change-in "At least not right now. It's ob­ the way you feel these things.""' vious that you believe you're read­ Roger's voice was even. ing other people's thoughts, and "Yes. The impressions are that's all that's important. Why stronger, and the pain is worse. don't you describe these sensa­ The more I know, the more I tions.?" hurt." "I'm not sure exactly when it "And you think these sensations started," Victor said slowly, taking have something to do with the a cigarette from the pack on Rog­ thought patterns of other people?" er's desk and carefully lighting it. "I don't know what else to His hand was steady. "A week, think," Victor said hesitantly. He maybe two weeks after I got out was conscious now, more than of the hospital. I began getting ever, of how sick and foolish he these headaches; but they weren't must sound. The words were com­ headaches, not in the usual sense, ing harder; he was pushing them and God knows I'd had enough out of his throat. "A few minutes real headaches to know the ago, while you were leaning over difference. And there were noises me on the table, I thought my

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED head would split. I kept feeling the far from well. You're going to word, intelligence. Over and over have to give your body, and yoiir again: intelligence, intelligence. In mind, time to heal. That's what some way that I can't explain, I you have to think about, Victor; knew that was your thought. You that and only that." were wondering how much my in­ "Test me!" Victor was surprised tellectual capacity had been im­ at the vehemence in his voice. It paired by the accident." had cost him a great deal to come Victor watched Roger light an­ to Roger with his fears. He would other cigarette. Now it was the not now be denied; one way or surgeon's hands that trembled. the other he would know the "Go on." truth. "If you're so sure I'm imag­ "It's like the words have teeth. ining this, test me!" There's just no other way I can "Victor, as your doctor, I—" think of to describe it; they sit in "Do it as my friend! Roger, I my mind and they bite. And just need this! Have you ever read any­ before they come there's a kind of thing about ESP.?" pressure, a buzzing ... a numb "Well, naturally, I've read the lit­ feeling." Victor hesitated. "All erature. But I don't think—" right," he said at last, "you still "Good! Then you know the don't think it's possible. For a mo-' tests are fairly simple as well as sta-. ment there, you were almost con­ tistically reliable. There isn't that vinced; you were thinking about much work involved." the Russian claim that they have a "It's not the work that I'm woman who can read colors with thinking about," Roger said. He her fingertips." was wavering now, torn by uncer­ Again Roger's eyes registered tainty that was clearly commu­ surprise but he spoke without hesi­ nicated to Victor. "Maybe next tation. "Let's be realistic," Roger week." said, leanirig close, inundating Vic­ "Tonight!" Victor had to tor with his thoughts. "It's most struggle to keep from shouting. important that we be realistic. He was intoxicated with the vision You've survived a terrible injury of an end to his nightmare. "You and it's to be expected that there's won't help me to relax by forcing going to be some residual pain. me to wait a week,". Victor said You must understand that the quietly. "It won't be difficiilt to get mind plays tricks, even in a the materials or set up the equip­ healthy individual, and you're still ment. If" I fail, well, I'll have all

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the time in the world to relax. Victor pushed open the doors Isn't that right, Roger?" and strode out into the auburn Victor gazed steadily back into glow of the late afternoon, plung­ the eyes of the tall man. "All ing without hesitation into a small right," Roger said, picking up Vic­ crowd of pedestrians who were tor's folder and tucking it under waiting on the corner for the his arm. "Tonight." traffic light to change. Quickly, like a man pitching his body into an Victor paused in the lobby of the icy lake, Victor opened his mind medical center and studied the and extended it out toward the knots of people moving past, man standing next to him. He re­ crowding the sidewalk on the membered the time as a child other side of the thick, glass doors.. when he had sought to prove his All his anger had been drained. In courage to a group of older boys a few hours he would do battle by holding his arm over, a camp with his fears in the neutral ter­ fire, holding it there until the soft ritory of a laboratory before the down on his flesh had shriveled disinterested eyes of a man who and fallen to the ground. It was believed he was hallucinating. It like that now; his mind was sus­ was all he asked. The tension and pended in the consciousness of an­ anxiety that had been steadily other and he was burning.' Still he building over the long months was hung on,~struggling to stretch the suddenly gone and in their place words into sentences and trace the was an insatiable curiosity. Talk-' images and sounds to their source. ing to Roger had brought him out A shaft of pain tore through him, of himself; his words had lanced erupting like a geyser. the psychic wound that had fes­ Victor staggered back against a tered in his silence. He was sure building, ignoring the frightened now that the sounds and images stares of the people at the crossing. were real. Since he was not halluci­ The man whose mind he had nating, there was only one other touched was holding his head in possibility; he was telepathic. his hands; he had dropped the Telepath; Victor rolled the word briefcase he had been holding and around in his mind, speaking it waS" looking about him with a softly with equal parts, fear and dazed expression. Victor pushed fascination. What if he could learn away from the stone facade and to control 'and interpret these sen­ forced himself to walk the few sations? paces to a phone booth which

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED stood empty across the street. He poured himself a tall drink from a half-stumbled into the glass enclo­ bottle that had been a Christmas sure and slammed the door shut present and which had been behind him. around the office, unopened, for Icy sweat had pasted his clothes the past two years. He ground his to his body. Victor rested his head knuckles into his eyes and groaned against the cold metal of the tele­ as pools of electric, liquid light dart­ phone and peered out from his ed and swam behind his eyelids. sanctuary as he waited for the Acting on an impulse, he had scream inside his head to subside. gone ahead and developed the lat­ He had seen something inside the est series of X rays, the set he had man's mind, something cold and taken of Victor's skull earlier in dark which he did not understand the afternoon. He had not ex­ and which frightened him; this pected to find any significant time he had seen what before he change. He had been wrong. Now had only felt. the entire surface of the large fluo- / must practice, Victor roscope in his office was covered thought; / must delve even deep­ with negatives arranged in chro­ er into this mysterious awareness nological order so as to provide, at tfhich I now possess. Perhaps, a glance, a complete visual record in time, I could even learn • to of X-ray exposures taken over the control the pain. past four months. Viewed in this He hunted in his pockets for manner, the effect was astounding. change, having decided to call Pat \ On the left were the plates taken and tell her he would not be home soon after . Rafferty had been for dinner, not until after he had rushed to the hospital, more dead seen Roger. Right now there was than alive. The carnage on the no time to waste; there was too right side of the skull was in­ much to learn. dicated most vividly by small dots of light in a sea of gray, bits of Roger hesitated with his hand bone imbedded deep in the tissue on the telephone as he tried to dis­ of the brain. pel a hngering uneasiness about The next series of plates had the call he had decided to make. been exposed three days later, after He finally picked up the receiver, the marathon operation had been. dialed a number and spoke in completed. The splinters of bone quiet earnestness for some min­ had been removed from the brain utes. When he had finished he tissue and a rnetal plate inserted

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED into the area where the skull had Roger glanced at his watch and been pulverized. The rest of the rose- to greet the first of the eve­ exposures had been taken at two ning's two visitors. to three week intervals. Now that he knew what he was Victor knew immediately that looking for, Roger realized that something had happened in the the effect was evident, even in the past few hours that made Roger early exposures: a tiny discoloration change his mind; he could sense a few millimeters to the left of the the excitement radiating from the injured area. Placed side by side, mind of the neurosurgeon in great, the plates offered conclusive evi­ undulating waves. dence that the discolored region "Tell me again how you feel was rapidly increasing in size. It when you experience these sensa- was almost as if the rfiachine were • tions." Roger's voice was impassive not recording this area, but Roger but his eyes glowed. had checked and rechecked the "Something like a second-grader ec]uipment and there was nothing trying to read Ulysses," Victor said wrong with it. easily. "You can recognize a few In the set of plates taken that af­ words but most of the time you ternoon the normal skull and haven't any idea what they mean." brain tissue patterns were virtually His gaze swept the small ante­ nonexistent; the entire plate ex­ room where Roger- had brought ploded in rays of light and dark him. Shipping cartons, boxes of emanating from that same tiny re­ records, and obsolete equipment gion just below the steel plate. It had been pushed back against the was as if the architect's brain had walls to make room for the two somehow been transformed into a wooden tables that had been power source strong enough to in­ placed in the middle of the floor. terfere with the X rays—but that Wedged between the tables and was impossible. extending about four feet above Roger licked his lips and swal­ their surfaces was a thin, plywood lowed hard but there was no mois­ partition. On one table was what ture left in his mouth. He turned appeared to be a large stack of off the- fluoroscope and reached oversized playing cards, a pad and back for the wall switch before a pencil. The other table was bare. pouring himself another drink. In "I want you to sit here," Roger a few minutes there was the soft said, indicating a chair at one end ring of chimes in the outer office. of the empty table. He waited un-

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED til Victor had seated himself. 'T be­ athy. It's as simple, or complex, as lieve you may have been telling the that." truth this afternoon. Now I think "Fine. Just as long as it helps we can find out for sure." you to treat me." Victor felt as^ if he had been hit "Victor," Roger said, shooting in the stomach. A few hours ago him a quick glance, "do you real­ he would have given almost any­ ize what it would mean for you to thing to hear Roger speak those be proved telepathic?" words; now they stirred a reservoir "Right now it means that I have of fear. He might have risen and a constant headache, occasional se­ left if it were not for the knowl­ vere pain, and that I continually edge that, by doing so, he would find myself knowing things about be cutting himself off from the one other people that I neither want, person who might be able to re­ nor have the right, to know." turn him to the world of normal "Yes." Roger's voice was non- sights and sounds. cornmittal. He disappeared behind "Let me show you what we're the partition and Victor could hear going to do," Roger said, fanning him shuffling the cards. the cards out, face up, in front of It suddenly occurred to Victor Victor. They were pictures of farm that the other man was trying to animals. "I'm going to try to dupli­ hide something from him, con­ cate some of Duke University's ex­ centrating hard on a set of words periments in parapsychology. in what seemed an effort to mask There are figures on my pad an idea; the thought of hiding was which correspond to the pictures floating in the other man's con­ on the cards. Each time I turn over sciousness, soaring above and hov­ a card I'll signal with this," and ering over the other things on Roger produced a small, toy noise- which he was concentrating. Why rnaker from his pocket and should Roger want to hide any­ pressed it several times. It emitted thing from him? Victor attempted a series of distinct clicking iioises, to break through the curtain but "You'll tell me whatever it is you Roger's will, and the pain, were see or feel: dog, horse, cat or cow. too great. Victor let go and leaned At the end, we'll compute the back in the chair. number of correct responses. Any "Are you ready?" significant difference between your "Ready." score and what is considered Click. : chance must be attributed to telep- ". . . Dog." He said it with far

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED more certainty than he felt; there sake, Roger, I . . . I'm very sorry." was nothing there. "Let's try it once more." Click. Victor reached for his handker­ chief and then stopped, his hand in "You're waiting too long." mid-air; there was a new emotion "I can't ..." in the other man, almost a sense of "Your first reaction!" elation. He waited for Roger to ^ Click. look up, but the doctor seemed in­ Victor said nothing. There were tent on rearranging the stack of no animal words in Roger's cards, pointedly ignoring Victor's thoughts. The words that were questioning gaze. Victor returned there were scrambled and totally to his chair and sat down. / unrelated to one another. Why "Ready?" would Roger want to ruin his own "Ready," Victor said weakly, experiment.? Unless there were no cupping his head in his hands. He words except those that sprang suddenly felt very tired. from his own shattered imagina­ Click. tion; unless he had been right in Victor slowly dropped his hands the beginning to suspect he was on away from his head; his heart the verge of madness. hammered. "Dog," he whispered. Clickclickclick. Click. "Cat." "You're not responding, Victor! Now the clicks came faster and Tell me what animal you see! Tell faster, and each one was accom­ me!" panied by a clear, startling, naked Nerves shrieking, Victor sprang impression. It was there! Roger's from his chair and stepped around mind was open and Victor barked the partition, slapping at the cards, out the words as the images came strewing them over the table and to him. floor. Sweat dripped from his fore­ Click. head and splattered on the wooden "Cow." surface, their sound clearly audible Click. in the sudden silence. Victor "Dog." stepped back quickly, profoundly Clickclickclick. embarrassed. Roger was studying "Cowcatdog." him quietly. Clickclickclickclick. "I—I can't see anything," Victor Finally the clicking stopped. Vic­ said, his voice shaking. "For God's tor could feel Roger's mind begin

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED to relax and he knew it was over. back a pace. "I was staring, wasn't He sat very still, very conscious of I?" his own breathing and the rising "Yes." excitement in Roger as the results "Well, you're a little hard to get were tabulated. In a few moments used to. If you have any idea what the excitement had risen to a sharp this means. . ." peak of unrelieved tension. Victor "I'd rather not get into that." looked up to find Roger standing Roger flushed and Victor imme­ over him, his facial muscles hang­ diately felt ashamed. Were their ing loose in' undisguised astonish­ situations reversed, he felt certain ment. he would be the one staring. "One hundred percent," Roger "You were blocking me on the said breathlessly, repeating the first test," Victor said easily. figure over and over as if unable to "Why?" accept his own calculations. "Vic­ "Control." Roger's fingers were tor, you can read minds. You're tele­ tracing a pattern up and down the pathic to an almost unbelievable columns of red circles. "I had the degree. Here, look at this!" cards face down on the first run. I Victor glanced at the pad on didn't know what they were my­ which his responses had been self. The second time . . . Well, recorded. On the first test he had you saw what happened the second scored about one correct answer in time." every four. Chance. On the second "Where do we go from here.?" test all of the answers were circled Victor shifted uneasily in his chair. in red; the marks grew darker and He had the distinct impression more unsteady as they proceeded that Roger was already thinking in down the page. terms of application. He looked up and was startled "I wish I knew," Roger said. "I to find the neurosurgeon still star­ wish I knew." ing at him. It was unnerving; the Victor's head was splitting and man's pupils were slightly dilated the nervous sweat in his armpits and his mouth worked back and was clammy. He concentrated on forth. His thought patterns were shutting out Roger's thoughts; he strange and somehow unpleasant. wanted nothing more ^than to go "Let me guess," Victor said home and sleep, but first he tightly. "You're looking for an­ needed some answers. "How.?" tennae." Victor asked at last. "I'm sorry," Roger said, stepping "How what.?"

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "How does all this happen? lighted it. He couldn't sit down. What's going on inside my "We've always assumed brain brain?" damage to be disabling," Roger Roger tugged at his lip. "If I continued, dragging heavily on his knew that, I'd be famous." cigarette. "The brain. controls ev­ "You already are famous." erything: coordination, thinking, Roger grunted and continued to reflexes. Different areas control tug at his lip. When he, finally different functions and when one spoke, his tone was flat, his gaze area has been damaged, its func­ fixed on some point at the far end tion is almost always lost. of the room. "We always assume that our "It's been estimated that during present condition is the best. It our entire lives we only use fifteen never occurred to us that brain to twenty percent of our total damage could be beneficial in any brain capacity," Roger said. "No­ way." Roger stopped and looked at body really knows' what happens Victor. "You've shown us how with the other eighty. For all we wrong we were. Your injury some­ know, there may be a great source how altered the function of your of power there, power that we brain cells, releasing a power like never use. We never have need to nothing that's ever been recorded." tap that power and so it atrophies He crushed out the cigarette. "I like an unused muscle. Maybe that think evolution may have some­ power is there in reserve, to be thing to do with it." used by some future generation; or '•Evolution!" maybe it's simply the difference be­ "Yes!" Roger fairly shouted. tween the ordinary man and the "Now follow me on this: there are genius. It's just possible that in profound differences between the your case the energy, or whatever brain pans of, say, Neanderthal you want to call what's happened and Cro-Magnon man. Yet they to you, was released as a result of are direct descendants! True, the the accident." Now Roger had ris­ changes took place over thousands en to his feet and was pacing, lost of years; still, at least some Nean­ in thought, his voice a beacon derthals must have had the seeds beckoning Victor to follow him of change within their genetic through this thicket of ideas into makeup, a cellular plan that would which he had wandered. He fum­ someday transform them into Cro- bled for a cigarette, finally founds Magnon man." one in a crumpled pack and "I'm not a superman," Victor

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED said cautiously. "I'm all of the ^ have been altered to a degree things everyone else is; no more where the nerve endings not only and no less." pick up your own impulses but "That's not true," Roger said, his other people's as well. We've al­ excitement undiminished. "You ways suspected that there was a were gifted—apart from other certain amount of" electrical radi­ men—even before the accident. ation or leak from the brain, just Now you're telepathic." He paused as there is from any power source. for emphasis. "The Cro-Magnons' Besides, there are quite"- a . few forebears were not obviously recorded instances of -telepathic different from their fellows; they communication—but never any­ lived, ate, drank, fornicated, and thing like this. It's just fantastic, died just like the others. The Victor! I wonder if you realize just differences were too small to be how unique you are.""' seen, at least in their own lifetime. Victor was gently probing now, It must be the same with us; to looking for the meaning behind generations of men a thousand the words, trying to deterrnine just years from now, we will seem like . what Roger planned to do with his Neanderthals. And some of us— newly acquired knowledge. He you, for instance—are their genetic gave up when he realized that the forebears. If I'm right, a freak acci­ neurosurgeon was effectively,- if dent triggered a mechanism inside unconsciously, blocking him. your brain that most men will not "All right," Victor said, con­ know for dozens of generations!" centrating his attention on a water "But how does it happen.?" Vic­ stain just over Roger's shoulder. tor lighted a cigarette, his moves "How do we stop it.?" slow and deliberate, his voice com­ Roger blinked rapidly as if just pletely noncommittal.' startled by a loud noise or awak­ "All thinking involves a release ened from a deep sleep. "Stop it.?" of energy. Electrical impulses are "That's what I said, stop it! Do triggered by certain chemical reac­ you think I want to stay like tions within the cells that we don't this.?" Aware that he was almost yet fully understand; it's precisely yelling, Victor dug his fingernails those impulses that we nieasure in into - the palrns of his hands and an EEC- took a deep breath. "I'm an archi­ Roger sat down suddenly and tect," he continued more calmly. "I began drumming his fingers on used to build things and that was the tabletop. "In your case, the cells all I ever asked out of life; it's all I

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ask now. If you had any idea . . . "Some sort of mental gestapo?" but you don't. There must be ". . . International relations, psy­ something you can do, an oper­ chiatry . . ." ation of some sort; I want it." "Forget it. Doctor," Victor mur­ "That's impossible at this point," mured, half-rising. His voice was Roger replied, passing his hand^ deadly soft. "If you won't help me, over his eyes.' His voice was now I'll find somebody else who will.'.' slurred with weariness. "To at­ "I didn't say I wouldn't ,help tempt any kind of operation now you," Roger said, sobered by the is out of the question; I wouldn't intensity of Victor's tone. "I said I even know what I was supposed didn't think I could help you; at to be operating on. Besides, an­ least, not yet, not until I know other operation now would prob­ more. We'll have to conduct tests ably kill you." and those will be mostly guess­ "There may not be time" Victor work. Even if I do operate, there's said, tapping his clenched fist no way of knowing for sure gently but insistently on the table. whether it will do any good. That "I tell you it's getting worse; each is, if it doesn't kill you." day I know more about people I've "I'll take that chance. You can never met, strangers I pass on the administer any test you want. The street. And my head hurts. For only thing I ask is that you do it' God's sake, Roger, sometimes I quickly and that you keep this wake up in the morning and I completely confidential." don't—" "I'm afraid it's already too late "Have you considered the impli­ for that, Mr. Rafferty." cations of this thing.?" Roger Victor leaped to his feet, knock­ seemed unaware of the fact that he ing over the chair. He turned in had interrupted Victor. "You can the direction of the voice and was read men's minds, know their in­ startled to see a well-dressed nermost feelings! There are all woman standing behind him at an sorts of—" open door which he had assumed "I've thought about the implica­ was a closet; now he could see the tions and I don't like any of adjoining room beyond the door. them." The woman had been there all the "Police work; imagine, Victor! time. She had seen and heard ev­ You would know beyond any erything, and now Victor knew doubt who was guilty and who what Roger had been trying to was innocent. . ." hide.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Visual and mental images came fiercely competitive, slightly para- at him in a rush: young and attrac- noid, habitually condescending, tive but cold; high self-esteem, ex- She concealed her nervousness aggerated sense of self-importance; well.

134 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "Tell me, Mr. Rafferty," the all you want, but my condition woman continued, "don't you must be kept secret. Is that clear?" think the scientific community— He did not wait for an answer. your country—has a right to know Glancing once at Dr. Lewellyn, he about you?" walked quickly from the room. Victor turned slowly to Roger. "You've made a fantastic dis­ "Who is she?" he asked very delib­ covery. Doctor," the woman said. erately. "Yes," Roger agreed, but there Roger's face was crimson. "Vic­ was no trace of his former en-- tor—Mr. Rafferty—I'd like you to thusiasm. meet Dr. Lewellyn, one of my col­ "But he's terribly naive, don't leagues." you think? He must realize that "What the hell is she doing we have certain obligations." here?" "I suppose so," the doctor said, "Roger, I ... I asked Dr. crumpling the .cards in his hands Lewellyn to observe. I value her and studying their motions as they opinion. I thought perhaps—" drifted lazily to the floor. "You had no right." Victor turned to face Dr. Lewellyn. "The Pat Rafferty glanced up as her answer to your question is no" he husband came through the door. said tightly. "Neither you nor any­ She watched him for a mornent, one else has any right to my life or and her eyes clouded. "Victor," she my personal problems." ' said gently, "you smell like a "Mr. Rafferty, I don't think you brewery." understand—" "I should," he said evenly. "I just "I mean it, Roger," Victor said, drank a quart of Scotch." He went cutting her off, turning his back quickly into the bathroom and on her once again. "I expect this splashed water over his face and case to be handled with the utmost neck. When he came back into the confidence. And I hold you respon­ livingroorn he was startled to find sible for this woman!" He hesi­ her standing in the same spot star­ tated, wondering why he suddenly ing at him, her pale blue eyes rim­ felt so afraid. "If any word of this med with tears of hurt and con­ gets out, I'll deny the whole fusion. Six years of marriage to the thing," Victor continued softly. slight, blonde-haired woman had "I'll make both of you look very not dulled his love for her; if any­ foolish. Roger, I'll call you tomor­ thing, the years had magnified his row. You can experiment with me desire and need. It had been three

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED days since the tests in Roger's labo­ his fear, the experiments in Roger's ratory and still he had not told office. When he had finished he Pat. It would have been hard drew himself up very straight and enough, at the beginning, to tell stared into her eyes. "Do you be­ her he feared for his sanity. lieve me?" Confirmation of his ability had "I don't l{now, Victor. You've only compounded his problem. been acting so strangely for the How, he thought, does a man tell past few months. I want to believe his wife she's married to a mon­ you,-but. . ." ster? "I'm not drunk," he said, "The alcohol's worn off. Would turning away from her eyes. "I'm you like me to demonstrate what not even sure if it's possible for me I'm talking about.''" to get drunk anymore." "I. . ." Pat continued to stare, dumb­ "Think of a number. Go ahead; founded at the words of this man do as I say." who had, seemingly by intent, be­ Victor held Pat's gaze and come a stranger to her. There was waited, probing, hunting for the something in his eyes and voice numbers that he knew must even­ that terrified her, robbed her of tually merge with the doubt and speech. confusion he felt in her mind. "You see," Victor continued, When they came, he called them "I've made a remarkable discovery. off with machine-gun rapidity, in a If I drink enough, I can't hear voice that never wavered. One by other people thinking; I'm left one he exposed every thought, ev­ alone. I ..." Victor stopped, ery fleeting impression. He did not aware, that his need had spoken stop even when he felt the doubt the words his intellect would not. replaced by panic. He could not es­ He turned away to hide his own cape the conviction that some:thing tears of anguish. He did not flinch • terrible was about to happen. He when he felt Pat's soft, cool fingers needed Pat. Therefore, she must be caressing the back of his neck. "I convinced beyond any doubt need your help," he murmured, that— turning and burying his face in his "Stop!" Pat's hands were over wife's hair. her eyes in a vain attempt to stem Victor talked for hours, pausing the tide of thick, heavy tears that only once when night fell and Pat streamed in great rivulets down rose to turn on the kitchen lights. her cheeks. "Stop it, Victor! Stop He told her everything: the pain, k\ Stop it!"

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Pat leaped from her chair and "I still don't understand why ran into the livingroom. Victor you're afraid." waited a few minutes and then fol­ "They'll try to use me." lowed. She was huddled on a far Pat pulled away just far enough end of the sofa. He reached out to to look up into Victor's eyes. touch her but immediately stepped "There's so much you could con­ back as he felt her flesh quiver be­ tribute, darling. Imagine what you neath his touch. In that moment could do in psychiatry, helping to he had felt what she felt and the diagnose patients. Think how knowledge seared him. He stepped much more scientists could learn farther into the darkness to hide from you about the human mind." his own tears. "I'm not a freak," "They won't use me for those he said quietly, and he turned things," Victor said, surprised at away and headed back into the the conviction in his voice. He had kitchen in an attempt to escape the found the elusive source of his sound of Pat's sobbing. fear. "They'll use me for a weapon. Her voice stopped him. "Forgive They always do." me, darling." Pat was silent for long moments, Victor stood silently, unwilling her head buried once again in his to trust his voice. He watched his neck. "We'll move away," she said wife sit up and brush away the at last. tears from her face. "They'll follow." "I'm so ashamed," Pat continued "We'll change our names, start in a voice that was steady. "I don't all over again." know what to say to you. All that "We'll see," Victor said, but he time you were hurting so much sensed that it was already too late. ... I love you so much, so very Later, Victor lay back in the much . . ." darkness and listened to Pat's trou­ He went to her, folded her into bled dreams. The orange-yellow his arms. They-stayed that way for glow of dawn trickled through the several minutes, each enjoying the blinds of the bedroom window. renewed warmth and security in He had not slept. If Roger was the touch of the other's body. right, if his mind was,, indeed, a "You're afraid," Pat said at last. window on Man's future, what "Yes." right did he have to keep that por­ "Why.?" tal shuttered.'' Victor told her about Dr. Pat was beginning to stir and Lewellyn. Victor recognized the sharpening

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED thought patterns that he had Pat and waited until she had re­ learned to identify as the bridge turned to the kitchen. "What do between sleep and consciousness. you want, Mr. Lippitt.?" He slipped on his robe and went The man suddenly thrust his to the kitchen to make coffee. Pat hands into his pockets in a quick joined him a few minutes later, motion which served to break his kissed Victor lightly on the cheek wall of concentration. The dark and began preparing breakfast. eyes in the pale face riveted on They ate in silence. Victor had Victor, measuring his reaction as poured a second cup of coffee and he allowed his thoughts and lighted a cigarette when the door­ knowledge to rush forth. bell rang. He rose and kissed Pat He's too strong, Victor thought; full on the mouth, holding her too strong. But he didn't react. close to him. He sensed, even be­ "If my information is correct," fore he had opened the door and Mr. Lippitt said slowly, "you looked into the man's njind, that know what I'm thinking right the waiting was over. now." He was a small man. His short Victor returned the other man's arms and thin, frail body were in gaze. He sensed pain, chronic dis­ direct contrast to the strength Vic­ comfort that Mr. Lippitt went to tor found in his mind. His face great lengths to conceal. "Are you was pale and pockmarked, punc­ sure you have the right house.?" tuated with a large nose that For the briefest moment there was sloped at an angle as if it had been a flicker of amusement in Mr. Lip- broken once and never properly pitt's eyes and Victor found that, set. He wore a thick topcoat and in spite of himself, he liked the even now, in the gathering man. warmth of the morning, drew it "The people I represent believe around hirri and shivered as if he you have a rather remarkable tal­ were cold. ent, Mr. Rafferty. Obviously, I'm "I'm Mr. Lippitt," the man said not referring to your abilities as an to Victor. "I think you know why architect. We know all about your I'm here." interviews with Dr. Burns. We'd "Come in," Victor said, surprised like to test and interview you our­ at the steadiness of his own voice. selves. We would pay well for the The man entered but politely re­ privilege." fused Victor's invitation to sit. Vic­ "No," Victor said evenly. "I tor glanced over his shoulder at don't wish to be tested or inter-

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED viewed by anyone. Not anyone." an age of technological terror. Mr. Lippitt's gaze was cold and Both sides spend millions of dol­ steady. He hunched his shoulders lars gathering information to as­ deeper into his coat. "You under­ sure themselves that they're not go­ stand that we could force you. We ing to come out second best in any don't want that. Surely, you can nuclear war." see the necessity—" "I'm not a spy, and I don't have "Well, I can't see the necessity!" the training or inclination to be­ Victor exploded. "What do you come one." want from me.?" "Your mind makes conventional Lippitt's face registered genuine methods of espionage obsolete," surprise. He drew his hand out Mr. Lippitt said, his eyes blazing. from his pocket and gestured to­ "Don't you see, Mr. Raflferty.'' You ward his head. "Don't you see.""' could gather more information in "I know who you work for," one hour spent at an embassy cock­ Victor said impatiently. "I can tell tail party than a team of experts that you're not quite sure what to could gather in a year! One drink do with me and that I'm consid­ with a foreign ambassador or gen­ ered some kind of potential.threat. eral and you'd have the most valu­ The rest is very vague. Your train­ able diplomatic and military infor­ ing was very thorough; you're sub­ mation! There'd be no way for consciously blocking all sorts of in­ them to stop you. You'd know formation that you don't think I who was lying, what military should have." moves were being considered, in­ "You scored perfectly on a tele­ formation that other men must pathic indicator test," Lippitt said, risk their lives to get! In a way, eyeing Victor curiously. "You can you'd be the ultimate weapon. We read thoughts like the rest of us would always be assured of having read newspapers." the most up-to-date and reliable—" "It's not quite thaf simple." "Have I done anything wrong.? "But it could be! I've heard the Committed any crime.''" tapes of your conversations with "No," Mr. Lippitt said, taken Burns! You can control—" Mr. aback. Lippitt paused and again Victor "Do you have the authority to sensed his physical dispomfort. arrest me.?" When Lippitt spoke again his "No." voice was softer and his breath "Then my answer is still no," whistled in his lungs. "We live in Victor said firmly. "I have a right

STRANGE PREY 139 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED as a citizen of this nation to be left assume that there's a possibility alone." other powers may already know "Have you considered your duty about you. If so, well, I think to this nation?" they'd go to great lengths to pre­ "How would you know I was vent you from working for us." ' - always telling the truth?" "They'd kill me?" "Ah, well ... I don't have an "Without a second thought. Un­ answer for that; not now. I sup­ less, of course, they felt they could pose, eventually, we would have to force you to work for them." consider that." Victor was conscious of his wife "I don't want to work for you. I moving about in the kitchen. won't work for you." "You'd have to eliminate every Mr. Lippitt lighted a cigarette. trace of my existence," he said. Victor handed him an ash tray. "Otherwise, I'd be useless to you. Their eyes held steady. And what are you going to do "It's not that simple, Mr. with Pat? Maybe she wouldn't Rafferty," Lippitt said. "It's just care to undergo plastic surgery. not that simple. No matter what Certainly, I'd have to." you decided, you'd still need our "We'd handle everything.* protection." Would you rather risk having her "Protection?" The idea was see you killed? Or they might tor­ there in Lippitt's mind but it was ture her if they thought it would hazy and undefined. do them any good. You know, "Our informant—" their methods can be quite "Dr.Lewellyn?" effective. You might have a more "Dr. Lewellyn was more fervent difficult time explaining to them than discreet," Mr. Lippitt said in that you simply choose not to use a matter-of-fact tone that failed to your skills ^for a dirty business like conceal his embarrassment. "The spying." channels she used to inform us of Victor's head hurt from the pro­ your existence were not, as we say, longed contact with Lippitt. His secure." entire body ached and throbbed "You mean that in the spy busi­ with exhaustion. "What if I decide ness nothing stays a secret for very to take my chances?" He no long." ' :• longer made any effort to mask his "Not always," Mr. Lippitt said anxiety. _ evenly, ignoring the other man's "I'm afraid that would put us in sarcasm. "But in this case we must a difficult position," Mr. Lippitt

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED said slowly, for the first time look­ could have prevented Pearl Har­ ing away from Victor. "You see, if bor. you weren't working for us, we'd "Can I,have some time to think have no way of being certain you about it?" weren't working for them. They "What is there to think about.?" wouldn't hestitate to kill your wife "Dignity. Allow me the dignity or anybody else if it would force of believing I still have some free­ you over to their side." Lippitt's dom of choice." eyes hardened. "Or they simply Mr. Lippitt looked at Victor might offer you a million dollars. strangely for a moment , before Sometimes it's as easy as that." drawing a card from his pocket Victor Hushed. "Either way, then and handing it to him. "You can you'd have to stop me." reach me at this number, any time "Yes." of the day or night. Call me when "Then I'm trapped.'-' - you've . . . reached your decision." "I'm afraid so, Mr. Rafferty. I'm He paused at the door, turned and sorry that it has to be this way." looked at Victor in the same odd Victor rubbed his sweating manner. "I meant what I said, Mr. palms against his shirt. He was Rafferty. I am sorry that it has to seized with a sudden, almost over­ be this way." whelming desire to strike out, to "So am I," said Victor. smash his fist into the white face that looked as if it would tear like The door clicked shut behind paper. He clenched his fists, but his Victor with a terrible certainty, arms dropped back to his sides in a rnufBing Pat's sobs, punctuating a gesture of resignation. Lippitt was decision Victor knew could not be right; on a planet covered with na­ reversed. There was no turning tions strangling on their own back once he had begun running. words of deceit and treachery, he, Never again could he be trusted, was the ultimate weapon. He but he would be free. could determine truth, and he Somewhere in the United States sensed that absolute truth and cer­ there had to be a place where he tainty would be a most dangerous and Pat could lose their identities possession in the hands of the and start over, perhaps a small wrong men. Had Hitler known town in the south or the west. Vic­ the frailties of the men he fought, tor knew he must find that place he would have ruled the world. and find it quickly. Then he On the other hand, a telepath would send for Pat. Perhaps it

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED was, as he suspected, a futile ges­ structions. I was told to bring you ture, but it was something he had with me if it looked like you were to attempt, the only alternative to trying to leaye. -Will you follow imprisonment in a world of uni­ me, please.?" forms, security- checks and identity Victor shifted his^, weight back cards. He knew, too, that he must on one foot and then lurched for­ conserve his strength; already his ward, sending the suitcase swing-, arm ached from the weight of his ing in an arc toward the man's single suitcase. head. The guard stepped easily He knew there was something aside, allowing the weight of the wrong the moment he stepped suitcase to carry Victor around un­ down from the porch. Victor felt til he was off balance. He moved the man's presence even before he with the grace of a dancer, step­ spoke. ping behind Victor, knocking the "Please stop right there, Mr. suitcase to the ground and twisting Rafferty." Victor's arm up behind his back Victor froze; he knew there was gently but firmly, so that the re­ no sense in trying to run. Even sponsibility for any pain would be without the suitcase, which he Victor's if he attempted to needed because it contained his struggle. bank book and credit cards, he re­ Victor acted instinctively, throw­ alized that his physical condition ing -back his head and closing his would never enable him to outrun eyes in fierce concentration. He the guard. He turned and stared probed, ignoring the bUnding pain, into a pair of cold, gray eyes. The searching for some fear or anxiety man was short and stocky, very •in the guard's mind that he could well dressed, with close-cropped touch and grab hold of with his blond hair. Victor felt the man's own. There was something there, mind coiled like a steel spring. dark and shapeless, rough and "Who the hell are you.?" Victor rattling with death. Victor snapped, his frustration forming strained, probing harder and deep­ meaningless words. „ He already er, obsessed with the need to es­ knew the answer: Lippitt's man. cape. "I'm sorry, sir. I must ask you to Now the guard was making come with me." strange, guttural sounds deep in "Your boss told me I'd have his throat. Victor felt steel-hard time to think things over." fingers at his neck, pressing, "I'm sorry, sir, but I have my in­ searching for the nerve centers at

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED the base of his skull. He was inside and looked up into the face of Pat, the guard's mind and there was who had run out onto the porch at pain there that he was causing; the sounds • of the struggle. Her still the man would not let go. eyes wide with fear, the woman Victor probed still deeper, wrench­ had jammed her knuckles into her ing the sensations, magnifying the mouth so that only her mind pain. screamed in terror and ripped at Then the fingers were no longer Victor's consciousness. Victor" around his neck. Victor turned in threw aside the suitcase, turned time to see the man sink to the and ran, away from the fallen ground. The guard was moaning men, away from the horror in his softly, writhing on the ground and wife's mind. gripping his head in his hands. The moaning stopped. The guard Roger Burns was certain he'd twitched and then lay still. turned off the lights in his office Victor knelt down beside the and laboratory. Even if he'd for­ guard and was immediately aware gotten, the cleaning woman would of yet another presence. He threw have remembered. He'd had no himself to one side and missed the way of knowing that sleeplessness full force of a blow delivered by a and excitement over the Raflerty second, larger man who must file would bring him back here to have been positioned at the rear of his office in the middle of the the house. The second man tripped night. Now, someone had broken over the first and sprawled on the into the building. There was no flagstone walk. other explanation for the shaft of This time it was Victor who at­ light that leaked out from beneath tacked, swinging around and step­ his office door into the darkness. ping close to the second guard Roger's hand rested on the who was just springing to his feet. doorknob. He knew he should call There was already pain in the the police, yet' the only phone was other man as a result of his fall, the one on the other side of the fear and uncertainty at the sight of door. He could not wake up a his prostrate partner. Victor seized neighbor at three o'clock in the on both thoughts and concen­ morning, the nearest pay booth trated, thrusting deep. The man was three blocks away, and he did slumped to the sidewalk without a not want the intruder to escape. sound. He was outraged at the thought of Victor reached for his suitcase someone rifling through his highly

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED confidential files, if that was it. thought, / am responsible for the Anger triumphed over reason. deaths of two men. Roger burst into the room and He was sure Roger had been then stopped short, frozen into im­ murdered because of him; the mobility by the sudden realization guard, a man who had merely that the two men in the office were been doing his job, he had killed no ordinary burglars and that he himself. . had stumbled into a situation he Some enterprising reporter had was totally incapable of handling. outwitted the dozen policemen The light came from the fluoro- outside his home with a telephoto scope. One man, an individual Rog­ lens. The picture showed the dead er had seen a few times at Wash­ man on the walk. The second ington cocktail parties, was taking guard was just rising to his feet. photographs of Victor Rafferty's Mr. Lippitt was standing off to X rays. The other had been mi­ one side, obviously unaware that crofilming files that Roger knew the photograph was being taken. must also be Victor's. This man The picture had been captioned now had a revolver in his hand. with a single, large question mark. The long, thick silencer made it The waiter, an elderly man with seem ridiculously out of propor­ dirty fingernails and a soiled tion, like a toy rifle. apron, kept glancing in his direc­ Roger raised one arm and the tion. Victor wearily signaled for gun kicked. There was a soft, another cup. The waiter came to chugging sound and a small, the table and wiped his hands on round, white hole opened in Rog­ his shirt. er's forehead, then quickly filled "Coffee," Victor said, not look­ with blood. ing up. The waiter pointed to the Victor sat in a booth at the rear unfinished cup on the table. "You of the coffee shop, toying ner­ don't look so good, pal," he said. vously with a cup of muddy- "Maybe you oughta get some food brown coffee and staring at the in your stomach." front page of the newspaper, he "I'm all right," Victor said, had spread out before him. He felt aware that he sounded defensive. numb, dazed with guilt; the stories "You can get me some bacon and seemed to leap from the page, eggs. And orange juice." stabbing at his senses with twin The waiter swiped at the table fingers of accusation. So, Victor with a damp rag and then shuffled

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED off, mumbling to himself. Victor diately released the image and reached out for the sugar bowl and gripped the edges of the table in began rolling it back and forth be­ an effort not to lose consciousness. tween his hands. With the suitcase' The pain passed in a few mo­ gone, he had little money and no ments, gradually ebbing away. He place to go. In any case, Mr. Lip- opened his eyes but did not have pitt would have all the airports enough time to evaluate what had and bus terminals watched. It was happened. The waiter, approaching too late to do anything and so it his table with a tray of food, didn't bother him that he was too tripped over a loose linoleum tile. tired to think clearly; there was The tray and its contents came nothing left to think about. He hurtling through the air. Victor re­ wondered if they'd shoot him on acted instinctively in an effort to sight. protect his only set of clothes; he He could still feel the texture of reached out and pushed at the tray the guards' minds as he had en­ with his mind. At that instant Vic­ tered them to twist and hurt; he tor felt his body bathed in searing could see their bodies lying on the fire. The walls and ceiling tilted at ground. Most of all, he remem­ an odd angle and the floor rushed bered the expression of sheer hor­ up to smash into his face. ror on Pat's face. The waiter stared, dumb­ Victor stopped spinning the founded. His startled gaze shifted sugar bowl. He had been staring at rapidly back and forth between the it and it had suddenly come to unconscious man on the floor and him that he was seeing the object the egg stains on his apron. Some­ in an entirely different way, with thing was wrong, he thought, more than his vision. He saw the something besides the man on the glass he was touching with his floor; there was something out of hands; at the same time he could place. The old man's slow mind jeel the mirror image of the bowl struggled with the problem of the somewhere in his brain, elusive, flying tray and food as he hurried ephemeral, and yet seemingly real to call the police and an ambu­ enough to be grasped. lance. Victor slowly took his hands away from the bowl and touched Now only the memory of the the image in his mind. pain remained, like the lingering, The pain was greater than any fuzzy morning taste of too many he had ever known. Victor imme­ cigarettes. Victor's mind and senses

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED were clear at last, cleansed of their they thought it could lead them to blinding crust of panic by the him. Victor was sure Mr. Lippitt shock of coma. The sour, antiseptic had assigned men to guard her but smell in his nostrils told him he that couldn't last forever. No, Vic­ was in a hospital; the dull throb in tor reflected, he was endangering his skull told him he was not Pat by the very fact that he was alone. Victor kept his eyes closed ahve. and lay very still. The guard testified to the fact He recalled the incident in the that he was caught. Probably the coffee shop very clearly and he police or the hospital had called his knew what had happened. He had home, and Mr. Lippitt would cer­ seen the word in the textbooks: tainly have the phone tapped. Vic­ telekinesis, the theoretical ability to tor was surprised the thin man in move objects by the intense focus­ the overcoat wasn't already at his ing of thought energy. Except' that bedside. telekinesis was no longer theo­ His was a prison with no doors retical; he could do it. No matter and windows, a killing trap that that the crippling pain made it was sucking his wife in to die highly improbable that he could with- him, a problem with no solu­ ever use it effectively; the very fact tion—except one; only one. It was, that he had exhibited the power as yet, only the embryo of an idea. made him that much more desir­ First, he must escape the hospital. able, or dangerous, in the eyes of "I'm feeling very well now," Mr. Lippitt and whoever had Victor said loudly, sitting up killed Roger Burns. Perhaps they quickly and swinging his legs over had already decided that the risks the side of the bed. "Maybe you of using him were too great. He can tell me where my clothes are." had run. He had killed a man. He The policeman sat up as if was a criminal. They could easily stabbed with a pin. Startled, he shut him away in some prison for fumbled for his gun and finally the rest of his life to make sure, if managed to point it in Victor's di­ he didn't work. for them, he rection, but the asking of the ques­ wouldn't work for anyone else. tion had been enough to implant In the meantime, Pat was in ter­ the answer in the policeman's rible danger. Whoever had killed mind. Victor probed gently; the Roger would be after her next; policeman was very tired; and his Mr. Lippitt had said as much. clothes were in the white closet at They would torture her, kill her, if the far end of the room.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "You might as well just lay back Then he \nows for certain, Victor there, mister," the policeman said, thought; Mr. Lippitt \nours I am releasing the safety on his pistol as telel{inetic. an afterthought. "I'm not even "Mind you, I was just on my supposed to let you go to the head . way out the door when I pull this without keepin' an eye on you." duty. As if that wasn't enough, I'm Victor crossed his legs on the catchin' a few winks and this creep bed. His lungs ached from the ten­ comes in and belts me in the sion but he managed to feign in­ mouth! He hits me, mind you! nocence. "Well; do you mind tell­ Weird little guy in an overcoat. ing me why?" He must put the Must be eighty degrees in here and policerhan off guard and there this guy's wearin' an overcoat! I'd wasn't much time. have killed any other guy did that The policeman eyed Victor sus­ and this creep's a little guy. But his piciously. "I'm not supposed to talk eyes; I never seen eyes.like that. about it;" Crazy, if ya know what I mean. Victor began to probe deeper Man, ya don't mess with a guy and then stopped, sickened by the that's got eyes like that." The po­ memory of the man he had killed liceman sneezed and Victor sat outside his home. In that moment very still. "Anyway, this guy says he knew he would not kill another he'll have my job and my pension innocent man, even if it meant his if I fall asleep again. Just like that! own death. Then, how.? No, sir! Ya don't mess with a guy ". . . damned silly." like that. And get this, he takes the "What's that.?"-The policeman key and locks me in here! He's hesitated, and Victor probed, gotta be some kind of big shot or gently magnifying the frustration he wouldn't dare do somethin' like he found in the other man's mind. that. Says he's gotta go someplace He smiled disarmingly. "I didn't and he'll be right back." The man hear whatyou said." rubbed his nose and lips with an oversize, red handkerchief, then "I didn't say . . . Oh, hell, this blew hard into it and repeated the whole thing is silly. Some little process. "I think he's some kind of guy claims you turned a plate of spy," the policeman continued, eggs around in the air without studying Victor through narrowed touchin' them. 'Fore ya know it, eyelids. "I think maybe you're a I'm pullin' this extra baby-sittin' spy too. Spies are always makin' duty." up screwy stories. Call 'em cover "That does sound pretty silly."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED stories. See it all the time in the should sleep." The policeman movies." yawned and stretched, and Victor Victor choked back the strained, glanced toward the door. Mr. Lip- hollow laughter in his throat. "Did pitt could enter the room at any he say where he was going.?" time; he'd have other men with The hand with the gun had re­ him. "It's all a mistake. You're free laxed. Now it tightened again and to go to sleep, to rest." the barrel leveled on Victor's stom­ "I . . . can't do that." The man ach. "You ask too many ques­ was fighting to keep his head up. tions," the policeman snapped. "I The gun had fallen on the floor ain't even supposed ,t6 talk to you. and he looked.at it with a dazed Maybe you're a Russify spy. Yeah, expression. for all I know you're some kind of "It's all right. You can sleep. Go commie." to sleep." "It's all a mistake," Victor said The policeman looked at Victor very quietly, eyeing the gun. "I with a mixture of bewilderment asked where the man went because and fear and then slumped in his I'm anxious for him to get back. chair. Victor quickly eased him I'm sure everything will be onto the floor before going to the straightened out when he gets cabinet and taking out his clothes. here. It's just too bad you had to He dressed quickly and stepped get dragged into, it, particularly close to the locked door. He bent when you didn't sleep much last down and looked at the lock, night." breathing a sigh of relief; it was a "Hey, how'd you know I didn't relatively simple, interlocking bolt get much sack time}" type with which he was quite fa­ "Your eyes look tired. You were miliar. probably out playing poker with Victor knew he must not think some of the fellas." of his fear or the pain which was "Sonuvagun, you know you're to come, but only of the con­ right.? Dropped twenty bucks and sequences of failure. He sat on the my wife's gonna be screamin' at floor and closed his eyes. He rested me for a week!" his head against the door, sum­ . Victor began to concentrate on a moning up in his mind an image single strand of thought. "You of .the moving parts of the lock, must be very tired," he said, ac­ each spring, each separate com­ centing each word, caressing the ponent. He knew .he must dupli­ other man's weariness. "You cate his feat in the coffee shop; he

STRANGE PREY 149 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED must control the image in his stared into the darkness. She did mind so as to move the tiny metal not have to look at the luminous bars in the door. Pat's life, and dial on the alarm clock to know it probably his own, depended on it. was the middle of the night; and The pain came in great, sweep­ there was someone in the room ing, hot waves, as it had in the with her. coffee shop, and Victor recognized "Victor?" She said it like a the wet, dark patches behind his prayer. eyes as the face of death. He "Yes," came the whispered reply. could feel his fingernails breaking "Don't be frightened and don't and bleeding as he pushed them turn on the light. I want to make into the wood, defying the agony. love to you." The lock must turn. His blood Pat felt a shiver run through her surged through his body, bloating body. The voice was Victor's but it the veins and arteries in his face was different; somehow, flat and and neck to the point'where Victor sad. Resigned. His hand was on knew, in a few seconds at most, her body. they must burst. "Victor, I can't—" The lock clicked. "Don't ' think that, darling. Physically exhausted, Victor Please love me. I need you now." slumped to the floor. He sucked She felt her desire mount as Vic­ greedily at the cool draughts of air tor pressed his mouth against hers; wafting in beneath the door as he his closeness and the need of her waited for the fire in his head to own body swept away her fears cool. At last he rose and opened and she reached out to pull him the door far enough to look out down alongside her. In a few min­ into the corridor. Empty; Mr. Lip- utes they lay, spent and exhausted, pitt had thought the locked door in each other's arms; but Victor would be enough. rose almost immediately and began The policeman was beginning to dressing. stir. Victor hurriedly found the "Victor, please come and lie down man's wallet and took out the again." money he needed. Then, summon­ "I can't, darling. There isn't ing up his last reserves of strength, much time. I have to go." he stepped out into the hallway Pat rubbed her eyes. Everything and headed for the emergency exit. seemed so unreal. "How did you get in.? There are men all around Pat Raflerty opened her eyes and the house."

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I have my own built-in radar chest. He sipped at his tea and system," Victor said. "I can tell stared off into space. He regretted where they are." He moved closer the fact that the order had gone to the bed so that Pat could just out to kill Victor Raffcrty. make out his shape in the dark­ But what else could one do with ness. She raised her arms but Vic­ such a man save I{ill him? Lippitt tor moved back out o£ her reach. thought. He can read thoughts,, "I had to take the chance," he con­ move objects and he can \ill, all tinued. "I had to see you to tell without lifting a finger. The mili­ you I've always loved you. You see, tary potential of such a man is I have to do something . . . ter­ too great ever to ris\ its possible rible. There's no way to make you use by a foreign power. Unli\e the understand. I had to see you this atom, there is only one Victor one last time to say good-bye." Raf^erty, and whoever commands "Good-bye? Victor, I don't un­ his allegiance possesses a terrible derstand. Why .,. .?" She was sud­ weapon, a deadly sl^ill that was denly aware of a -numb, thic1{ sen­ silent and could be used over and sation in her forehead. Her ears over again undetected, with virtual­ were buzzing. "Victor," Pat mur­ ly no ris\ to its user.J had always mured, "I feel so strange . . ." prided myself as a good judge of "I know, darling," Victor said. character, Lippitt thought. / would His voice was halting as if he were have sworn to Rafferty's decency choking on tears. "I know. Good­ and patriotism. Then why had he bye." • . run? He stood in the darkness for a Mr. Lippitt was interrupted in long moment, staring at the still his thoughts by the buzz of the in­ figure on the bed. Once he started tercom. "Yes?" to walk toward her and then "There's a message on an outside stopped. Finally he turned and line, sir. I've already scrambled the went back the way he had come. circuit. Should I put him through?" Mr. Lippitt sat at his desk in the Mr. Lippitt's feet came down specially heated office. His feet hard on the floor, jarring^ the desk were propped up on his desk and and its contents, spilling the tea he held a steaming glass of tea in over a stack of multicolored, cross- his hand. His frail body was en­ indexed documents Lippitt had closed in a thick, bulky sweater spent the day ignoring. He waited buttoned to the mid-point of his until he was sure he had regained

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED control of himself and then picked "Yes, sir.?" came the quick reply. up the receiver. "All right," Mr. "I want a jet to New York, Lippitt said, "cut him in." now," yir. Lippitt barked at the There was a soft, whirring startled secretary. "Arrange for sound in the line, an automatic sig­ helicopter and limousine con­ naling device signifying thiat the nections. All top priority." scrambling' device had been acti­ vated. "Lippitt here." Mr. Lippitt was not surprised to "He's in New York City," said find no agent waiting for him out­ the voice on the other end of the side the building; neither was he line. "He has a research lab in the surprised to find Victor Rafferty Mason Foundry. He's hiding there. waiting for him inside. What are your instructions.'"' "Come in," Victor said, leveling Mr. Lippitt bent over and picked a pistol at Mr. Lippitt's forehead up the overturned glass. "What's and motioning him to a chair your code name.?" across the book-lined executive "Vector- Three," came the easy office. "You look as if you expected reply. me." "Of course," Mr. Lippitt said, Mr. Lippitt shrugged. "You fingering the glass. "And I suppose picked the wrong man's brain. that's where you are.? The Mason Vector Three left for France two Foundry.?" days ago." "Of course." "Then why did you come.?" "All right, now you listen care­ "May I have a cigarette.?" Victor fully," Lippitt said, opening a threw a pack of cigarettes across drawer and removing a small, the room and Mr. Lippitt pur­ snub-nosed revolver. He opened a posely let them fall to the carpet. box of shells and carefully loaded He bent over, freeing the revolver. each chamber as he spoke. "I'll be He was certain his speed ~ was in New York in .an hour. Mason sufficient to draw and kill Rafferty Foundry. You'll wait for me, of before the other man could even course." pull the trigger. He sat back up in "Of course." the chair and lighted the cigarette. Mr. Lippitt hung up and shoved "I was curious," Mr. Lippitt said the revolver beneath his sweater, casually. "I don't think you meant inside his waistband along the to kill that man. If I did, I'd have hard ridge of his spine. He jabbed had this place surrounded with at the intercom. troops. Why did you run.?"

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "I don't think I could make you said. "An H-bomb! That's what understand." you compared me to,; right? To "That's too bad. You see, having you and your people—" you around is like living with an "They're your people, too." H-bomb; whether it's ticking or "All right, people! To people, not, it still makes you uncomfort­ I'm nothing more than a weapon! able." Did it ever occur to you I might "Now you're beginning to un­ want to lead my own life?" derstand." "We've already been over that. Mr. Lippitt glanced aroutid the Without us, you and your wife room, fascinated by the many would either be killed or kid­ models of buildings Victor had de­ napped. We wouldn't want you to signed, relying on the properties of be killed; we couldn't allow you to the high-tension steel alloy devel­ be kidnapped." oped by the foundry. Strange, he "Exactly. So it boils down to thought, how buildings had never ^this: since my life is no' longer my interested me before. He rose and own anyjvay, the only thing I can walked across the room to examine do is choose the side which can one of the models more closely; he best provide protection for Pat and could feel the gun aimed at the myself. That means a communist back of his neck. country. By definition, a police "So, what are you going to do?" state can provide more protection Mr. Lippitt asked. than a non-police state. Since I "I've already been contacted and wouldn't be free in either country, all the arrangements have been I have to pick the country where I made. I leave for Russia tonight." would be safe. Their very lack of "That means you'll have to kill freedom guarantees my life and me." Pat's." "Yes." "Very logical." Mr. Lippitt turned to face Vic­ "Oh, there's money, too. I won't tor. "Why.? I mean, why defect?" deny that. As long as I have to live He no longer made any effort to out my life in virtual captivity, I hide the emotion in his voice. "I may as well be comfortable. I've wouldn't have thought you were a been assured of . . . many things. traitor." You don't operate that way, do Anger flickered in Victor's eyes, you?" then quickly faded. "You forced Mr. Lippitt ground out his ciga­ me to do what I'm doing," Victor rette and immediately lighted an-

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED other. He regretted not killing slowly, the echo of his footsteps Rafferty when he had the chance. out of phase with those of the man "No, we don't. Unfortunately, our behind him. He said, "It's quiet. budget forces us to rely on patri­ Where is everybody ?" otism." "There's no shift on Saturday," Victor said nothing. Mr. Lippitt Victor said tighdy. "There's only watched the other man rise and the watchman. I put him to sleep." walk toward him. He tensed, wait­ "You can do that.?" ing for exactly the right moment "You know I can." to drop to the floor and grab for "Just making conversation." Mr.. his gun. He knew it would be Lippitt hesitated. "There is such a very difficult now, for Rafferty was thing as lesser evil in the world, close and the element of surprise Rafferty. We need you on our side. was gone. Yet, he knew he. must Think about it." not fail; he was the only remain­ "I'm sorry," Victor said. He ing barrier between Rafferty-and reached out and grabbed Mr. Lip- the Russians. pitt's shoulder. "In there." "Out the door," Victor said, .Mr. Lippitt pushed through the prodding Mr. Lippitt with the door on his left marked Re­ gun. "Left and up the stairs. Walk stricted. He found himself on a slowly." very narrow catwalk overlooking a "Don't be melodramatic. Why row of smelting furnaces. The not just shoot me here.?" cover hatches of the furnaces were "I want to show you something. open and Mr. Lippitt looked down If you prefer, I'll shoot you now." into a liquid, metal sea that moved There was something strange in with a life' of its own, its silver- the other man's voice, Mr. Lippitt brown crust buckling and burst­ noted, an element that he could ing, belching huge bubbles of hot, not identify. In any event, he real­ acrid gas. The air was thick, heavy ized he would stand little chance if with its burden of heat. he made his move now. He "You wanted to show ine where walked ahead and through the you were going to dump my door. The barrel of Rafferty's pis­ body," Mr. Lippitt said. tol was pressed against his spine, "Yes." no more than an inch above the Mr. Lippitt watched Victor's stock of Lippitt's revolver. eyes. He could not understand The stairway led to a long, nar­ why the other man had not been row corridor. Mr. Lippitt walked able to probe his thoughts and dis-

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED cover the existence of the gun. Per­ "I said, you're cold. You're al­ haps he had not'feh the need; the ways cold. You've been cold for reports had mentioned the pain the past twenty years. That's why Hnked with the act. In any case, your mind is so strong. You can't Mr. Lippitt thought, Rafferty block out the memories so you will be dead the moment he control and discipline yourself to blinkj or loo\s away for even a the point where they no longer fraction of a second. "You're going make any difference, but still you to do very well in your chosen pro­ can't feel any warmth." fession," Mr. Lippitt said, steeHng "Don't," Mr. Lippitt said, his himself for the move he knew he voice scarcely a whisper. would have only one chance to "You can't forget the Nazis and make. "People tend to trust you, their ice baths. They put you in give you the benefit of the doubt. the water and they left you there You have a very disarming air for hours. You shook so much you about you." thought your bones would break. "That's not all I wanted to show You remember how they laughed you," Victor said. at you when you cried; you re­ Lippitt's muscles tensed but his member how they laughed at you hand remained perfectly still. when you begged them to kill When he did go for the gun it you." would be in one fluid, incredibly "You stay out of my mind! Stop explosive motion. it!" Mr. Lippitt's voice was quiver­ "I want to show you what ing with rage. might have been if things were "It takes enormous courage to different," Victor said. keep going in the face of memories Mr. Lippitt said nothing. It like that," Victor continued easily. seemed to him that Rafferty was "All those coats, all those over­ relaxing, letting down his guard. heated rooms; none of it does any Also, he judged that the angle of good. We're alike, you and I. Both the gun would allow him to get of us suffer agony others can't be­ off at least one shot, even if he gin to understand. That's why you were hit, and one shot was all he broke all the rules and came here needed. Still, he waited. alone, even when you knew I'd be "You're cold," Victor said sud­ waiting for you; you were reluc­ denly. "You can't even feel the tant to see them kill me." heat from those furnaces." "You devil," Mr. Lippitt said "What.?" through tightly clenched teeth.

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED "You play with people, don't you?" down his cheeks. "I don't feel cold "There's nothing wrong with anymore." your body, you know. That healed "Why don't you test it.? Take long ago. The Nazis are gone. You off your coat." don't have to be cold anymore." Mr. Lippitt slowly removed his There was something soothing heavy overcoat. Now the revolver and hypnotic about Rafferty's was within easy reach. "I'm sorry," voice. Mr. Lippitt struggled to 'he said. "I'm grateful to you, but clear his mind as he fought against no man should have that kind of the pervading warmth spreading power." through his body, fought it and yet "Not unless he can use it embraced it as a father his dead wisely," Victor replied, raising the child returned to life. hand with the gun. The hammer "It's a trick," the thin man said, clicked back with the soft, assured startled to find his eyes brimming sound of finely-tooled metal. "The with tears. demonstration is over." "No," Victor said quietly, insist­ Mr. Lippitt dropped to his knees ently. "I'm not putting the warmth and rolled over on his side, claw­ in your body; it was always there. . ing for the gun in his waistband. I'm simply helping you to feel it. Years of experience and training Forget the water. All that hap­ had transformed him into a pre­ pened a long time ago. You can be cision killing instrument, the warm. Let yourself be warm." movements of which must be mea­ "No!" sured in milliseconds. Still, inside "Yes! Let me into your mind, Mr. Lippitt's mind, it was all slow Lippitt. Trust me. Let me convince motion, as in a nightmare; he you." . - drifted through the air and Mr. Lippitt' closed his eyes, sur­ bounced on the concrete, the gun rendering to the strange, golden appearing miraculously in his hand warmth lighting the dark, frozen and aimed at Victor Rafferty's recesses of his soul. He thought of heart, but there was something all the years he had spent in the pulling at the gun, an invisible prison of his memory, immersed in force that'' he could feel writhing the water that was sucking away like a snake in the metal. Steel his life . . . bands had wrapped about his head "You don't feel cold anymore." and were squeezing, crushing his "No," Mr. Lippitt whispered. brain. He pulled the trigger twice, Now the tears were flowing freely then peered through a mist of pain

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LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED I-=l ^' I as Victor Rafferty threw out his legs over afterhis body and he fell arms and toppled over the guard through space to land with a rai^ his. body arching grotesquely muffled, crackling splash in the soft as the pull of gravity snapped his inferno below.. It was the last STRANGE PREY 157

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED thing Mr. Lippitt saw before sink­ you'll wait for just a moment—" ing down into a black void laced "This is an emergency," Lippitt with the srnell of gunsmoke. said slowly. "Fox is dead. Fox is The barrel of the revolver was dead." still warm, leading Mr. Lippitt to He hung up before the fright- conclude that he couldn't have , ened woman had time to reply. He been unconscious more than a few reasoned that the others would be minutes. He lurched to his feet suspicious at first, at least until and, supporting himself on the they'd had time to check their guard rail, stared down into the pit sources for the code words. Be­ ,where Victor had fallen; the slag sides, he'd make sure that cer­ continued to belch and bubble. tain information was leaked. That, There was no trace of the other he decided, should keep them man, not even the smell of burnt away from the woman. He lighted flesh. So, he reflected, he had killed a cigarette, then picked up the the man who had cured him. No phone again to call the Raflerty matter that there was no choice; home. for the rest of his life, even as he savored the warmth of the sun on I'm here to see Mr. Thaag. his body, he would remember this The Civilized and the Savage. day and welcome ~ his own ap­ He'd been a guest of the General proaching death; he had simply Assembly the day Sentor Thaag traded one nightmare for another. had made that speech. He'd never He paused at the foot of the met the man. That should make stairs and, after a moment's hesita­ things easier. tion, entered one of the offices. He Some men would kill for a tat­ picked up a telephone and dialed tered tribal banner. Their imagina­ one of the outside lines to the tion sets with the sun, their world agency. ends at the horizon. Others travel "Good afternoon," came the the planet, whisper many tongues, cheery voice, "this is—" and find only the face of their "This is Mr. Lippitt. The fox is brother. dead.'" The Civilized and the Savage. There was a long silence on the How does one tell the difference? other end of the line. When the He could tell the difference. woman spoke again, her voice was May I have your name, sir? punctuated by heavy breathing. Nagel. John Nagel. "Sir, this is an outside line. If Or any other name. It didn't

158 ALFRED HITCHCOCK S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED make any difference. His real few minutes, then reappear, smil­ name had died with his old iden­ ing. tity. It was all there in the two-col­ The Secretary General will see umn obituary in the Times. Ev­ you now. erything in his past had died back He was not sure what would in the foundry with the image he happen next; he would have to had planted in Mr. Lippitt's iriind.. wait until he could get close to Eventually, he would need a new Thaag and explore his mind. Even appearance, a new manner and then, he was not sure what he personality. For now, John Nagel would be looking for; perhaps, would have to get along with tint­ simply, a man he could trust. ed contact lenses, false beard and Victor Rafferty went over his an exaggerated limp. plan once more in his mind. He'd miss Pat; he'd ache for her. Satisfied, he began walking slowly But his "death" had been her only across the United Nation^ Plaza guarantee of life. toward the massive glass and stone I'm sorry, sir, but your name is obelisk rising up from New York's not on the appointment list. Are East River. He stopped and looked you expected? up into the bright, sun-splashed He would lean close, make con­ day; a breeze was blowing and the tact with her mind. She must be multitude of flags strained against convinced of his importance. The their stanchions, painting a line secretary would disappear for a across the sky.

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Please enroll me as a new for the special new-member intro­ member and send me at once the ductory price of only $1.00 (plus a four hard-bound double volumes of few cents mailing charges). full-length Gardner/Christie thrill­ As a member, I am to receive ers, PLUS the regular 3-in-l Club advance descriptions of all future selection, containing the brand new selections, but am not obligated to Donald Lam-Bertha Cool case and buy any. For each future triple vol­ 2 other great new mysteries. I en­ ume I keep, I will send you only $3.39 close no money. Within a week (plus a few cents mailing charges). after receiving my books, I will I may reject any volume before or- either return them and owe nothing after I receive it and I may cancel or keep all five volumes, containing my membershipat anytime. (Books eleven first-rate mystery stories. shipped in U.S.A. only.) O-HK Mr. Mrs (please print plainly) Miss.( • (see Address- other side 26-337 for further details) City- LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG-State- .Zip. ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED For one small dollar, you can get the like Mignon G. Eberhart, John Creasey, Aga­ brand new Lam-Cool whodunit, which Erie tha Christie, Van Wyck Mason and many Stanley Gardner wrote under the pen name others have had their books selected. Many A. A. Fair—plus 4 of the newest and best are Club members themselves. Perry Mason mysteries. We'll add 4 spell­ Club selections are all newly published. binders from Agatha Christie's pen. And top You can get three of them each month com­ it all off with the newest books by Charlotte plete in one handsomely-bound triple vol­ Armstrong and Frank Gruber. ume (a $12.40 to $15.40 value in publish­ 11 full-length mysteries, bound into 5 ers' editions) for only $3.39. hard-cover books. In the publishers' original You don't have to take a volume each editions, these 11 cost month. The Club's $50.65. But you can Preview describes all have them all for $1 to coming selections. introduce you to the You may reject any Detective Book Club. volume before or Of the 300 or more after receiving it. You deteictive books that pay no money in ad­ come out each year, vance, no member­ the Club editors pick ship fee. You may the plums for you. Out­ cancel membership standing authors at any time.

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