"Well," the Queen said, "at the very least you ought to _act_ like a detective." She sniffed audibly. "Sir Kenneth, I"m ashamed that a member of my own FBI can"t do any better than you"re doing now."
Malone blinked into the screen. He did feel ashamed in a vague sort of way, and he was willing to admit it. But he did feel, wistfully, that it would be nice to know just what he was being ashamed of. "Have I been missing something?" he said.
"Outside of the obvious," the Queen said, "that you"ve been missing your notebook--or rather Mike Fueyo"s notebook--"
"Yes?" Malone said.
"You certainly have," the Queen said. "Don"t you see what happened to that notebook? You"ve been missing the only possible explanation."
"But there isn"t any," Malone said. "Unless Miss Francis has it."
Her Majesty gave him a bright smile. "There!" she said.
"There, what?" Malone said.
"I knew you could do it," the Queen said. "All you had to do was apply your intelligence, and you"d come up with just the fact you needed."
"What fact?" Malone said.
"That Miss Francis has your notebook," the Queen said. "You just told me."
"All right," Malone said, and stopped and took a deep breath. "My G.o.d," he said after a pause. "What is that supposed to mean? Did I give it to her after all?"
"No," the Queen said.
"Did I lose it, and did she pick it up?"
"No," the Queen said.
"My G.o.d," Malone said again. "All right. I give up. Is this Twenty Questions?"
"Sir Kenneth!" the Queen said. "What a way to talk to your Queen!"
Malone took another breath. "I"m sorry," he muttered. "But--"
"Yes, I know," the Queen said sympathetically. "You"re upset. But you didn"t give Miss Francis the notebook, and she didn"t find it after you"d lost it."
"Then--" Malone stared. "She stole it. She stole it from me."
"I imagine she took it right from your jacket pocket," the Queen said.
"Now, if you"d only wear proper clothing, and a proper pouch at your belt--"
"I"d be stared at," Malone said. "In court clothing."
"No one in New York would stare at you," the Queen said. "They"d think it was what they call an advertising stunt."
"Anyhow," Malone said, "I wasn"t wearing court clothing. So that made it easy for her to steal the notebook. But why, for G.o.d"s sake? Why?"
"Because," the Queen said, "she needed it."
_"Needed it?"_ Malone shrieked.
"Please, Sir Kenneth," the Queen said. "Don"t talk to your Sovereign in that manner. And I do wish you"d stop thinking of that girl as Dorothy Francis. She isn"t at all, you know."
"No," Malone said. "I don"t know. If she isn"t Dorothy Francis, who in h.e.l.l is she?"
"Don"t swear, Sir Kenneth," the Queen said. "She"s Dorothea Francisca Fueyo, if you want to know."
Malone gulped. "Then she"s--"
"That"s right," the Queen said. "She"s little Miguel Fueyo"s older sister."
10
Malone put in a great deal of time, he imagined, just staring at the face of the little old lady on the screen. At last he spoke. "My G.o.d,"
he said. "Her name is Fueyo. I"ll be d.a.m.ned."
"I"ve told you," the Queen said with some asperity, "not to swear, Sir Kenneth."
"I know," Malone said. "But--"
"You"re excited," the Queen said. "You"re stunned. Goodness, you don"t need to tell me that, Sir Kenneth. I know."
"But she"s--" Malone discovered that he couldn"t talk. He swallowed a couple of times and then went on. "She"s Mike Fueyo"s sister."
"That"s exactly right, Sir Kenneth," the Queen said. "That"s just what I told you."
"Then she swiped the book to protect her little brother," Malone said.
"Oh, boy."
"Exactly, Sir Kenneth," the Queen said.
"And she doesn"t care about me at all," Malone said. "I mean, she only went out with me because I was me. Malone. And she wanted the notebook. That was all there was to it." He added an expletive. The Queen frowned, but said nothing about it.
"I wouldn"t say that if I were you," she went on. "Quite the contrary.
She does like you, you know. And she thinks you"re a very nice person." The Queen beamed. "You are, you know," she said.
"Oh," Malone said uncomfortably. "Sure."
"You don"t have to think that she merely went out with you because of her brother"s notebook," the Queen said. "But she does have a strong sense of loyalty--and he is--her younger brother, after all."
"He sure is," Malone said. "He"s a great kid, little Mike."
"You see," the Queen continued imperturbably, "Mike told her about losing the notebook the other night--when he struck you."
"When he struck me," Malone said. "Oh, yes. He struck me, all right."
"He guessed that you must have it when you started asking questions about the Silent Spooks, you see," the Queen said. "That was the only way you could have found out about him--unless you were telepathic.