"But--"
"To the Commissioner," Lynch said, "and to n.o.body else. If this gets into the papers, heads will roll."
"My head is rolling right now," the local man said. "Know what one of those kids did? Stood in front of a floor lamp. I swung at him and he vanished. Vanished! I hit the lamp, and then the lamp hit me."
"Just see that this doesn"t get out," Lynch said.
"It can"t," the local man said. "Anybody who mentioned this to a reporter would just be laughed out of town. It"s not possible." He paused thoughtfully, and added, "We"d all be laughed out of town."
"And probably replaced with the FBI," Lynch said morosely. He looked at Malone. "Nothing personal, you understand," he said.
"Of course," Malone said. "We can"t do any more here, can we?"
"I don"t think we can do any more anywhere," Lynch said. "Let"s lock the place up and leave and forget all about it."
"Fine," Malone said. "I"ve got work to do." He looked around, found Dorothea and signaled to her. "Come on, Dorothea. Where"s Boyd?"
"Here I am," Boyd said, walking slowly across the big room to Malone.
He had one hand held to his chin.
"What"s the matter with you?" Malone asked.
Boyd took his hand away. There was a bald spot the size of a quarter on the point of his chin. "One of those kids," he said sadly, "has a h.e.l.l of a strong grip. Come on, Miss Fueyo. Come on, Malone. Let"s get out of here."
13
"Logically," Malone said, "there has to be _some_ way to catch them."
He looked around the hotel room as though he expected to find an answer painted in big black letters on the wall. "Logically," he said again, and tried to think of what came next. He liked the sound of the word, but that was as far as it went.
"That"s fine," Boyd said. He sat on a chair, staring gloomily at the floor and rubbing the bald spot on his chin with a single, sad, inquisitive forefinger. "There has to be an answer. You"re probably right. But what the h.e.l.l is it?"
Malone started to answer, and then wondered what he had been going to say. He sunk himself in thought. There was a knock at the door. "Who"s there?" he called, glad of any relief at all.
"It"s me," a small voice said. "Dorothea."
"Come in," Malone said.
The door opened. Dorothea came in, shut the door behind her, and looked around the room a little awkwardly.
"Did you get a good night"s sleep?" Malone said.
She nodded. "I guess so," she said. "Sure. It was nice of you to get me a room for the night. I mean, I guess I was--well..."
"Forget it," Malone said grandly. "You were upset and tired, that"s all. h.e.l.l, in the car on the way back here last night, you fainted."
"I did not faint," she said.
"Well," Malone said, "you sure looked like--"
"I was tired," Dorothea said.
Malone shrugged. "Okay. You were tired."
"You"re not mad, are you," she said, "because I stole your notebook?"
"Of course not," Malone said. "I said forget it, didn"t I? Sit down and help us out."
"Help you?" she said.
"That"s right," Boyd said. "Help us figure out how to catch this bunch of maniacs before they steal everything in New York."
Dorothea said, "Maniacs? I--" and Malone interrupted her in a hurry.
"Police Commissioner Fernack has called twice this morning already,"
he said. "He"s screaming about all the burglaries that have been occurring since midnight last night."
"Oh," Dorothea said. "You mean the Spooks? Mike and the others?
They"ve been stealing again?"
"They sure have, Miss Fueyo," Boyd said.
"I guess they"re furnishing their new hideout," Malone said. "Wherever it is. Only G.o.d knows."
"And even if He told us," Boyd said, "it wouldn"t do us any good.
Chase "em out of there, and they"d go somewhere else."
Malone stood up, fished for his cigarettes and lit one. "What we need," he said, blowing out smoke, "is some way to trap "em and hold "em. And I don"t see how we can do either."
"After last night," Dorothea said, "I really don"t see--"
"Wait a minute," Boyd said. "You said _trap_, didn"t you?" He looked slowly and speculatively at Dorothea Fueyo.
A second pa.s.sed.
"Oh, no, you don"t!" she said. "Oh, no. Not on your life. I"ll help catch him if I can, because I know you don"t mean to hurt him or the others. But I wouldn"t want Mike to know about it. You"re not using me as bait in any trap."
Boyd looked at Malone, shook his head slowly, and said disconsolately, "Well, it was an idea." He returned his gaze to the floor.
The furtive gleam of the half bottle of bourbon on Malone"s dresser caught his eye. He"d had it sent up the night before, feeling the need of some medicinal refreshment. Now it winked at him. He ignored it resolutely. "Dorothea," he said.
"Yes?"
"Dorothea, do you have any idea how far one of those kids can go when he teleports?"
"No," Dorothea said. "I really haven"t any idea about any of it. Mike tried to teach me once, but I guess I just don"t have the talent."
"Oh," Malone said.