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Sector. The landing area covered nearly an acre, and the restaurant
itself was a large plastiglass dome trimmed with neon tubing that sat
at the center of the white-paved field. The silver-plated,
light-trimmed carhop robots moved from the building to the surrounding
circles of cars on jet skates
Jake and Bev were sitting in her car near the edge of the field.
Stirring her second cup of nearcaf, Bev said, "My agency is a whole lot
smaller than Cosmos, but we're just as efficient. I'm going to win
this one."
"Is that what you wanted to talk about'?. A contest between our
detective agencies?"
"It isn't a contest, Jake, that's what I'm trying to get across to
you." She sipped at her nearcaf. "I've got a substantial head start
on this Bower case. You and Gomez are never going to catch up."
Jake grinned. "I guess we better return Barry Zangerly's fee and head
for the showers."
"Well, that isn't too bad an idea. I know you probably won't quit--but
I still wanted to warn you not to be disappointed when
I wrap this up before you guys can even get going."
"I'll alert Sid."
"How is he, by the way?" "He was okay when I saw him this
morning. After he hears you're going to trounce us, though, he may
break down and sob."
"I like Gomez."
"Almost all women do, he has universal appeal." Jake tapped his
forefinger against the side of his cup. "Where's Alicia
Bower?"
Bev laughed. "That's one piece of information I'm not going to
share."
"Do you know?"
"I have a pretty fair idea." "You don't think she's dead?" "No, not
at all."
"Or that she's been abducted?"
"I've been on this a few days longer than you. I know a lot more about
her background and character."
"Is Myra Ettinger your main source of facts?"
"She's one of them, obviously. Since, because of Bower's illness,
she's the person who actually hired me."
"Is her version of Alicia's character backed up by what you've dug up
so far?"
"Pretty much so, Jake." Bev drank some more of the nearcaf.
"Alicia is a disturbed young woman. She has a long history of mental
problems--and this wouldn't be the first time she's disappeared.
Almost always with a man."
"Do you have proof that's what she's done this time?" Bev looked out
into the night. "That I can't discuss." "Okay, let's say she simply
decided to spend a few days with somebody. Why did that trio of goons
rough up Barry?" "To discourage him from looking for her, bothering
her." "And who hired them?"
"It could be the man she's with, who doesn't want his romantic idyll
busted in on by a disgruntled suitor," suggested the private
investigator. "Alicia herself might have sent them to keep Barry from
annoying her." Jake grinned again. "Has she hired thugs
before?"
"Not exactly, though she is supposed to have a nasty side." "After
trying to scare Barry off--then she sent the same gang to work me over,
huh? Not wanting me to interrupt her romance either."
"That sounds perfectly plausible to me, Jake."
"Has anyone threatened you or tried to hurt you?"
Her forehead wrinkled. "Not yet, but that doesn't mean--" "You've been
working on this a hell of a lot longer than we have, but nobody seems
upset by your activities," he told her. "Even before I knew myself
that I was going to work on this mess, somebody came after me."
"What are you talking about?"
He told her about the robot priest at the Glendale Sector cemetery. He
concluded, "Tonight, to lure me into walking into this latest trap,
they used either the real Bower or a simulacrum."
"Owen Bower would never be a party to any--"
"Okay, then it was an android dupe or a very convincing hologram," he
said. "The point, Bev, is that none of this sounds to me like
something a love crazed runaway is likely to do."
"Why not? Alicia has a great deal of money of her own, so financing it
wouldn't be very difficult for her. And she's often run off with older
men, richer older men."
"Do you have any evidence that she tapped her Bam accounts since she
vanished?"
"That's something else I'm not sharing."
"Actually, you're not sharing much of anything," he said. "Frankly,
Bev, I think you're being conned on this one."
"Why would my own client want to lead me astray?" she asked.
He said, "That's one of the things I'm going to find out."
TO
Dan WAS IN the living room with a laptop book reader when Jake got
home.
"No date tonight?" he asked his son.
"Homework. How about you?"
Grinning, Jake sat on the arm of the low sofa. "Mostly business," he
answered as he tugged off one of his boots. "Though
I did run into Bev Kendricks."
Dan clicked off the reader. "I told you that you ought to look her
up."
"She looked me up actually."
"Hey, that's even better. It shows that she's interested in--"
"It shows, Daniel, that she happens to be working on the same case that
Sid and I are working on."
"You haven't told me about this new one yet."
After getting his other boot pulled off, Jake settled down on the sofa.
He filled Dan in on the Alicia Bower disappearance and what had
happened to him today.
When he finished, his son said, "You know, Molly knows somebody who's
going to that Oceanfront People's Clinic. I bet we could--"
"Homework," cut in Jake. "You concentrate on that. You and Molly are,
I admit, crackerjack investigators, but you're not to--"
"Dad, in one day..." He held up a forefinger. "In one single damn day
they tried to kill you twice. I don't like the idea of some unknown
hoods trying--"
"I'm not especially fond of the notion myself. But I don't want you
getting tangled up in this," Jake warned. "And possibly that second
attack was only going to be a beating and not a murder attempt."
"Oh, okay, great. Then I'll quit worrying about that one." He tossed
the reader on the floor. "Have they identified those nree.
"Not yet, but we'll know by morning," answered his father. "They'll
just turn out to be heavies for hire."
"I agree with you about Bev Kendricks's view of things. She's either
letting them sidetrack her or... well, you know her better than I do.
Could she be lying to you, trying to put you on the wrong trail?"
Standing, Jake walked barefoot over to the balcony window. "She was an
honest cop," he said, looking out into the night. "That was some years
ago."
"Then you suspect she--"
"It doesn't matter what she's up to, Dan. Gomez and I will keep
working on this our way."
"Seems to me that you're dealing with a group here, some sort of
organization." Getting up, he went over to stand near his father.
"They can hire thugs, robots, androids. They knew you were going to be
assigned to this case just about from the minute
Barry Zangerly's brother talked to Gomez last night." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]