Three to Conquer (24 page)

             
"You bet you have," agreed Norris. "But you can't do it there."

             
Throwing him an ugly look, Harper said to Moira, "Much more of this and you can have the business as a gift, you being the only one left to cope with it unchi
vv
ied."

             
"Hurry up!" urged Norris. "Never mind the gripes."

             
Harper did as bidden, went out, followed him down to the car and clambered in.

             
"They think they know where McDonald has hidden himself," Norris explained.

-

             
After a brief run, the car halted at one end of a long, tree-lined road sided by tidy bungalows. No other official cruisers were in sight as Norris pointed through the windshield and spoke.

             
"It's a pink-washed house halfway down on the left. The boys are keeping clear of it so as not to raise an alarm. We
'
ll roll casually past. Take a look as we go by and tell me what you think."

             
He shifted into gear and let the car move forward at modest pace. They trundled by the pink house, which had a close-clipped lawn in front and a garage at one side. Nobody could be seen about the place; nobody maintained a lookout from a window. Reaching the end of the road, Norris parked by the curb.

             
"What's the verdict?"

             
"Nothing doing."

             
Norris registered acute disappointment. "Are you sure of that?"

             
"We'll circle around and try again, if you're not satisfied."

             
They circled.

             
"Nothing doing," repeated Harper. "For all I can tell, the house is empty." He glanced at the other. "How did you get a line on this address?"

             
"One of our agents went the rounds of the taxi companies, on the theory that if it was McDonald who made those calls to the Baum house,
he
did not walk to or from the booths. The agent found a driver who recognized McDonald's picture, claimed to have picked him up after midnight and run him to this place."

             
"After which McDonald walked around the corner and made for wherever his sanctuary really is," Harper suggested.

             
"The driver saw him use a key and go in. That's likely enough. After all, McDonald isn't a hardened crook, wise in the ways of the underworld. He would be naive enough not to think of a taxi-trace."

             
"That's so. Anyway, all I can tell you is that he isn't there at this moment. Maybe he's in my office making preparations for my return. Moira wouldn't like that. Let's go back."

             
"Bide your time," Norris ordered. "Your correspondence can wait. It'll wait a hell of a while when you're dead, won't it?"

             
"I'll worry none at that stage. I don't have to eat then."

             
Taking no notice, Norris pondered a moment and decided, "I'll take a chance on setting off the alarm." Turning the car round, he drove to house standing next to the pink one. A middle-aged woman was at the door watching him. He beckoned to her and she crossed her lawn, examined him with beady-eyed curiosity. "Can you tell me who lives next door?" he asked, pointing.

             
"Mr. and Mrs. Reed."

             
"Nobody else?"

             
"No. They have no family; they're not the kind who would, I reckon." She thought again, added, "
They've
a nephew staying with them just now.' He's from somewhere out West, so I've heard."

             
"Would this be the nephew?" inquired Norris, showing her McDonald's photograph.

             
"Yes. Only he looks a bit older than that."

             
Norris took a deep breath. "How long has he been rooming there?"

             
"About a week."
She reconsidered, went on, "Yes, I first saw him last Thursday." Her sharp eyes studied his plain clothes, had a look at the car. Her mind showed her to be impressed by Norris's official tones. "Are you
police
?"

             
"If we were, we'd have said so," Norris evaded. "We just want to make sure of the Reed's address."

             
"That's their house all right," she confirmed. "But you won't find anyone in; they took their car out this morning and haven't come back."

             
"About what time did they leave?"

             
"Eight o'clock. And they were in a real hurry, I can tell you that."

             
"Don't happen to know where they've gone, do you?" put in Norris, with faint hope.

             
"Oh, no.
They said nothing to me and I didn't ask. I mind my own affairs and leave other people to mind theirs."

             
"Quite proper of you," said Norris. "I suppose there's nothing for it but to come back later when they're in."

             
"Heaven knows when that will be," she volunteered. "They took a lot of luggage with them. It gave me the idea that they were going for quite a piece."

             
Norris asked, "Have they any friends locally who might put us in touch with them?"

             
"Not that I know of," she answered. "Those Reeds aren't' overly sociable and became even less so after that nephew arrived. In fact, if you ask me, they've been downright surly these last few days. Wouldn't speak unless spoken to, and then said no more than they could help. Acted as if I were a complete stranger to them—me, who's lived next door for twelve years. It made me wonder what on earth had come over them. That nephew had something to do with it, I'm sure."

             
Harper put in, "Who told you that he was their nephew?"

             
"Mrs. Reed. I said to her, 'Who's the young man?" and she gave me a sharp look and snapped,
'J
ust
a nephew
'
.
"

             
"Thanks for the information," said Norris. He got the car going while she remained on the lawn and showed deep disappointment at giving so much and learning so little.

             
"If that female minds her own business," remarked Harper, as they rounded the end comer, "how much might we get out of someone who doesn't?"

             
Norris grunted and offered no comment.

             
"What do you propose to do about McDonald?" Harper pursued. "Are you going to stake this place as thoroughly as you've staked mine?"

             
"It has been watched continually since nine o'clock, but evidently we started an hour too late. And although you saw no sign of the fact, it's still under observation." He weaved the car through traffic, went on, "First thing is to get the tag-number of the Reed car from the vehicle registration bureau and put out a general call for it. The second step is to have that house searched, on some pretext or other. The third is to find how and where McDonald picked up the Reeds and, more important, whether he's had contact with anyone else besides the Reeds and the Baums. Lastly, I want to know how he's managed to smuggle himself out of this area. Maybe he's hidden somewhere nearby."

             
"We
'
ll soon learn." Norris drove another mile, asked, "Well, what are you thinking about?"

             
"Langley's dead. McDonald's not too far
away,
and now being sought."

             
"What of it?"

             
"Strange that there hasn't been a whisper about the third fellow, Gould."

             
"No, there hasn't," Norris admitted. "He appears to have vanished into thin air. That proves nothing except that luck
run
better with some than with others."

             
"If it
is
luck."

             
"What do you mean?"

             
"It doesn't have to be luck. Perhaps he's the cleverest of the three, a really crafty character.
If so, he is also the most dangerous."

             
"He'll fall over his own feet eventually," Norris assured. "They always do
!"

             
"I've been the subject of a nation-wide hunt myself," Harper pointed out. "Admittedly, it wasn't so urgent and intensive
—
but I had to jump around plenty to stay free. I know what it means to be on the run, which is more than you do, always having been the chaser and never the chased. The man who can disappear like Gould is good. He's too good for comfort."

             
"That won't save him forever."

             
"We haven't got forever. Time is running short. Every day, every hour counts against us." He shoved open the door as they halted at their destination. "You know only as much as they've seen fit to tell you. I'll tell you something more."

             
"What's that?"

             
"If progress proves too slow for success, if we're compelled to face defeat, you'll have another bird's egg in your mental nest before the new year. You'll be really cuckoo, in a new and novel sense of the term. Just like everyone else. At least you'll be in the fashion—when it's the latest thing to be one of the walking dead
!"

-

             
Business was stalled again the next morning, before he had time even to look through the mail. Harper arrived at the office, having been tailed by his escort all the way from home, removed his hat and made ready to sling it onto a hook.

             
"Don't let go," advised Norris. "Haul it back and stick it on your head. You're departing right away."

             
"Where to?"

             
"I don't know; they haven't seen fit to confide in me."

             
That was true enough. Norris's mind held no more information than that an official car had arrived to take Harper somewhere else, that he would be away the full day and that the guard was commanded, to maintain its watch on the plant during his absence.

             
Harper did not argue the matter this time; he was becoming resigned to the situation. Replacing the hat, he went outside and entered the car, in which sat only a driver.

             
As they moved off, a second machine bearing four men followed close behind. Around the corner, a third car suddenly pulled out from the curb and took the lead. This one also held a hard-looking quartet.

             
"Quite a cavalcade," Harper remarked. "Somebody is according me the importance I've long deserved."