Free The Intimidators by Donald Hamilton Page A

after years of success, Eric. Sometimes they even get the feeling they’re bulletproof, and charge stupidly into the muzzles of loaded firearms, barehanded.”
    I grimaced at the instrument on the wall of the booth, and said, “Yes, sir.”
    “However, you may have a point,” he went on, without a change of tone. “I will make inquiries, but I can promise nothing. Our fellow agencies are seldom receptive to suggestions that they may have been inefficient, not to say gullible. Particularly when they were promised information from us that has not, so far, been forthcoming; information, the most likely source of which has just received a simple but Christian funeral.”
    I said, “We don’t need the Mink any more. We stopped needing him the instant I saw where his gun was pointing.”
    “You may be right. But in his absence we do need Miss Lacey Matilda Rockwell.”
    I was glad to hear him say it, confirming my own belated realization that it had actually been very clever of me to keep the girl alive, although I hadn’t been aware of it at the time. Investigating a living subject that can talk is generally easier than investigating a dead one that can’t. There were a good many things we needed to know, now—or somebody did—about the unlikely little female specimen the Mink had come such a long way to kill.
    “Yes, sir,” I said.
    “According to the reports I have, you seem to be doing everything in your power to rebuff and antagonize the young lady. I presume you have a reason.”
    I wondered if Fred was sending in critical comments about my handling of the situation because I’d hurt his feelings at the hospital. Well, there’s always a certain amount of friction between the people on the spot and the visiting experts they’re obliged to serve—there’s often the feeling, locally, that they should have been allowed to handle the job without the intervention of imported talent. Nevertheless, I kind of wished the guy had taken it up with me, if he had a criticism, instead of passing it on to Washington.
    “Yes, sir,” I said. “It’s a matter of psychology, sir.”
    “Indeed?”
    I said, “I had to figure out a way to keep her on ice, so to speak. If I’d just taken that police business in my stride, she could have gone off with a clear conscience, and I might have had considerable trouble finding her again, not to mention establishing a useful relationship with her. Now it should be fairly easy. She’s got to come to me. As long as I persist in misunderstanding her so cruelly and treating her so rudely, she’s got to hang around and try to straighten me out. She’s got to convince me, somehow, that she’s really a swell and sensitive person who really appreciates my saving her life; and that she only set me up for the Nassau cops and their electronics for my own good.” I was watching a slim black girl in red boots, brown hose, and red hotpants. She was gone before I could complete my appraisal upward. Nevertheless, I decided that Nassau was really quite a picturesque place in spite of the hotel’s plastic-wrapped marmalade. I went on: “Hell, I had to give myself a little time, -sir. I had to stall until my head stopped pounding and I was out of bed and could figure out what to do next—assuming that you did want me to proceed with the assignment.”
    “Your assumption was correct. We took this job under certain conditions; we’re more or less obliged to fulfill those conditions. How are you feeling now, Eric?”
    It was nice of him to ask, after all. I said, “I’m fine, sir. The medical profession assures me no brains were spilled or scrambled. All that remains visible is a slightly oversized bandaid.” At least I was a lot healthier than Pavel Minsk, I reflected, and continued: “Did you know that Miss Rockwell is in the Islands looking for a brother missing at sea out in the so-called Bermuda Triangle? No wreckage, no lifebelts, no bodies washed ashore—well, body, singular. Harlan