Free Hood of Death by Nick Carter Page A

— your field."
    "O.K., thanks. And what are you doing next Wednesday night?" The urge to ask the question came to Nick as he remembered Jeanyee's plans. What if several of the mysterious girls were going away on "business?" "I'm going to an Iranian do at the Hilton — like to go?"
    She sounded genuinely regretful. "Oh Jerry, I'd love to, but I'm going to be tied up all week."
    "All week! Are you going away?"
    "Well — yes, I'll be out of town most of the week."
    "It'll be a dull week for me," he said. "See you about six, Ruth. Pick you up at your home?"
    "Please."
    After he hung up he sat down on the carpet in the lotus position and began a run-through of Yoga breathing and muscular control exercises. He had progressed — after some six years of practice — to the point where he could look at the pulse in the wrist upturned on his bent knee and see it quicken or slow down as he willed it After fifteen minutes he deliberately turned his mind back to the problem of the strange deaths, the Baumann Ring, and Jeanyee and Ruth. He liked both the girls. They were strange in certain ways, but the unique and different had always intrigued him. He ran through the events in Maryland, Hawk's comments and Ruth's odd illness at the Cushing dinner. You could make a pattern out of them, or you could admit that the linking threads might all be coincidence. He could not recall feeling quite so helpless on a case... with a choice of answers but nothing to check them against.
    He dressed in maroon slacks and a white polo shirt and went down and drove him toward Gallaudet College in the Bird. He followed New York Avenue, turned right on Mt. Olivet and saw the man waiting for him at the junction with Bladensburg Road.
    The man had the double invisibility of complete ordinariness plus a shabby, slump-shouldered dejection which caused you to subconsciously pass him by quickly in order that the poverty or unhappiness of his world should not invade your own. Nick stopped, the man climbed in quickly and he drove on toward Lincoln Park and the John Philip Sousa Bridge.
    Nick said, "When I saw you I wanted to buy you a square meal and tuck a five-dollar bill in your shabby pocket."
    "You may," Hawk replied. "I haven't had lunch. Pick up some hamburgers and milks at that place near the Naval Annex. We can eat them in the car."
    Although Hawk did not acknowledge the compliment, Nick knew he enjoyed it. The older man could do wonders with a shabby jacket Even a pipe or cigar or old hat could change his appearance completely. It was not the object... Hawk had the
knack
of becoming old and worn and dejected, or arrogant and stiff and pompous, or dozens of other types. He was an expert at genuine disguise. Hawk could disappear because he became everyman.
    Nick described his evening with Jeanyee. "...then I took her home. She'll be away next week. I think Ruth Moto will be too. Could they all be getting together somewhere?"
    Hawk took a slow sip of milk. "Took her home at dawn, eh?"
    "Yes."
    "Oh, to be young again and out in the field. You entertain beautiful girls. Alone with them for — would you say four or five hours? I slave in a dull office."
    "We talked about Chinese jade," Nick said blandly. "It's her hobby."
    "I happen to know Jeanyee's hobbies include some with more action."
    "So you don't spend all your time in the office. Which disguise did you use? I'd guess something like Clifton Webb in the old movies on TV?"
    "You're close. Do you youngsters good to see the polished techniques." He dropped the dead pan and chuckled. Then went on, "We have an idea where the girls may be going. There's a week-long party — it's called a business conference — at the Lord estate in Pennsylvania. Top drawer international businessmen. Primarily steel, aircraft and of course munitions."
    "No oil men?"
    "No. Your Jerry Deming role wouldn't go over, anyway. You've met too many people lately. But you're the man who ought to go."
    "What about Lou Karl?"
    "He's in