Off in one corner of the room was a small writing desk almost buried under neat piles of paper and correspondence. I'd ignored it the last time I came through, but now I went over and gazed down at it. A
proper investigation should include a search of Amos's papers... but I had no right to pry like that.
Besides, if I found something significant, would I even know it? I still didn't really know what I was looking for. Resolutely, I started to turn away... and as I did, the return address on one of the envelopes caught my eye. It was that of a Las Vegas casino.
Frowning, I picked up the letter. It was unopened, postmarked the day before Amos's death. Feeling guilty, I opened it.
The message was very brief: Dear Mr. Potter, Thank you for your note of the 4th. We are quite interested in your proposal, and would very much like to discuss it in person with you. Please let us know when it would be convenient for us to fly you down for a meeting.
Thank you for your note of the 4th. We are quite interested in your proposal, and would very much like to discuss it in person with you. Please let us know when it would be convenient for us to fly you down for a meeting.
I reread the letter twice without making any more sense of it. What was Amos doing getting mixed up with Vegas casino owners? What kind of offer was he making? And was it pure coincidence that Amos had subsequently died in that very city?
Some of those questions might be answered if I could find the carbon of Amos's original letter, but a two-hour search convinced me that it wasn't anywhere in the house. Unless Amos had destroyed it or Mrs. Lederman had taken it away, there was only one other place it was likely to be. More than ever, now, I wanted to get to Amos's mountain retreat.
I was rudely awakened from a restless dream by an insistent knocking at the base of my mind, and it took me a second to realize that I was being contacted. Yes?
It was Gordy. Dale, are you all right?
Sure. I sneaked a look at my watch. Four thirty, and I was lying fully clothed on Amos's guest room bed.
Why do you ask?
When you hadn't checked in by midnight Calvin and I started getting worried. We thought something might have happened to you.
Just fatigue, I assured him. I'm sorry, though; I had intended to contact you last night. I guess I was more bushed than I thought. Listen, I may have something interesting here. Did you know Amos had a cabin in the Sierra?
Yes, but I don't know where it is.
I do. I repeated the location Mrs. Lederman had given me. I understand he did most of the work on his telepath finder up there; I'm going to go see how far he got with the gadget. And to check on something unexpected that's just cropped up. I described the contents of the letter I'd found.
What do you think it means? a new voice asked.
I jumped. Calvin? Damn, but you startled me-I didn't know you were listening in. Come to think of it, how come you're within range?
Because I'm in Salt Lake City, he explained. I flew here last night to give Gordy a hand in raising you.
Now, what about this letter?
I haven't the foggiest. But I think it might be important.
Maybe, Gordy said cautiously. I gather you'd like me to stay here in Vegas until you're finished with everything?
If you would. I think it would make things simpler if I didn't have to keep track of where you were going to be. Another day or two at the most.
Okay. Nelson will calm down eventually, I suppose.
How's that?
You didn't know? No, I guess not. He was going to fly up to Eureka after I left to attend Amos's funeral.
He was furious that we were delaying things so that you could go running around robbing Amos of his last shred of dignity.
That last was a direct quote, Calvin added.
I winced. Yeah. I'm sorry. But I still think it's got to be done.
We're not blaming you, Dale, Calvin said. Just finish up as quickly as possible, okay?
Will do, I promised. Look, I'd better let you two go. I'll contact you when I get to the cabin. Honest.
Gordy chuckled. Okay. See you.
I stared out the window at the predawn darkness for a full minute. Further sleep would be impossible; something in the back of my mind was urging speed. Swinging my legs over the edge of the bed, I located my shoes and headed to the kitchen for a fast breakfast.
Half an hour later I was driving towards the rising sun.
I'd half-expected Amos's cabin to be some rude shack on the side of a mountain, and was therefore vaguely surprised to find a quite modern-looking structure, complete with phone and power lines snaking their way down the mountain. With the key Mrs. Lederman had left me, I let myself in. The interior was as modern as the Eureka house, but not nearly as tidy; Mrs. Lederman probably didn't get up here very often. It was basically a single room, efficiency style, almost a third of which was taken up by a long work table holding about a ton of electronic equipment. In the center of the work table was Amos's telepath finder.
There was no doubt as to what it was. Clearly homemade, it consisted of a metal box the size of a portable tape player with a pivoting direction pointer protected by a plastic dome mounted on top. There were only two switches: on/off and general/tare. Calvin? Gordy? Anyone home?
Right here, Calvin answered. Where are you, Dale?
At Amos's cabin. I've found the telepath finder.
You made good time, Gordy grunted, sleep-cobwebs still evident in his mind. I'd forgotten they'd been up much of the night trying to contact me. What's it look like?
I described it for them. That's it? Calvin asked. No range meter or anything like that?
Nope. Maybe Amos planned to work on one next. Of course, you could always get range by triangulation.
Right. Have you tried it yet?
No. I wanted you two here when I did. Any ideas what this general/tare thing is?
That makes sense, I agreed. Okay, brace yourselves. Here goes.
With the second switch set at "general" I reached out and flipped the device on. Instantly, the needle on top swiveled around and came to a stop pointing at my belt buckle. I took a couple of steps to the right; the needle followed me. Seems to work, I told the others. Now I'll try it on "tare." I flipped the second switch and waited.
Nothing. The needle moved a fraction toward the west, but was still pointing at me when it stopped. I flipped the switch back and forth a couple of times, but the needle refused to move farther than a few degrees. This part isn't working.
You sure? Gordy asked.
Yeah. I'm standing on the finder's north side, so if it edits me out it should swing around to point south-east, where you two and Nelson are. It certainly shouldn't point north by west. I turned it off. We can worry about this later. I'm going to see if I can find that car'
One corner of the work table was piled with papers. Leafing through the whole stack would take only minutes; as it happened, my search was considerably snorter. I've found it.
Read it to us, Calvin said.
I skipped Amos's identification of himself and his list of credentials. The interesting part was in the second paragraph: It has recently come to my attention that one of our group has been making periodic visits to your area for the purpose of "gambling"-I use quotation marks because, for him, certain games will not be governed by chance. No names need be mentioned; I do not intend to aid you in catching or prosecuting him, but merely wish this unfair practice to stop. My efforts to dissuade him have failed, so as a last resort I am offering you a deterrent in the form of a telepath finder....
Gambling? Gordy seemed shocked. Who of us would do something like that? That's just crazy.
I think we all came up with the same name simultaneously. Calvin was the first to admit it. If Amos was right, there's only one of us who has really convenient access to Vegas, who can sneak in and out without too much risk of close-approach problems.