She fingered her unsteady chin. “A good plan?”
“See what you think. By unwritten agreement, the asteroid home of their Chief cannot be harmed. We have studied him for four years, ever since the old Chief was... uh... removed. One of the young ones has come up with a plan. Their Chief uses a tiny one-man craft when he goes to the asteroid, but he is guarded every moment of the flight by one of their strongest ships. They track him just as carefully as we do.
“A perfect duplicate of his little craft has been made. We have had a substitute ready now for three years, with never a chance to arrange the substitution. The plan is to smuggle the substitute and the duplicate ship onto one of the big freighters. Then it depends on timing.
“The ship which guards him on the return trip from the asteroid is too fast for the duty. So it lies on the Strada side as he comes in. Our freighter will fake takeoff trouble and cut between the little craft and the guard ship. They won’t dare open up for fear of harming their own Chief.
“Our best technicians will grapple him and freeze him before he realizes what has gone wrong and then the substitute will be ejected hard enough and soon enough so that he can curve back into the path of observation by the guard ship.
“Then to allay any suspicion the freighter will request the assistance of Center technicians and by that time it will be genuinely out of order. But another of ours, a fast one, will be close enough to lay alongside and offer assistance. Their Chief will be moved into the fast ship fast and by the time the substitution is discovered we’ll have him safe.”
“Where?”
“Right here, Renaen. Right here, of course.”
“I like it!”
“I knew you would.”
“We’ll kill him?”
“After we find out how much we can get from him.”
“We won’t get much from him. I can tell you that right now.”
“You, Renaen, will have some of the pleasure of trying.”
“You are a true friend, Dolpha.”
“It is more pleasant with just the two of us, isn’t it?”
“Indeed it is,” he said jovially. And he thought how much better it would be with only one.
A young agent announced his desire to speak to Dolpha and was admitted. He gave the traditional salute. “Reporting, sir, that we did not receive your approval in sufficient time to intercept. That is if you have decided to approve. Their Chief is now too close to attempt the operation safely.”
“It is to be put into effect when he makes his next trip out there.”
“Very well, sir.”
Jake Ingram studied the girl who sat on the oak chair beside his cigarette-scarred desk. He wore khakis with sweat darkened patches under the arms and across the broad back. His gunbelt was hung on the back of his chair.
“You said your name is Kaynan?”
“Martha Kaynan, lieutenant.”
He looked at her oddly colored level eyes. A bit more here than meets the eye. Nerve and intelligence, probably. Nice and clean looking. Probably cuddle and purr like a little old kitty-cat if the mood was right. And if the guy was right.
He laboriously forced such speculation out of his mind. “That’s quite a lump you got there, Miss.”
“It doesn’t hurt now.”
He yawned and pulled the memo pad over closer to his right hand, took the pencil stub out of the desk drawer. Last night had been rough. Two of the wetbacks had got into a cutting scrape in one of the groves east of town.
“What’s your address here?”
“I’m a house guest at a place on the beach south of Port Isabel. It was rented by Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Raymond. For six months, I believe.”
“Grey beat-up job about three and a half — four miles south?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s the old Coster place. Yeah, I remember hearing it was rented. Just the three of you out there?”
“One other guest, a Mr. Quinn French. I’ve known him for about two years. I’d never met the Raymonds before.”
“What seems to be the trouble?”
“Last night — about midnight I guess it was — Mrs. Raymond and I had a — you could call it a fight, I guess, on the beach. She — hit me with a rock.”
One of Jake Ingram’s eyebrows crawled up toward his hair line. “Want to swear out a warrant?”
“Oh, no! Nothing like that.”
Jake sighed and laid the pencil stub down. “Then what do you want?”
“I want someone to come out there and — and look around just to see if there’s anything wrong.” The words began to come in a great flood. “I was knocked out and when I came to again Quinn was there and Fran Raymond was like — like a monkey. It was horrible.
“And I fainted and when I came to again she was gone and neither Jerry nor Quinn would tell me where she went. She looked and acted insane and I don’t know what they’ve done to her. I’m sure Quinn wouldn’t do anything but the three of them have acted so funny and they can do funny things to your head just by thinking at you. But if you think hard of a brick wall or some solid thing—”
“Hey, lady! Hey, take is easy!” Jake said. “Don’t get yourself all worked up. Let us get this straight. You think something might have happened to Mrs. Raymond. Is that right?”
“Yes, lieutenant.”
“That’s better. Calm and easy does it. Now what would you like for me to do? You got a car here?”
“Mr. French’s car.”
“Okay, lady. I’ll follow you on back out there and we’ll see about this thumping people on the head with rocks. About all the rest of that thinking of brick walls stuff — I don’t want to be out of line but maybe you need a rest.”
She stood up. “I’ll be very grateful, lieutenant. And please do one other thing for me. No matter what I say or do, please don’t leave me there. I want to get my suitcases and come back into town with you. I’m — afraid.”
“Glad to do that, lady. Glad to help.” He buckled on the gun belt. “Shall we go and take a look?”
The house looked deserted when Martha drove Quinn’s convertible into the parking space beside it. The sedan was there. The lieutenant drove up beside her and they both got out, clunking the car doors shut behind them.
A tall black-haired good-looking woman came hurrying out of the house toward them, two men coming more slowly behind her. The Kaynan girl gave a little cry and moved back but the taller woman put her arms around the Kaynan girl, half-laughing and half-crying, begging the Kaynan girl to forgive her.
“Is this Mrs. Raymond?” Jake asked.
“Yes, it is,” Martha said.
Jake scowled and tucked his thumbs inside the gunbelt. He addressed himself to the two men. “Just what happened out here last night?”
The smaller man looked uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, officer. My wife hasn’t been herself for some time. She’s recovering now. But once in a while there’s a lapse. I don’t blame Martha for getting upset. It was my fault that it happened at all. I just didn’t hear Fran get out of bed.” He turned to Martha. “I don’t know how to tell you how sorry we are, Martha. It won’t happen again.”
The tall woman clung to Martha, smiling through her tears.
Jake said, uncomfortably, “Well, unless Miss Kaynan wants to charge Mrs. Raymond, I don’t see how I come into it at all. You want to get your bags now, Miss Kaynan? I’ll wait for you.”
Mrs. Raymond broke into fresh tears. “Martha, honey, please don’t leave just because this horrible thing happened. I’ll never forgive myself, never!”
Jake thought Miss Kaynan looked a little like a sleepwalker as she turned toward him and smiled and said, “Please forget what I said in town about going back with you no matter what I might say. I’ve just been silly about this. You can see that Mrs. Raymond is perfectly all right.”