was a sizable amount of
cash ... with the exception of Mrs. Folsom who's been the next thing
to a flip for years anyway. She was in danger. And you three stood a
good chance of letting Grady wreck your lives. I said he's a competent
hypnotist. He is. Also a completely ruthless one."

He looked at Mavis. "As far as I know, Mavis, you haven't ever
demonstrated that you have any interesting extrasensory talents like
Dexter's and Perrie's. Rather the contrary. Right?"

She nodded, her eyes huge.

"I've always tested negative. Way down negative. That's why I was
really rather shocked when that.... Of course, I've always been
fascinated by such things. And he insisted it would show up in me
sometime."

"And," Cavender said, "several times a week you had special little
training sessions with him, just as his two star pupils here did, to
help it show up. You were another perfect stooge, from Grady's point
of view. Well, what it amounts to is that Grady was preparing to make
his big final killing off this group before he disappeared from the
city. He would have collected close to thirty thousand dollars
tonight, and probably twice as much again within the next month or so
before any of the students began to suspect seriously that Dr. Al's
instruments could be the meaningless contraptions they are.

"You three have been hypnotically conditioned to a fare-you-well in
those little private sessions you've had with him. During the past
week you were set up for the role you were to play tonight. When you
got your cue--at a guess it was Mrs. Folsom's claim that she'd seen
the ham sandwich materialize--you started seeing, saying, acting, and
thinking exactly as you'd been told to see, say, act, and think.
There's no more mystery about it than that. And in my opinion you're
three extremely fortunate young people in that we were ready to move
in on Grady when we were."

* * * * *

There was silence for a moment. Then Perrie Rochelle said hesitantly,
"Then Mrs. Folsom...."

"Mrs. Folsom," Cavender said, "has also enjoyed the benefits of many
private sessions with Grady. She, of course, was additionally paying
very handsomely for them. Tonight, she reported seeing what she'd been
told to report seeing, to set off the hypnotic chain reaction."

"But," Perrie said, "she said her heart attacks stopped after she
started using the instrument. I really don't see how that could have
been just her imaginat