bbie nodded violently. "Sure, Mister," he said. "Now, it's funny
you should ask. I hit the block once today and I was saying to myself,
I'll bet somebody's going to ask me about this. So when I was in town
I talked around with Si Deeds ... you know Si? Oh, no, you just
arrived today ... anyhow, I figured Si would know."

"And did he?" Malone said.

"Not a thing," the cabbie said. Malone sighed disgustedly and the
cabbie went on: "So I went over and talked to Bob Grindell. I figured,
there was action, Bob would know. And guess what?"

"He didn't know either," Malone said tiredly.

"Bob?" the cabbie said. "Say, Mister, you must be new here for sure,
if you say Bob wouldn't know what was going on. Why, Bob knows more
about this town than guys lived in it twice as long, I'll tell you.
Believe me, he knows."

"And what did he say?" Malone asked.

The cabbie paused. "About what?" he said.

"About the roadblock," Malone said distinctly.

"Oh," the cabbie said. "That. Well, that was a funny thing and no
mistake. There was this fight, see? And Shellenberger got in the
middle of it, see? So when he was dead they had to set up this
roadblock."

Malone restrained himself with some difficulty. "What fight?" he said.
"And who's Shellenberger? And how did he get in the way?"

"Mister," the cabbie said, "you must be new here."

"A remarkable guess," Malone said.

The cabbie nodded. "Sure must be," he said. "Gus Shellenberger's lived
here over ten years now. I drove him around many's the time. Remember
when he used to go out to this motel out on the outskirts there; there
was this doll he was interested in but it never came to much. He said
she wasn't right for his career, you know how guys like that are, they
got to be careful all the time. Never hit the papers or anything--I
mean with the doll and all--but people get to know things. You know.
So with this doll--"

"How long ago did all this happen?" Malone asked.

"The doll?" the cabbie said. "Oh, five-six years. Maybe seven. I
remember it was the year I got a new cab, business was pretty good,
you know. Seven, I guess. Garage made me a price, you know, I had to
be an idiot to turn it down? A nice price. Well, George Lamel who owns
the place, he's an old friend, you know? I did him some favors so he
gives me a nice price. Well, this new cab--"

"Can we get back to the present for a little while?" Malone said.
"There was this fight, and your friend Gus Shellenberger