"I was getting
pretty tired of sitting around waiting for something to break on this
case," he said, "and I couldn't sleep, so I went out for a walk. I
ended up in Greenwich Village--which is a hell of a place for a
self-respecting man to end up."

"I know just what you mean," Sam said sympathetically. "Bohemians,
they call themselves. Crazy people."

"Not the people," Malone said. "The streets. I got sort of lost."
Chicago, he reflected, was a long way from the easiest city in the
world to get around in. And he supposed you could even get confused in
Washington if you tried hard enough. But he knew those cities. He
could find his way around in them. Greenwich Village was different.

It was harder to navigate in than the trackless forests of the Amazon.
The Village had tracks, all right--thousands of tracks. Only none of
them led anywhere in particular.

"Anyhow," Malone said, "I saw this red Cadillac."

The cops looked around hurriedly and then looked back at Malone. Bill
started to say, "But there isn't any--"

"I know," Malone said. "It's gone now. That's the trouble."

"You mean somebody got in and drove it away?" Sam said.

"For all I know," Malone said, "it sprouted wings and flew away." He
paused. "When I saw it, though--when I saw it, I decided to go over
and have a look. Just in case."

"Sure," Bill said. "Makes sense." He stared at his partner as if
defying him to prove it didn't make sense. Malone didn't really care.

"There wasn't anybody else on the street," he said, "so I walked over
and tried the door. That's all. I didn't even open the car or
anything. And I'll swear there was nobody behind me."

"Well," Sam said, "the street was empty when we got here."

"But a guy could have driven off in that red Cadillac before we got
here," Bill said.

"Sure," Malone said. "But where did he come from? I figured maybe
somebody dropped something by mistake--a safe or something. Because
there wasn't anybody behind me."

"There had to be," Bill said.

"Well," Malone said, "there wasn't."

There was a little silence.

"What happened then?" Sam said. "After you tried the door handle, I
mean."

"Then?" Malone said. "Then I went out like a light."

A pair of headlights rounded the nearby corner. Bill looked up.
"That's the prowl car," he announced, and went over to meet it.

The driver was a solidly built little man with the face of a
Pekingese. His partner, a tall man who looked as if he'd have b