emed to be pleading for something--understanding,
possibly, Malone thought. "Frankly," Boyd said, "I'd rather not tell
you anything about her just yet. I'd rather you met her first. Then
you could make up your own mind. All right?"

"All right," Malone said wearily. "Do it your own way. How far do we
have to go?"

"Just about an hour's drive," Boyd said. "That's all."

Malone slumped back in the seat and pushed his hat over his eyes.
"Fine," he said. "Suppose you wake me up when we get there."

But, groggy as he was, he couldn't sleep. He wished he'd had some
coffee on the plane. Maybe it would have made him feel better.

Then again, coffee was only coffee. True, he had never acquired his
father's taste for gin (and imagined, therefore, that it wasn't
hereditary, like a taste for blondes), but there was always bourbon.

He thought about bourbon for a few minutes. It was a nice thought. It
warmed him and made him feel a lot better. After a while, he even felt
awake enough to do some talking.

He pushed his hat back and struggled to a reasonable sitting position.
"I don't suppose you have a drink hidden away in the car somewhere?"
he said tentatively. "Or would the technicians have found that, too?"

"Better not have," Boyd said in the same tone as before, "or I'll fire
a couple of technicians." He grinned without turning. "It's in the
door compartment, next to the forty-five cartridges and the Tommy-
gun."

Malone opened the compartment in the thick door of the car and
extracted a bottle. It was Christian Brothers Brandy instead of the
bourbon he had been thinking about, but he discovered that he didn't
mind at all. It went down as smoothly as milk.

Boyd glanced at it momentarily as Malone screwed the top back on.

"No," Malone said in answer to the unspoken question. "You're
driving." Then he settled back again and tipped his hat forward.

He didn't sleep a wink. He was perfectly sure of that. But it wasn't
over two seconds later that Boyd said: "We're here, Ken. Wake up."

"Whadyamean, wakeup," Malone said. "I wasn't asleep." He thumbed his
hat back and sat up rapidly. "Where's 'here?'"

"Bayview Neuropsychiatric Hospital," Boyd said. "This is where Dr.
Harman works, you know."

"No," Malone said. "As a matter of fact, I don't know. You didn't tell
me--remember? And who is Dr. Harman, anyhow?"

The car was moving up a long, curving driveway toward a large, lawn-
surrounded building. Boyd spoke witho