It took me only five minutes to pick out H. J.'s big Lincoln Continental from the eleven other Lincoln Continentals: I finally figured out it must be the one standing ready to go near the entrance. I checked the license plate again and, with cool nonchalance, slipped open the front door and slid smoothly into the driver's seat.
A young man in his thirties, handsome and earnest, was sitting in front also.
`I'm sorry to disturb you,' he said.
`That's all right,' I said. `I just came down to the basement for a breath of fresh air.'
`I'm John Holcome of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,' he said. He reached into his suit-jacket pocket and leaned
toward me to show a little card that looked like my membership card in the AAPP. I squinted aggressively at it.
`What took you so long?' I asked.
He replaced his card in his jacket pocket, leaned back against his seat and looked into my eyes earnestly.
`After learning through certain means that you were at Wipple's, we had to decide what to do with you.'
`Ahhh,' I said.
`And traffic in Manhattan is clogged in several places tonight.'
He smiled slightly at me like a bright student reciting a lesson. `You're Dr. Lucius Rhinehart,' he finished.
`That's true, I often am,' I replied. `What can I do for you?'
I sprawled back against my headrest and tried to appear relaxed. My forearm sounded the horn.
Mr. Holcome's pale blue eyes searched my unearnest face earnestly and he said `As you may know, Dr. Rhinehart, in
the course of your television performance this afternoon you broke several state and federal laws.'
`I was afraid I might have.'
I looked vaguely out the window to my left for the Lone Ranger or Dicewoman to come rescue me.
`Assault and battery on Dr. Dart,' he said. `Brandishing a firearm in a public place. Larceny of Dr. Dart's gun.
Resisting arrest. Aiding and abetting known criminals. Conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States. Illegal impersonation of a cleric in a public place. Illegal use of a sponsor's time to give a personal message over public media. And infringement of twenty-three other FCC rulings regarding decorous and proper behavior on a television-media performance. In addition, we are aiding Inspector Putt in amassing evidence for a possible future prosecution of you on a charge of murder in the first degree of Franklin Osterflood.'
'What about hitchhiking within the city limits?'
`Conservatively speaking - and we had no time to check this without computers - we believe that these various crimes
would lead to a sentence of something in the neighborhood of two hundred and thirty-seven years.'
`Ahhh.'
`The government, however, believes that you are actually the harmless dupe of more important subversive forces.'
`Exactly.'
'We know, although we could prove otherwise if we wished, that you were not in on the conspiracy to raid the TV
station'
`Good job.'
`We also know that, should you plead insanity, you would be able to make a very strong case.'
Silence.
`Therefore; we have decided to make a deal with you.'
Silence.
`If you will tell us where we can find Eric Cannon, we will do one of two things: we will so arrange our charges that
the most incompetent attorney in New York can get you off with only about three years, or-'
`Unnn!'
`-secondly, give you thirty minutes to get out of here and take your chances with the law in the future.'
'Ummmm.'
'This offer is contingent, of course, upon our actually being able to capture Cannon and his crowd where you direct us.
It is also contingent upon the New York Police not locating and arresting or killing you before we do. Not being a party
to our arrangement, they might make it impossible for us to lessen the charges.'
'Mmmm.'
He paused and looked, if possible, even more sincerely into my face.
`Where is Eric Cannon, Dr. Rhinehart?'
'Ah Eric?'
I flipped a die onto the seat between us and looked at it.
`I'm sorry, Mr. Holcome,' I said. `The Die feels I ought to think about whether I betray Eric and consult It in an hour.
It has asked me to ask you to give me until tomorrow morning?'
'I doubt you have that much time. And we may not have that much time. I will give you exactly forty minutes. After that we come to make our arrest. If you tell us then, we'll keep this place staked out until we've caught Cannon or not. You can tell us whether you want three years or thirty minutes to run. Otherwise it's four walls till doomsday.'