and I founded our own firm here, Technological Enterprises. We're had very gratifying success, supplying components to the military and then NASA. I was able to go into semi retirement not long ago.'
`You're young to retire, Mr. Hillman.'
`Perhaps.'
He looked around a little restlessly, as if he disliked talking about himself. `I'm still the chairman of the board, of course. I go down to the office several mornings a week. I play a lot of golf, do a lot of hunting and sailing.'
He sounded weary of his life. `This summer I've been teaching Tom calculus. It isn't available in his high school. I thought it would come in handy if he made it to Cal Tech or MIT I went to MIT myself. Elaine was a student at Radcliffe. She was born on Beacon Street, you know.'
We're prosperous and educated people, he seemed to be saying, first-class citizens: how can the world have aimed such a dirty blow at us? He leaned his large face forward until his hands supported it again.
The telephone rang in the alcove. I heard it ring a second time as I skidded around the end of the dining- room table. At the door of the butler's pantry I almost knocked down a small round woman who was wiping her hands on her apron. Her emotional dark eyes recoiled from my face.
`I was going to answer it,' she said.
`I will, Mrs. Perez.'
She retreated into the kitchen and I closed the door after her. The only light in the pantry came through the semicircular hatch to the dining room. The telephone was on the counter inside it, no longer ringing. Gently I raised the receiver.
`What was that?' a man's voice said. `You got the FBI on the line or something?'
The voice was a western drawl with a faint whine in it.
`Certainly not. I've followed your instructions to the letter.'
`I hope I can believe you, Mr. Hillman. If I thought you were having this call traced I'd hang up and goodbye Tom.'
The threat came easily, with a kind of flourish, as if the man enjoyed this kind of work.
`Don't hang up.'
Hillman's voice was both pleading and loathing. `I have the money for you, at least I'll have it here in a very short while. I'll be ready to deliver it whenever you say.'
`Twenty-five thousand in small bills?'
`There will be nothing larger than a twenty.'
`All unmarked?'
`I told you I've obeyed you to the letter. My son's safety is all I care about.'
`I'm glad you get the picture, Mr. Hillman. You pick up fast, and I like that. Matter of fact, I hate to do this to you. And I'd certainly hate to do anything to this fine boy of yours.'
`Is Tom with you now?'
Hillman said.
`More or less. He's nearby.'
`Could I possibly talk to him?'
`No.'
`How do I know he's alive?'
The man was silent for a long moment. `You don't trust me, Mr. Hillman. I don't like that.'
`How can I trust-?'
Hillman bit the sentence in half.
`I know what you were going to say. How can you trust a lousy creep like me? That isn't our problem, Hillman. Our problem is can I trust a creep like you. I know more about you than you think I do, Hillman.'
Silence, in which breath wheezed.
`Well, can I?'
'Can you what?'
Hillman said in near-despair.
`Can I trust you, Hillman?'
`You can trust me.'
Wheezing silence. The wheeze was in the man's voice when he spoke again: `I guess I'll have to take your word for it, Hillman. Okay. You'd probably like to talk all day about what a creep I am, but it's time to get down to brass tacks. I want my money, and this isn't ransom money, get that straight. Your son wasn't kidnapped, he came to us of his own free will-'
`I don't-' Hillman strangled the words in his throat.
`You don't believe me? Ask him, if you ever have a chance. You're throwing away your chances, you realize that? I'm trying to help you pay me the money-the information money, that's fellow sounded practically
