'Very strange.'
'Hal, you're stalling. What's the matter? What is it that you don't want to tell me?'
'Look in the back seat,' he said.
'Okay. It's full of junk, as usual. You should really clean it out some-'
'The jacket in the comer. It's wrapped in my jacket.'
I brought the jacket up front and unrolled it.
'The stone! Then you had it all along!'
'No, I didn't' he said.
'Then where did you find it? Where was it?'
Hal turned up a side road. A pair of gulls dipped past.
'Study it,' he said. 'Look at it carefully. That's it, isn't it?'
'Sure looks like it. But I never really scrutinized it before.'
'It has to be it,' he said. 'Believe that I just found it in the bottom of a trunk I hadn't unpacked till now. Stick to that.'
'What do you mean, ‘Stick to that'?'
'I got into Byler's lab last night and took it from the shelf. There were several. It's just as good as the one he gave us. You can't tell the difference, can you?'
'No. but I'm no expert. What's going on?'
'Mary has been kidnaped,' he said.
I looked over at him. His face was expressionless, which was the way I knew it would be if something like that were true.
'When? How?'
'We'd had a misunderstanding and she had gone home to her mother's, that night you stopped over ... '
'Yes, I remember.'
'Well, I was going to call the next day and try to smooth things over. But the more I considered it the more I kept thinking how much nicer it would be if she called me first. I'd have some sort of little moral victory that way, I decided. So I waited. I came close to phoning a number of times, but I'd always put it off just a little longer-hoping she would call. She didn't, though, and I had let it get fairly late. Too late, really. So I decided to give it another night. I did, and then I called her mother's place in the morning. Not only was she not there, but she hadn't been there at all. Her mother hadn't even heard from her. I figured, okay, she has good sense. She had had second thoughts, didn't want to turn the thing into a family issue. She had changed her mind and gone to stay with one of her girl friends. I started calling them. Nothing.
'Then, between calls,' he went on, 'someone called me. It was a man, and he asked if I knew where my wife was. My first thought was that there had been an accident of some sort. But he said that she was all right, that he would even let me talk to her in a minute. They were holding her. They had held her for a day to make me sweat. Now they were going to tell me what they wanted in return for her release, unharmed.'
'The stone, of course.'
'Of course. And also, of course, he did not believe me when I said I did not have it. He told me they would give me a day in which to get hold of it, and when they got in touch with me again they would tell me what to do with it. Then he let me talk to Mary. She said she was all right, but she sounded scared. I told him not to hurt her, and I promised to look for it. Then I started searching. I looked through everything that I have. No stone. Then I tried your place. I still have my key.'
'Anybody there toasting the Queen?'
'No signs of your visitors at all. Then I proceeded to look for the stone in every possible place. Finally, I gave up. It's just gone, that's all.'
He grew silent. We twisted along the narrow road, occasional glimpses of the sea appearing through gaps in the foliage off to my left/his right.
'So?' I said. 'What then?'
'He called again the next day, asked if I had it. I told him I did not-and he said they were going to kill Mary. I pleaded with him, said I'd do anything-'
'Wait. You did not call the police?'
He shook his head.
'He told me not to-the first time that we talked. Any sort of police involvement, he said, and I would never see her again. I thought about calling the cops, but I was scared. If I called the police and he found out ... I just couldn't take the chance. What would you have done?'
'I don't know,' I said. 'But go ahead. What happened next?'
'He asked me if I knew where you were, said you could probably help find it-'
'Ha! Sorry. Go on.'
'Again, I had to tell him I did not know but that I was expecting to hear from you soon. He said they would give me another day to find the stone or to find you. Then he hung up. Later, I thought about the stones in Paul's lab, got to wondering whether any of them were still there. If they were, why not try to pass one off as the real thing? They were obviously good fakes. The man who made them had even been fooled by one himself for a time. I was able to force the lock and get into his lab later in the day. I was desperate enough to try anything. There were four of them on the shelf, and I took the one you are holding now. I took it home with me and I waited. He phoned me again this morning-right before you called-and I told him I had come across it in the bottom of an old trunk. He sounded happy then. He even let me talk to Mary again and she said she was still okay. He told me where to take the stone, said they would meet me and make the exchange-her for it.'
'And that is where we are headed now?'
'Yes. I would not have involved you needlessly, but they seemed so convinced that you were something of an authority on the thing that when you called it occurred to me that if you were there to corroborate my story there would be no question as to the stone's authenticity. I didn't like involving you this way, but it is a matter of life and death.'
'Yeah. They may kill us all.'
'Why should they? They will have what they want. It would be pointless to harm us.'
'Witnesses,' I said.
'To what? It would be our word against theirs that the incident even occurred. There is no record of it, no evidence of a kidnaping or anything else. Why jeopardize the status quo by killing people and starting a homicide investigation?'
'The whole thing stinks, that's why. We do not have sufficient facts to decide what may or may not be motivating them.'
'What else was I to do? Call the police and take a chance they might not be bluffing?'
'I already said that I don't know. But at the risk of sounding ignoble, you might have left me out of this.'
'Sorry,' he said. 'It was a quick judgment and maybe a wrong one. But I was not rushing you there blind. I knew I owed you an explanation, and that is what I have been giving you. We are not there yet. There is still time to drop you off if you do not want to be party to it. I intended to offer you the choice when I finished explaining things. Now that I have, you can make up your own mind about it. I had to hurry, though.'
He glanced at his watch.
'When are we supposed to meet them?' I asked.
'About half an hour.'
'Where?'
'Around eight miles, I think. I'm going by landmarks they gave me. Then we park it and wait.'
'I see. I don't suppose you recognized the voice, or anything like that?'
'No.'
I looked down at the pseudostone, semiopaque or semitransparent, depending on one's philosophy and vision, very smooth, shot with milky streaks and red ones. It somewhat resembled a fossil sponge or a seven- limbed branch of coral, polished smooth as glass and tending to glitter about its tips and junctures. Tiny black and yellow flecks were randomly distributed throughout. It was about seven inches long and three across. It felt heavier than it looked.
'Nice piece of work, this,' I said. 'I can't tell it from the other. Yes, I'll go with you.'
