have a chance to spread. After a long wait, the phone was answered. 'This is Mr. Davies, I sounded the alarm,' Luke said rapidly. 'The fire is in a linen closet near room five-forty.' He hung up without waiting for a reply.
Billie was looking around, her emotional moment over. 'Your clothes are here,' she said.
He went into the bedroom. Lying on the bed were a pale grey tweed sport coat and a pair of charcoal flannel pants, looking as if they had come back from the dry cleaner. He guessed he had worn them on the plane and sent them for pressing. On the floor was a pair of dark tan wingtip shoes. A crocodile belt was neatly rolled up inside one of the shoes.
He opened the drawer of the bedside table and found a billfold, a cheque book and a fountain pen. More interesting was a slim appointments diary with a list of phone numbers in the back. He looked quickly through its pages and found the current week.
Sunday 26th Call Alice (1928)
Monday 27th Buy swim trunks 8.30 a.m. Apex mtg, Vanguard Mtl Tuesday 28th 8 a.m. Bkfst wA. C., Hay Adams coffee shop Billie stood beside him to see what he was reading. She put a hand on his shoulder. It was a casual gesture, but her touch gave him a thrill of pleasure. He said: 'Any idea who Alice might be?'
Tour kid sister.'
'How old?'
'Seven years younger than you, which makes her thirty.'
'So she was born in 1928. I guess I talked to her on her birthday. I could call her now, ask her if I said anything unusual.'
'Good idea.'
Luke felt good. He was reconstructing his life. 'I must have gone to Florida without my swimsuit.'
'Who thinks of swimming in January?'
'So I made a note to buy one on Monday. That morning I went to the Vanguard Motel at eight-thirty.'
'What's an Apex meeting?'
'I think it must have to do with the curve followed by the missile in flight I don't remember' working on it, of course, but I know there's an important and tricky calculation that has to be made. The second stage has to be fired precisely at the apex, .in order to put the satellite into a permanent orbit'
'You could find out who else was at the meeting and talk to them.'
'I will.'
'Then, on Tuesday, you had breakfast with Anthony in the coffee shop of the Hay Adams hotel.'
'After that, there are no appointments in the book.'
He turned to the back of the diary. There were phone numbers for Anthony, Billie and Bern, for Mother and Alice, and twenty or thirty others that meant nothing to him. 'Anything strike you?' he said to Billie. She shook her head.
There were some leads worth following up, but no obvious clues. It was what he had expected, but all the same he felt deflated. He pocketed the diary and looked around the room. A well worn black leather suitcase rested open on a stand. He rummaged through it, finding clean shirts and underwear, a notebook half full of mathematical calculations, and a paperback book called The Old Man and the Sea with a corner turned down at .
Billie looked into the bathroom. Shaving gear, toiletry bag, toothbrush.
Luke opened all the cupboards and drawers in the bedroom, and Billie did the same in the living room. Luke found a black wool topcoat and a black Homburg hat in a closet, but nothing else. 'Zilch,' he called out. 'You?'
Tour phone messages are here on the desk. From Bern, from a Colonel Hide, and from someone called Marigold.'
Luke figured that Anthony had read the messages, judged them harmless, and decided there was no point in creating suspicion by destroying them.
Billie said: 'Who's Marigold, do you know?'
Luke thought for a moment. He had heard the name at some point during the day. It came back to him. 'She's my secretary in Huntsville,' he said. 'Colonel Hide said she had made my flight reservations.'
'I wonder if you told her the purpose of the trip.'
'I doubt it I didn't tell anyone at Cape Canaveral.'
'She's not at Cape Canaveral. And you might trust your own secretary more than anyone else.'
Luke nodded. 'Anything's possible. I'll check. It's the most promising lead so far.' He took out the diary and looked again at the phone numbers in the back. 'Bingo,' he said. 'Marigold - home.' He sat at the desk and dialed the number. He wondered' how much longer he had before Pete and the other agents came back.
Billie seemed to read his mind, and started packing his stuff into the black leather bag.
The phone was answered by a sleepy woman with a slow Alabama accent Luke guessed from her voice that she was black. He said: 'I'm sorry to call so late. Is this Marigold?'
'Dr Lucas! Thank God you've called. How are you?'
'I'm fine, I think, thank you.'
'Well, what in heaven happened to you? No one knew where you were at - and now I hear tell you lost your memory. Is that so?' -
Yes.'
'Well, now, how did that come to pass?'
'I don't know, but I'm hoping you might help me figure it out'
'If I can...'
'I'd like to know why I suddenly decided to go to Washington on Monday. Did I tell you?'
You sure didn't, and I was curious.'
It was the answer Luke expected, but still he felt disappointed. 'Did I say anything that gave you a hint?'
'No.'
'What did I say?'
You said you needed to fly to Washington via Huntsville and you asked me to make reservations on MATS flights.'
MATS was the military airline, and Luke guessed he was entitled to use it when on army business. But there was something he did not understand. 'I flew via Huntsville?' No one else had mentioned that.
You said you wanted to stop over here for a couple of hours.'
'I wonder why.'
'Then you said something kind of strange. You asked me not to tell anyone that you were coming to Huntsville.'
'Ah.' Luke felt sure this was an important clue. 'So it was a secret visit?'
Yes. And I've kept it secret. I've been questioned by army security and the FBI, and I didn't tell either one of them, because you said not to. I didn't know if I was doing right or not, when they said you had disappeared, but I figured I better stick with what you told me. Did I do right?'
'Gosh, Marigold, I don't know. But I appreciate your loyalty.' The fire alarm stopped ringing. Luke realized he had run out of time. 'I have to go now,' he told Marigold. 'Thanks for your help.'
'Well, you bet Now you just take care, hear?' She hung up.
'I've packed your stuff,' Billie said.
'Thanks,' he said. He took his own black coat and hat from the closet and put them on. 'Now let's get out of here before the spooks come back.'
They drove to an all-night diner near the FBI building, around the corner from-Chinatown, and ordered coffee. 'I wonder when the first flight to Huntsville leaves in the morning,' Luke said.
'We need the Official Airline Guide,' Billie said.
Luke looked around the diner. He saw a pair of cops eating doughnuts, four drunk students ordering hamburgers, and two underdressed women who might have been prostitutes. 'I don't think they'll keep it behind the counter here,' he said.
'I bet Bern has one. It's the kind of thing writers like. They're always looking stuff up.'
'He's probably asleep.'
Billie stood up. 'Then I'll wake him. Got a dime?'
'Sure.' Luke still had a pocket full of the change he had stolen yesterday.
