se," Burris said in an offhand tone.
"Nothing to it."

"Oh," Malone said.

"There's this red Cadillac," Burris said. "It was stolen from a party in
Connecticut, out near Danbury, and it showed up in New York City. Now,
the car's crossed a state line."

"That puts it in our jurisdiction," Malone said, feeling obvious.

"Right," Burris said. "Right on the nose."

"But the New York office--"

"Naturally, they're in charge of everything," Burris said. "But I'm
sending you out as sort of a special observer. Just keep your eyes open
and nose around and let me know what's happening."

"Keep my eyes and nose what?" Malone said.

"Open," Burris said. "And let me know about it."

Malone tried to picture himself with his eyes and nose open, and decided
he didn't look very attractive that way. Well, it was only a figure of
speech or something. He didn't have to think about it.

It really made a very ugly picture.

"But why a special observer?" he said after a second. Burris could read
the reports from the New York office, and probably get more facts than
any single agent could find out just wandering around a strange city. It
sounded as if there were something, Malone told himself, just a tiny
shade rotten in Denmark. It sounded as if there were going to be
something in the nice, easy assignment he was getting that would make
him wish he'd gone lion-hunting in Darkest Africa instead.

And then again, maybe he was wrong. He stood at ease and waited to find
out.

"Well," Burris said, "it is just a routine case. Just like I said. But
there seems to be something a little bit odd about it."

"I see," Malone said with a sinking feeling.

"Here's what happened," Burris said hurriedly, as if he were afraid
Malone was going to change his mind and refuse the assignment. "This red
Cadillac I told you about was reported stolen from Danbury. Three days
later, it turned up in New York City--parked smack across the street
from a precinct police station. Of course it took them a while to wake
up, but one of the officers happened to notice the routine report on
stolen cars in the area, and he decided to go across the street and
check the license number on the car. Then something funny happened."

"Something funny?" Malone asked. He doubted that, whatever it was, it
was going to make him laugh. But he kept his face a careful, receptive
blank.

"That's right," Burris said. "Now, if you're going to understand what
happened, you'v