every one of
those cars checked for any oddity, no matter how small. If there's an
inch-long scratch on one fender, I want to know about it. If you've got
to take the cars apart, then do that."

"Me?" Boyd said. "All by myself?"

"No," Malone said. "Use your head. There'll be a team working with you.
Let me explain it. Every nut, every bolt, every inch of those cars has
to be examined thoroughly--got it?"

"I've got it," Boyd said, "but I don't like it. After all, Malone--"

Malone ignored him. "The Governor of New York promised his
co-operation," he said, "and he said he'd get in touch with the
Governors of New Jersey and Connecticut and get co-operation from that
angle. So we'll have state and local police working with us."

"That's a help," Boyd said. "We'll make such a happy team of workmen.
Singing as we pull the cars apart through the long day and night and ...
listen, Malone, when do you want reports on this?"

"Yesterday," Malone said.

Boyd's eyebrows raised, then lowered. "Great," he said dully.

"I don't care how you get the cars," Malone said. "If you've got to,
condemn 'em. But get every last one of them. And bring them over to
Leibowitz & Hardin for a complete checkup. I'll give you the address."

"Thanks," Boyd said.

"Not at all," Malone said. "Glad to be of help. And don't worry; I'll
have other work to do." He paused, and then went on: "I talked to Dr.
Isaac Leibowitz, he's the head of the firm out there--and he says...."

"Wait a minute," Boyd said.

"What?"

"You mean I don't have to take the cars apart myself? You mean this
Leibowitz & Hardin, or whatever it is, will do it for me?"

"Of course," Malone said wearily. "You re not an auto technician or an
electronics man. You're an agent of the FBI."

"I was beginning to wonder," Boyd said. "After all."

[Illustration]

"Anyhow," Malone said doggedly, "I talked to Leibowitz, and he says he
can give a car a complete check in about six hours, normally."

"Six hours?" Boyd stared. "That's going to take forever," he said.

"Well, he can set up a kind of assembly-line process and turn out a car
every fifteen minutes. Any better?"

Boyd nodded.

"Good," Malone said. "There can't be so many 1972 red Cadillacs in the
area that we can't get through them all at that speed." He thought a
minute and then added: "By the way, you might check with the Cadillac
dealers around town, and find out just how many there are, sold to
people living