He went to the telephone books first, the white and the yellow pages. His hands were shaking; he had to think of pacing himself. He looked for one name—it was not listed. He had known that in advance. He could check with the county professional association, but there was an easier way. A local call. He had to look up the number. When he had his information, he hung up on the man. This was no time for pleasantries with someone he could not abide in the best of circumstances.

He called Florence at her home and gave her a rush assignment. He told her that he wanted her to handle it because he simply did not have the patience for what could only prove to be background. He would be tied up for a half hour or more. She could do the job in ten minutes, if it could be done at all.

Then he told her to call Mike. It was six-thirty now and time was working against them, even accounting for time differentials. After she repeated what she was to tell Mike to do, she asked Leland if he wanted them to telephone their results separately. No, she was to collect the information and relay it. He did not want to talk to Mike, but he did not tell her that. He did tell her that he was not expecting much from them; he knew what he had to know. It was a question of getting a little extra in the bank.

When he hung up Leland was nearly sick to his stomach. Just talking around the thing had done it. Even he could recognize that it was not something that he could shrug off. Why didn’t you come home? He had to ask it himself, now. He could wake up Karen, show her what he had learned, they could leave in the morning. She would see it, she would believe him. They would return the lady’s money out of their pockets and forget everything. A lot of people would say that it was a closed issue. Nothing would be accomplished by staying with it. There would be no need for Mike to know. It was obvious that no one else could ever learn it on his own.

There was one more call to make, long-distance. The thing he had would remain a theory without what he would get on this call.

It did not take long. There was a little distress at the other end and he had to apologize for apparently breaking a promise. From there it went well. He had not misremembered anything. He had the feeling that he could take the conversation in another direction, but that was like thinking of people who were going to go away. In a sense, they were. They were going to be changed. It was like watching an old movie on television and thinking of the person you had been when you had seen it the first time. And in that way it was like talking to a movie. He heard himself feign nonchalance to set up the framework for the question he had called to ask, ask it, and hear the astonished answer he had anticipated. Then, very quickly, thanks very much, goodbye.