James Chase - The World in My Pocket

Bradford recognized his son’s sprawling handwriting that covered the paper.

‘That’s right,’ the boy said.

He squatted down on his haunches, took off his battered straw hat and began to fill it with grass.

Bradford said blankly, ‘My son wrote to you?’

‘He wrote to police headquarters,’ Delaney said. ‘He claims to know where this missing truck is.’

Bradford gaped at his son.

‘Junior! What have you been doing? You know you don’t know where it is!’

The boy looked up at his father scornfully, then went on filling his hat with grass. When he had filled the hat, he bent forward and dipped his head into the hat, pulled the hat on and then straightened up.

‘I have to do it that way,’ he said to no one in particular, ‘otherwise the grass falls out. It keeps my head cool. It’s my own invention.’

Delaney and Cooper exchanged glances, then Delaney said kindly, ‘Where is the truck, son?’

The boy sat down and crossed his legs. He adjusted his hat, pulling it more firmly down on his head.

‘I know where it is,’ he announced solemnly.

‘Well, that’s fine,’ Delaney said, restraining his impatience with an effort. ‘Where is it?’

‘How about the reward?’ the boy asked, looking up sharply; his eyes fixed disconcertingly on the major’s face.

‘Look, junior,’ Bradford said, sweating with embarrassment, ‘you know you don’t know where the truck is. You’ll get into serious trouble wasting these gentlemen’s time.’

‘I know where it is all right,’ the boy said calmly, ‘but I’m not telling until I get the reward.’

‘Come on, son,’ Delaney said, his voice sharpening. ‘If you know something, trot it out. Your father’s right: you could get into serious trouble if you’re wasting our time.’

‘The truck’s hidden in a caravan,’ the boy said.

‘Now look,’ Bradford said, ‘we’ve been over all that. You know as well as I do.’

‘Just a moment, Mr. Bradford,’ Delaney broke in, ‘I’ll do the talking, if you please.’ He turned to the boy. ‘What makes you think the truck is in a caravan, son?’

‘I’ve seen it,’ the boy said. ‘They have two big steel girders bolted to the bottom of the caravan so the truck can’t fall through.’

‘They? Who do you mean?’

‘The guys who stole the truck, of course.’

Delaney and Cooper looked at each other. Delaney was faintly excited.

‘You’ve actually seen the truck?’

The boy nodded, then, frowning, he took off his hat.

‘It’s cool enough when I first put it on,’ he said seriously, ‘but after a while, the grass seems to heat up.’ He emptied the grass out of his hat. ‘I guess I’ll have to keep putting fresh grass in if it’s going to work at all.’

He began to fill the hat with grass again.

‘Where did you see the truck?’ Delaney asked, his voice thin with exasperation.

The boy continued to tear up handfuls of grass which he dropped into the hat.

‘Did you hear what I said?’ Delaney barked.

‘What was that?’ the boy asked, pausing for a moment to look up at Delaney.

‘I asked you where the truck is,’ Delaney said.

The boy began to put more grass into his hat.

‘My father says the police wouldn’t give me the reward,’ he said. ‘He says they’ll keep it for themselves.’

Bradford shifted uneasily.

‘I never said any such thing!’ he said angrily. ‘You should be ashamed of yourself talking that way.’

The boy stared at him, then he blew a long stream of air from his lips, making a noise like the ripping of calico.

‘What a whopper!’ he said when he had finished making the noise. ‘You said if you told them the truck was hidden in a caravan, they’d think you had stolen it. You said all cops were crooks.’

‘Okay, okay,’ Cooper growled. ‘Never mind what your old man said. Where did you see the truck?’

Very slowly and very carefully, the boy bent over the hat, dipped his head into it and pulled it down on his head.

‘I’m not telling you until I get the reward,’ he said, straightening and staring up at the lieutenant.

‘Yeah? Well, we’ll see about that,’ Cooper said, his face hardening. ‘You two can come down to headquarters, and if you’ve been wasting our time.’

‘I’ll handle this,’ Delaney said quietly. ‘Now, listen, son,’ he said, ‘anyone who gives us information that will help us find the truck, gets the reward. It doesn’t matter who it is. If your information helps us find the truck, then you’ll get the reward.’

The boy studied the major for several seconds.

‘Honest?’

The major nodded.

‘Honest.’

‘You won’t give the reward to my father? You’ll give it to me?’

‘I’ll give it to you.’

‘Five thousand?’

‘That’s right.’

The boy brooded for a long moment while the three men watched him.

‘No fooling?’ he asked, staring at the major. ‘You’ll give me the reward if I tell you?’

The major nodded, his smile very wide and very sincere.

‘No fooling, son. When the Army says something, the Army means just what it says.’

Again the boy brooded, then finally he said, ‘Well, then I’ll tell you. There are four of them: three men and a girl. Two of the men stayed in the caravan all day. They only left at night. I saw them leave after it got dark. I have the number of the car. They said they were going to Stag Lake, but they were lying. They took the road to the highway and that’s no way to go to Stag Lake. The caravan is white with a blue top.’ He took from his pocket a much thumbed notebook and tore out a page. ‘That’s the car number.’

‘But how do you know the truck is in the caravan?’ Delaney asked, carefully putting the scrap of paper into his wallet.

‘I saw it when the two men got into the caravan in the morning,’ the boy said. ‘I got up specially early to watch.’

‘But how did you know it was the truck?’

The boy regarded the major patiently.

‘I read the description in the papers. It was the truck all right.’

‘When did they leave?’

‘Yesterday midday. I saw them go. They didn’t take the road to Stag Lake. They were heading for the mountains.’

‘We’ve lost a lot of time,’ Delaney said, frowning. ‘Why didn’t you get your father to telephone us?’

‘I asked him. He wouldn’t let me and he wouldn’t do it himself, that’s why I wrote,’ the boy said. ‘He said all cops were crooks.’

Delaney and Cooper stared hard at Bradford for a long moment.

‘I was just fooling,’ Bradford said in a small voice, his face red. ‘I didn’t really think.’

‘Can you give me a description of these people?’ Delaney said, turning to the boy.

‘Sure,’ the boy said and gave an accurate description of Kitson, Ginny, Gypo and Bleck.

Cooper wrote down the descriptions in his notebook.

‘That’s fine, son,’ Delaney said. ‘You’ve done a swell job. I’ll certainly recommend you for the reward if we find the truck.’

‘You’ll find it all right,’ the boy said. He took off his hat and shook out the grass. ‘There’s something wrong with this idea. It gets hot too quickly.’

Cooper said with a grin, ‘Try putting some ice in it. That’ll cool you off.’

The boy’s look was withering.

‘That’s a dumb idea,’ he said. ‘The ice would melt.’

Delaney patted the boy on his shoulder.

‘I’ll tell you how to fix it,’ he said. ‘Cut the top off the hat: that’ll let the air in and it’ll also start a new fashion.’

The boy considered this, then he nodded.

‘That’s quite smart,’ he said. ‘I’ll try it. There could be money in it.’