He had it all thought out and it came off the way he’d wanted. He meant every word of it. Only Pendleton didn’t know that.

“Are you through?” Pendleton sat as before.

“Sure. That’s all.”

On top of the desk the white hand started to move back and forth again. “Then let me tell you about Murdock.”

Benny sucked his breath in and held it for a moment. When he let it out his voice was still quiet. More quiet than before. “You’re making a mistake.”

Suddenly Pendleton jumped up. He didn’t often look the way he did now. “Are you threatening me, Tapkow?”

“You’re making a mistake, Pendleton.”

There was a little button on the side of Pendleton’s desk and the white hand started to move there.

Then the hand stopped. Pendleton turned his head. There had been the sharp click of a doorknob and a girl came into the room. She didn’t bother to close the door. She said, “I’m happy to see you’re in,” in a metallic voice, clear and hard. “I’m really thrilled and happy to find you in, Daddy.”

There was a mean line between her eyebrows and her light eyes looked flat. “Well, aren’t you going to ask me how I am, Daddy?” When she said Daddy, it sounded like a word from a meaningless language.

Pendleton had a time trying to control himself. His face was working and there was the merest quaver in his voice. “Patricia,” he said.

“Patricia,” she aped. She ran her hand through her cropped hair with a gesture like a man’s. “Your little Patricia. Come to have a word with her daddy.”

She had been ignoring Benny. She hardly gave him a look when she said, “Give me a cigarette, Tapkow.”