"I don't know. I plain don't. And yet I'm nagged by a feeling that I already have the answer--and I can't name it! Things have been happening too fast." Kintyre scowled. "And until we can identify the one who hired the killers--the real murderer; the others are only a deodand--he's free to murder someone else." They had come down the stairs now, slowly, and stepped into the alley behind the building. Windowless brick walls closed three sides: it was a cul-de-sac thick with shadows, opening on a wanly lit trafficless street of hooded shops. The man by the alley entrance stepped a little closer. There was just light enough to show that he was not tall, that he had sloping shoulders, and that he carried an automatic pistol. He stopped three yards from the door, too far off for a leap. "Hold it," he said. 15 Yamamura and Guido had come out first. Guido's legs seemed to go fluid; only the arm around his waist held him up. "Jimmy," he bleated. Kintyre's hand swung backward in an arc, shoving Corinna behind him. He said aloud--very loudly, "What the devil do you want?" "Quiet, there," said the man called Jimmy. "This thing has a silencer on it." He waved the gun. "I want to see Lombardi." "It isn't nothing, Jimmy," chattered Guido. "Before God, Jimmy, they're just friends of mine!" "Yeh. You can tell us all about it. The rest of you stand back against the door. Come on, Guido. I got a car waiting." Yamamura eased his burden to the ground. Guido huddled on hands and knees, retching. "He'll never make it," said the detective. "He's scared spitless." "I just want to talk with him," said Jimmy. "I was supposed to see him here tonight, only they said he'd gone upstairs. I figured if it was just for a nap or something, he'd be down again to finish his act and I'd catch him later. Only if he wanted to skip out this way instead, it would be soon and he might not come back. I didn't want to miss him, so I figured I'd wait here a while." It was not meant as an explanation. It was an indictment, nailed word by word on the man who tried to stand up. "Well," said Yamamura, "let me help him." Jimmy laughed under his hat. "I'm not that simple-minded. Stay put." With shrillness: "Come on, Guido. Or do you want to get drilled right here and now?" Guido began to drag himself forward, as if a bullet had already smashed his spine. The sound of it, and of his breath going in and out an open mouth, and the nearby clamor of automobiles filled with meek taxpayers, was all that Kintyre could hear.