"Well, now," Kettleman said, "I don't really know. You see, the reason I wanted to tell you all this was because Lieutenant Lynch was checking up on all those boys yesterday, and I thought--" He stopped and cleared his throat, and when he began again his voice had dropped almost to a whisper: "Well, Mr. Malone, I thought, after all, that since he was asking me questions ... you know, questions about where they were, the Spooks I mean, and all of that ... since he was asking me questions--" "Yes?" Malone said. "I thought perhaps I ought to tell you about them," Kettleman said. "Where they were, and all of that." Malone stood up. "Mr. Kettleman," he said in his most official voice, "I want you to know that the FBI appreciates what you've done. Your information will probably be very helpful to us, and the FBI certainly commends you for being public-spirited enough to come to us and tell us what you know." He thought for a second, and then added: "In the name of the FBI, Mr. Kettleman--well done!" Kettleman stared, smiled and gulped. "My goodness," he said "Well." He smiled again, a little more broadly. "One has one's duty, you know. My, yes. Duty." He nodded to Malone. "Of course," Malone said, going to the door and opening it. "Thanks again, Mr. Kettleman." Kettleman saw the open door and headed for it blindly. As he left he flashed one last smile after Malone, who sighed, shut the door and leaned against it for a second. The things an FBI agent had to go through! * * * * * When he had recovered, he opened the door again and peered carefully down the hallway to make sure Kettleman had gone. Then he left the interrogation room and went down the hall, past the desk sergeant, and up the stairs to Lieutenant Lynch's office. He was still breathing a little hard when he opened Lynch's door, and Lynch didn't seem to be expecting him at all. He was very busy with a veritable snow flurry of papers, and he looked as if he had been involved with them steadily ever since he had left Malone and Kettleman alone downstairs. "Well," Malone said. "Hello there, lieutenant." Lynch looked up, his face a mask of surprise. "Oh," he said. "It's you. Through with Kettleman?" "I'm through," Malone said. "As if you didn't know." He looked at Lynch for a long minute, and then said: "Lieutenant--" Lynch had gone right back to his papers. He looked up again with a bland expression. "Yes?" "Lieutenant, how reliable is Kettleman?" Malone said. Lynch shrugged. "He's always been pretty good with the kids, if that's what you mean. You know these social workers--I've never got much information out of him. He feels it's his duty to the kids ... I don't know. Some such thing. Why do you ask?" "Well," Malone said, "what he told me. Was he kidding me? Or does he know what he's talking about? Was what he said reasonably accurate?"