"I wish I knew. Look, Wally, can you wait until tomorrow for those
specs? I want to get hold of the police."
"Certainly. Nothing urgent. It can wait. I'll call you again tomorrow
evening." The screen blanked.
Mike glanced at the wall clock and then punched a number on the phone. A
pretty girl in a blue uniform came on the screen.
"Police Central," she said. "May I help you?"
"I'd like to speak to Detective Sergeant William Cowder, please," Mike
said. "Just tell him that Mr. Gabriel has more problems."
She looked puzzled, but she nodded, and pretty soon her image blanked
out. The screen stayed blank, but Sergeant Cowder's voice came over the
speaker. "What is it, Mr. Gabriel?"
He was evidently speaking from a pocket phone.
"Attempted murder," said Mike the Angel. "A few minutes ago a bomb was
set off in my apartment. I think it was a rocket, and I know it was
heavily laced with hydrogen cyanide. That's Suite 5000, Timmins
Building, up on 112th Street. I called you because I have a hunch it's
connected with the incident at Harry's earlier this evening."
"Timmins Building, eh? I'll be right up."
Cowder cut off with a sharp click, and Mike the Angel looked quizzically
at the dead screen. Was he imagining things, or was there a peculiar
note in Cowder's voice?
Two minutes later he got his answer.
5
Mike the Angel was sitting behind his desk in his private office when
the announcer chimed. Mike narrowed his eyes and turned on his door
screen, which connected with an eye in the outer door of the suite. Who
could it be this time?
It was Sergeant Cowder.
"You got here fast," said Mike, thumbing the unlocker. "Come on back to
my office."
The sergeant came through the outer office while Mike watched him on the
screen. Not until the officer finally pushed open the door to Mike's own
office did Mike the Angel look up from the screen.
"I repeat," said Mike, "you got here fast."
"I wasn't far away," said Cowder. "Where's the damage?"
Mike jerked a thumb toward the door to his apartment, still sealed with
tape. "In there."
"Have you been back in there yet?"
"Nope," said Mike. "I didn't want to disturb anything. I figured maybe
your lab boys could tell where the rocket came from."
"What happened?" the cop asked.
Mike told him, omitting nothing except the details of his conversation
with Wallingford.
"The way I see it," he finished, "whoever it was phoned me to make sure
I was in the room and then went out and fired a rocket at my window."
"What makes you think it was a JD?" Cowder asked.
"Well, Sergeant, if I were going to do the job, I'd put my launcher in
some place where I could see that my victim was inside, without having
to call him. But if I couldn't do that, I'd aim the launcher and set it
to fire by remote control. Then I'd go to the phone, call him, and fire
the rocket while he was on the phone. I'd be sure of getting him that
way. The way it was done smacks of a kid's trick."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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