New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Television game show hosts -- Fiction
"How?"
"I don't know how. You're The Thinker. You think it up how."
"I can't. Not off-hand. It wouldn't do any good to ask. Who'd tell the
truth with something dirty as this in their past?"
"God damn!" Grabinett blinked furiously. "Why hasn't anything happened
before? Why wait 'till now?"
"I don't know, Mel. They're crazy letters. Go figure a lunatic mind.
Maybe the police can. We're sitting on dynamite. The fuse is lit. We
know the blow-up's coming next Sunday. We've got to do something to
stop it."
"How do you know for sure next Sunday?"
"You read the last letter. It's plain. Be killing you New Years'. What
more do you want? We have to go to the police."
"I don't believe it."
"You can't run away from it, Mel. I'll draw you a picture. Look ...
it's next Sunday night. Mig's doing the drama spot, the 'Man Without
A Country' question. They're working on No. 2 Camera dollied back for
the full courtroom shot. Ray's in the controls calling shots to Sol
Eggleston. Sol's on the Party-Line talking to the camera crews. Johnny
Plummer's got the music soft. You're with the agency men in the back of
the control booth.... Yes?"
Grabinett nodded, fascinated.
"And then there's a wild yell in the house and a lunatic comes charging
down the center aisle. He's got a gun. He jumps up on the stage, and
he's right on camera. He's cursing and swearing. The audience realizes
it isn't a gag and starts screaming. Before Master Control can pull
us off the air, he starts shooting.... Who? What difference does it
make? Thirty million people see it. And when the police start asking
questions you'll have to say: 'I was warned. I got letters, but I
didn't do anything about it.' How long would you stay in the business
after that?"
Grabinett blinked for half a minute, then pressed a button on his desk.
The office door opened and his secretary came in three steps and waited.
"Got something for photostat," Grabinett said faintly.
Lennox placed the folder inside a large script envelope and handed it
to the girl. "This is a rush job, please. Three copies. Tell them to
handle the material as little as possible, in case of fingerprints."
The secretary's face brightened with interest as she took the envelope.
Lennox added sharply: "Don't read any of it. You'll be sorry if you do.
This isn't for little girls."
He put on his coat and buttoned it up to the neck. As he left the
office, he muttered: "It isn't for little boys, either."
He went home. Cooper wasn't in the apartment, but his bed had been
slept in and the animals had been fed. Monday was the one day of
vacation for the entire "Who He?" staff, and there was no telling where
anyone might be on this blessed day of release from the rat-race.
Lennox changed, then went to the phone and dialed Houseways, Inc.
"Miss Valentine, please."
"Who's calling?"
"Frank Lloyd Wright."
There was a pause, then Gabby's voice, soft and reproachful. "You
shouldn't have said that."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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