It stopped. Little chills ran up my spine as I heard the growl and chatter of a police radio. Men were getting out. They walked up to the side of the car.

“Miss Patton?” one of them asked.

“Why, yes,” she said coolly. “What is it?”

“We’re searching these cottages for that man Foley that’s hid out around here. Were you just inside there?”

“Just for a few minutes,” she replied. “I came back for these papers I forgot when I was out here yesterday. Why?”

“You didn’t see any sign he’d broke in?”

“No-o. Everything seemed to be all right.”

“Were you in all the rooms?”

“Yes,” she said. “But, wait. I did notice yesterday that somebody had broken a pane of glass in the garage window—”

“We know about that. Well, we won’t keep you any longer.”

They came back past the side of the car, got in the cruiser, and went on down the road. I sighed with relief. She backed on out of the driveway, stopped, and started ahead. In a moment I felt the car make a right turn. We were on one of the main streets that went up through town and bisected the highway. I began to hear other cars passing. Traffic grew heavier, and twice we stopped for traffic lights. I could hear pedestrians crossing. Then we turned right once more and began to go faster. We were on the highway. Then, abruptly, we slowed and began to inch along. We stopped and then started slowly ahead again. The road block, I thought. I heard a police radio again, not much more than an arm’s length away, and a man’s voice said, “All right, lady.” We began to gather speed. I exhaled slowly. We were beyond them.

I tried to guess where she was taking me, and why, but gave up. She’d said back to Sanport, and if I’d guessed all the turns correctly, that was the direction we were headed now, but what part of town she meant and what she was up to were a complete mystery. I tried to guess what time it was, and thought it must be after six. It was probably dark outside, judging from the impenetrable blackness here in the trunk.