Tinker's Dam Part 2

That settled it. I would trust Anita with the crown jewels.

"No dice, Fred," I said. "Give me the facts."

"Gyp," he pleaded. "_Don't_ ask for them!"

"The facts!"

He straightened up from where he had hung over my desk during the whole argument. "This cuts my guts right out," he said. "Suspect apprehended around two o'clock this morning and now in detention at the City Jail.

Native white female, age fifty-eight. Named Maude Tinker." He stopped.

I couldn't start. Maude Tinker! My given name is Joseph Tinker--although they all call me Gyp. "What ..." I got out at last. "What did she look...?"

He nodded, looking sick. "She's a gypsy, if that's what you mean, Gyp,"

he said to me. "I'm sorry. You _know_ I'm sorry."

"Has she made any statement, Fred?" I asked softly, staring at the surface of my desk.

"She demanded to be taken at once to the Chief of the Division of Psychic Investigation, Mr. Joseph Tinker," he said.

"Give any reason?"

He was quiet for a while, until I looked up. "She said," Fred told me, "she said Gyp Tinker was her son."

I smiled wanly at him. "Obviously I can't let a statement like that go unchallenged, not in my position as the man charged with extirpating the danger of the snakes," I said.

"Obviously," Fred agreed. "Now that you know about it. If you had done as I asked, Gyp ..."

"Get her over here, Fred," I said. "I'll see her at once. And send Anita in as you leave."

"Sure, Gyp," he said, starting for the door.

"And thanks, Fred," I said. "But it never would have worked."

"Maybe not," he conceded from the door. "But the guy in the jam would have been me, not you."

I turned my swivel around and stared out the window at the Mall and didn't move until the light scent of Anita's perfume reminded me that I had asked her to come in.

I swung around. "You watch out for that Fred Plaice," Anita said, almost scoldingly.

"You mean, start watching my back, like I never did before? How did I get this far?"

Her frown softened a little. "You don't miss many bets," she said. "Not my Gypper. But this thing of Fred's holding back on the other telepath he picked up last night has all the earmarks of a real slippery move."

"Did Fred tell you anything about it on the way out?"

"Just that he was bringing the telepath from the City Jail right back with him, and that you wanted to see her at once."

"This snake is a woman, aged fifty-eight, Anita," I told her. "She gave the name of Maude Tinker and says she's my mother," I added, without any particular expression.

Anita laughed. "Oh, _no_!" she said. "What they won't think of next!"

But her face sobered in an instant, and she bent forward, almost whispering the rest: "Gyp! You mean that Fred Plaice took her seriously!

That he was trying to get _rid_ of her?"

"He felt it would be better if I never knew about it," I admitted. "What do you think I should do, Anita?"

Her heart-shaped face grew more solemn. "I think it would be bad to try to cover it up," she decided. "And I'm glad you didn't let Fred do that to you. Some newscast would be sure to get hold of the story and there'd be snide accusations. All this talk recently about the heredity of psi powers is bad, too. That's what she's trying to cash in on. And if the public thought that the man in charge of catching and pulling the fangs of all the snakes was a hereditary telepath, they'd be after your scalp in no time."

"So?"

"Scotch it. See her, face her down, prove her charge is ridiculous, and s.h.i.+p her west."

I smiled a little dimly. "Just one complication."

"Yes, Gyp?"

"This Maude Tinker, says Fred, is a gypsy."

Anita's face did the most abrupt change. I had never seen her furiously angry. She's a typical high echelon Was.h.i.+ngton secretary, cool, extremely well-mannered, cheerful without being b.u.mptious. But this time she was downright mad.

"I told you," Anita said.

"What?"

"I told you to watch out for Fred Plaice!"

"It's not his fault," I protested. "Catching telepaths is his job."

"Within limits," she said scornfully. "I thought it was just one more of his screwball ideas! He had his whole Section concentrating on gypsies, for a couple of months. He had a long story to go with it, Gyp! How all the soothsayers and clairvoyants and finders were really short-range telepaths or pre-cogs."

"I don't believe it," I said. "You mean that Fred started with my nickname, and has been on this campaign of looking for telepaths among gypsies just in hopes he could embarra.s.s me?"

"Yes!"

You have to like loyalty, no matter what the circ.u.mstances that incite it.

"I can't believe that of one of my boys, Anita," I said. "Fred was all broken up about it."

"I bet I can call the turn," Anita said, starting back for her own desk.

"Fred's next move is to tell you that no one can blame you for disqualifying yourself from this case. After all, your own mother!"

Well, the political implications _were_ deep. "I think I would agree," I said at length. "Let's see what happens. Send this Maude Tinker in as soon as she gets here."

"Aren't you going to take any precautions, Gyp?" Anita demanded.

"Against what?"

"You're impossible," she snapped. "I'll take care of the precaution department myself. And don't you dare let Fred get that woman in here until I get back."