"He came strolling down the street and started to go into the apartment building. Completely innocent about the whole thing, of course. He didn't have any idea we were looking for him."
"He has now," I said. "It's going to be great sport locating him again."
We had a small army loose in the area where Gregory escaped, but for all they found he might have burrowed into the pavement. I called Stella and asked her to stay home from work the next day. I got the stakeout on her aunt's apartment doubled.
I was up at dawn, prowling the streets, riding in patrolling aircars, and I suppose generally making a nuisance of myself with calls to headquarters. We put in a miserable day, and Gregory might have been hiding on Mars, for all the luck we had.
I had my evening meal at a little sandwich shop, and did a leisurely foot patrol along the street by Stella's apartment building. The stakeout was on the job, and the superintendent had Stella's lights on. I stood for a moment in the doorway, watching the few pedestrians, and then I signaled an aircab.
"I'd like to circle around here a bit," I said.
"Sure thing," the cabbie said.
We crisscrossed back and forth above the streets, and I squinted at pedestrians and watched the thin traffic pattern. Fifteen minutes later we were back by the apartment building.
"Circle low around the building," I said.
"Oh, no! Want me to lose my license? I can't go out of the air lanes."