"That's what I said," Malone said. "The driver of the Cadillac was killed. In a fire like that—"
"Don't jump to conclusions, Malone," Burris said. "Wait. When the prowl car boys got to the scene, there was no sign of anybody in the car. Nobody at all."
"In the heat of those flames—" Malone began.
"Not enough heat, and not enough time," Burris said. "A human body couldn't have been destroyed in just a few minutes, not that completely. Some of the car's metal was melted, sure—but there would have been traces of anybody who'd been in the car. Nice, big, easily-seen traces. And there weren't any. No corpse, no remains, no nothing."
Malone let that stew in his mind for a few seconds. "But the cops said—"
"Whatever the cops said," Burris snapped, "there was nobody at all in that Cadillac when it went off the embankment."
"Now, wait a minute," Malone said. "Here's a car with a driver who appears and disappears practically at will. Sometimes he's there and sometimes he's not there. It's not possible."
"Ah," Burris said. "That's why I have another explanation."