“Home number,” Malone said desperately. “I’ve got to.”
“Well, I can do that, Mr. Malone,” she said, “but it wouldn’t do you any good, really. Because he went away on his vacation, and when he goes on his vacation he never tells us where. You know? He won’t be back for two or three weeks.”
“Oog,” Malone said, and thought for less than a second. “Miss Garbitsch,” he said. “Lou. Got to talk to her. Now.”
“Oh, I can’t do that, either, Mr. Malone,” the toothy girl said. “All of the executive officers, they left already on their vacation. And that includes Miss Garbitsch, too. They just left a skeleton force here at the office.”
“They’re all gone?” Malone said hollowly.
“That’s right,” she said cheerfully. “As a matter of fact, I’m in charge now, and that’s why I’m staying so late. To sort of catch up on things. You know?”
“It’s very important,” Malone said tensely. “You don’t know where any of them went? You don’t have any address?”
“None at all,” she said. “I’m sorry, but that’s how it is. Maybe it’s strange, and maybe you’d ask questions, but I obey orders, and those’re my orders. To take over until they get back. They didn’t tell me where they went, and I didn’t ask.”
“Great,” Malone said. He wanted to shoot himself.
Lou was one of them. Of course she was; that was obvious now, when he thought about it. Lou was one of the secret group that was sabotaging practically everything.