That didn't sound very effective. And besides, it wasn't really his notebook. He tried again.
"Dorothea, you pinched your brother's notebook."
Now, for some reason, it sounded like something covered by the Vice Squad. It sounded terrible. But there were other ways of saying the same thing.
"Dorothea," he muttered, "you borrowed your brother's notebook."
That was too patronizing. Malone told himself that he sounded like a character straight out of 3-D screens, and settled himself gamely for another try.
"Dorothea, you have your brother's notebook."
To which the obvious answer was, "Yes, I do, and so what?"
Or possibly, "How do you know?"
And Malone thought about answering that one. "Queen Elizabeth told me," was the literal truth, but somehow it didn't sound like it. And he couldn't find another answer to give the girl.
"Dorothea," he said, and a voice from nowhere added: