“I can, and I will!” Colonel Welsh snapped, and scooped up one of the phones.
Just seven minutes later he hung up and looked at Dawson.
“He arrived in Albuquerque in a Vultee attack ship, alone,” Colonel Welsh said. “It was one of Ninety-Six’s planes. His papers were all in order for having landed on Mexican fields for gas. His ship wasn’t armed, so technically he didn’t fall under the internment law. Not that Mexico would have enforced it. The plane wasn’t in such hot shape, however, so he borrowed a P-Forty from the Albuquerque Base. So much for that. Go on, Dawson. What are you leading up to?”
“I don’t know,” Dave replied. “Just sort of feeling around. Guessing at a lot of things just to hear how they sound. But here’s one thing that strikes me odd. And it may have a reason. You say, Colonel, that he asked you to meet him here. Right?”
“Right,” the senior officer grunted.
“And you also say,” Dave went on, “that you could not contact him direct. Right?”
“Right again,” Colonel Welsh said. “So what?”
“Well, why did he say to meet him here?” Dave asked softly. “Why not fly directly to Washington to report to his senior officer? That’s not strictly military—to wire your superior to meet you some place three thousand miles away. So it was important. Important that he meet you here. Why? I don’t know. Now the other item. Your not being able to contact him direct. Why? Probably because he wasn’t around. Probably because he discovered that there was somebody on his trail. That somebody had found out from whoever visited Rigby today that Tracey was flying up from Albuquerque. So—well, measures were taken so that he would never arrive. Somebody at Albuquerque did something to Tracey’s P-Forty oxygen tank so that actually he was gas poisoned and knocked cold when he took the first sip as he flew at altitude over the mountains. And—and, by the best of luck, Freddy’s sharp eyes spotted his wrecked plane. Do those guesses sound a little reasonable to you, sir? To you, Freddy?”
“It could be a mighty close to the truth account of what actually did happen!” Colonel Welsh said softly to himself. “But it still doesn’t get us anywhere. It still doesn’t give us anything to jump on.”
“I don’t agree with you there, sir,” Freddy Farmer spoke up quietly.