Black Hood's eyes narrowed. The voice that came back over the wire was a toneless whisper.
"This is the Eye speaking."
Burkey said, "Delancy came through here about a couple of hours ago."
"Delancy?" the Eye said. "Yes, I know."
"I changed paint jobs for him according to instructions," Burkey explained. "But what I called you about, I got a young fellow working here, grinding gas. He saw the gray sedan roll in here and he saw that it was blue when it went out. He came to me to ask how come."
"What did you do?" the Eye whispered.
"Told him he was drunk and fired him," Burkey replied.
"That was careless of you," the voice whispered after the pause of a moment. "Very careless. You should have silenced this man at once."
Burkey said, "How the hell could I do that?"
"That is your problem," the whisperer said. "But you must dispose of him immediately, do you understand?"