"I haven't the foggiest," I said. "I don't have anything of yours. You could have just called me and asked me that. You didn't have to come busting in here and-"
He slapped me. Not especially hard. Just enough to jolt me and leave me silent.
"Fred," he said, "shut up. Just shut up and listen. Answer when I ask you a question. That's all. Keep the comments for another day. I'm in a hurry. Now I know you are lying because I've already seen your ex-roommate Hal. He says you have it, because he left it here when he moved out. What I am referring to is one of my models of the star-stone, which he picked up after a poker party in my lab. Remember?"
"Yes," I said. "If you had just called me and ask-"
He slapped me again. "Where is it?"
I shook my head, partly to clear it and partly in negation.
"I ... I don't know," I said.
He raised his hand.
"Wait! I'll explain! He had that thing you gave him out on the desk, in the front room, was using it for a paperweight. I'm sure he took it with him-along with all his other stuff-when he moved out. I haven't seen it for a couple of months. I'm sure of that."
"Well, one of you is lying," he said, "and you're the one I've got."
He swung again, but this time I was ready for him. I ducked and kicked him in the groin.
It was spectacular. Almost worth staying to watch, as I had never kicked anyone in the groin before. The cold, rational thing to do next would be to go for the back of his neck while he was doubled over that way, preferably spiking him with my elbow. However, I was not in a cold, rational mood just then. To be honest about it, I was afraid of the man, scared to get too close to him. Having had small experience with groin-kicked persons, I had no idea how long it might be before he straightened up and came at me.
Which is why I took to my own element rather than stay there and face him.
I was over the arm of the chair, had the window the rest of the way up and was out it in an instant. There was a narrow ledge along which I moved until I had hold of the drainpipe, off about eight feet to the right.
I could continue on around it, go up or down. But I decided to remain where I was. I felt secure.
Not too much later his head emerged from the window, turned my way. He studied the ledge and cursed me. I lit a cigarette and smiled.
"What are you waiting for?" I said when he paused for breath. "Come on out. You may be a lot tougher than I am, Paul, but if you come out here only one of us is going back in again. That's concrete down there. Come on. Talk is cheap. Show me."
He took a deep breath and his grip tightened on the sill. For a moment I actually thought he was going to try it. He looked downward, though, and he looked back at me.
"All right, Fred," he said, getting control of his lecture voice. "I'm not that big a fool. You win. But listen, please. What I've said is true. I've got to have that thing back. I would not have acted as I did if it were not very important. Please tell me, if you will, whether you were telling me the truth."
I was still smarting from those slaps. I did not feel like being a nice guy. On the other hand, it must have meant a lot to him to make him behave as he had, and I had nothing to gain by not telling him. So: "It was the truth," I said.
"And you have no idea where it might be?"
"None."
"Could someone have picked it up?"
"Easily."
"Who?"
"Anybody. You know those parties we had. Thirty, forty people in there."
He nodded and gnashed his teeth.
"All right," he said then. "I believe you. Try and think, though. Can you recall anything-anything at all-that might give me a lead?"
I shook my head. "Sorry."
He sighed. He sagged. He looked away.
"Okay," he said finally. "I'm going now. I suppose you plan on calling the police?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm in no position to ask favors, or to threaten you, at the moment. But this is both a request and a warning of whatever future reprisal I might be able to manage. Don't call them. I've troubles enough without having to worry about them, too."
He turned away.
"Wait," I said.
"What?"
"Maybe if you tell me what the problem is ... "
"No. You can't help me."
"Well, supposing the thing turned up? What should I do with it?"
"If that should happen, put it in a safe place and keep your mouth shut about having it. I'll call you periodically. Tell me about it then."
"What's so important about it?"
"Un-uh," he said, and was gone.
A whispered question from behind me-"Do you see me, red?"-and I turned, but there was no one there, though my ears still rang from the boxing they had taken. I decided then that it was a bad day and I took to the roof for some thinking. A traffic-copter buzzed me later, and I was queried as to suicidal intentions. I told the cop I was refribbing shingles, though, and that seemed to satisfy him.
Incidents and fragments continued-
"I did try phoning you. Three times," he said. "No answer."
"Did you consider stopping by in person?"
"I was about to. Just now. You got here first."
"Did you call the police?"
"No. I've got a wife to worry about as well as myself."
"I see."
"Did you call them?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I'm not certain. Well, I guess it's that I'd like a better idea as to what's going on before I blow the whistle on him."
Hal nodded, a dark-eyed study in bruise and Band-aid.
"And you think I know something you don't?"
"That's right."
"Well, I don't," he said, taking a sip, wincing and stirring more sugar into his iced tea. "When I answered the door earlier, there he was. I let him in and he started asking me about that damned stone. I told him everything I could remember, but he still wasn't satisfied. That was when he began pushing me around."
"Then what happened?"
"I remembered some more things."
"Uh-huh. Like you remembered I have it-which I don't-so he'd come rough me up and leave you alone."
"No! That's not it at all!" he said. "I told him the truth. I left it there when I moved out. As to what became of it afterwards, I have no idea."
"Where'd you leave it?"
"Last I remember seeing it, it was on the desk."
"Why didn't you take it with you?"
"I don't know. I was tired of looking at it, I guess."
He got up and paced his living room, paused and looked out the window. Mary was off attending a class, a thing she had also been doing that afternoon when Paul had stopped by, had his conference with Hal and started the ball rolling down the alley that led to me.
"Hal," I said, "are you telling me the whole truth and nothing but?"
"Everything important."
"Come on."
He turned his back to the window, looked at me, looked away.
"Well," he said, "he claimed the thing we had was his."
I ignored the "we."
"It was," I said, "once. But I was there when he gave it to you. Title passed."
But Hal shook his head. "Not that simple," he said.
"Oh?"
He returned to sit with his iced tea. He drummed his fingers on the tabletop, took a quick sip, looked at me again.
"No," he said. "You see, the one we had was really his. Remember that night we got it? We played cards in his lab till pretty late. The six stones were on a shelf above the counter. We noticed them early and asked him about them several times. He would just smile and say something mysterious or change the subject. Then, as, the night wore on and after he'd had more to drink, he began talking about them, told us what they were."
"I remember," I said. "He told us he had been to see the star-stone, which had just that week been received from the aliens and put on display in New York. He had taken hundreds of photographs through all sorts of filters, filled a notebook with observations, collected all the data he could. Then he had set out to construct a model of the thing. Said he was going to find a way to produce them cheaply, to sell them as novelty items. The half dozen on his shelf represented his best efforts at that point. He thought they were pretty good."