Sight Unseen Read Free Page B

Greer looked at each other, and Lockwood wondered what the look meant.
    “Dr. Dzeloski has one,” Myra said. “And security has another. Pops would need a complete set to make his rounds.”
    “Who’s Pops?”
    “The night watchman,” Myra said. “He and Bingo, his dog, come on at 7:00 when we close down, and leave when we open up in
     the morning. I usually lock up. Stanley opens up in the morning.”
    “So that’s four keys,” Lockwood said. “Can’t the elevator be run without a key? Can somebody override the key switch?”
    Greer made a grimace. “I doubt it. When we built this place, we put most of the wires in steel pipes, and the control box
     is here in Area C.”
    “How much did this thing weigh?” Lockwood asked.
    “Five hundred pounds,” Myra said.
    “What? How did they get it out? How would they carry it away?”
    “Ah—one of our little dollies is missing, too,” Greer said.
    Lockwood groaned. “You mean you left something in here that could be used to carry off the bombsight? Don’t you know you never
     leave a safe’s wheels on?—that thieves can just roll it away?”
    The two of them looked sheepish and shook their heads.
    “So nobody ever conducted a theft work-up out here, checking procedures?” Lockwood asked.
    “Does that mean you won’t pay?” Myra asked.
    “No, probably not,” Lockwood said. “But whoever wrote this policy ought to have his head examined, that’s all.”
    Lockwood had them show him over the room and explain the operation. The bombsight had been in its final stages of completion,
     during which time it was undergoing final bench tests before being loaded next week into a real XB-17 at Lakehurst, New Jersey,
     for field trials.
    “Odd it should be stolen this week, just as it’s completed, isn’t it?” Lockwood said in a suggestive way. He watched the two
     of them closely.
    “You think somebody who works here told the thieves when to take it?” Myra said.
    “And
how
, and
gave
them the key, and
set
up some way for them to cart it off.”
    “You’re making us sound awfully dumb,” Stanley said.
    Lockwood looked at him. “You have been. I’m just surprised they waited this long. I bet they waited till you’d put the finishing
     touches on it before carting it off.”
    Lockwood found that one of the two-ton panel trucks was missing from the parking lot, and when he examined the gate guard’s
     roster, he found that truck had left during the night at 2:17 A.M . He then walked the perimeter of the mesh fence, and in the southwest corner of Northstar’s ten acres he found a two-foot
     hole in the fence, which was partially hidden by a lush bramblebush. This was how the thieves had gotten in.
    At 1:00 that afternoon he called Mr. Gray.
    “What’s this all about?” Gray growled. “We don’t have to pay, right? What was stolen?”
    “They won’t let me tell you yet what was stolen. I have to ask the G-men, who’ll be here any minute,” Lockwood reported. “I
     don’t see how we can pay under the circumstances —if I ever saw an inside job, this is it. We can say that the boss, who had
     one of the keys, did it. It’ll buy us time.”
    “What do you mean, you can’t tell
me
?” Gray shouted. “I’m the
chief
of this department, Lockwood. And of course we won’t pay. Paying in ninety-six hours—I never heard of anything so silly.
     Can you find it, Lockwood?”
    Lockwood suppressed his anger at Gray’s raspy remarks. Nothing made Mr. Gray more irritable than the prospect of paying a
     large claim—even a legitimate one.
    “I don’t know, Chief. The night guard is due here any minute, and also a bunch of guys from Washington. From all the secrecy
     out here, I’m not even sure the G-men are going to let us investigate.”
    “
Let
us! How are they going to
stop
us?” Gray shouted.
    “Take it easy, will you? All I can say is it looks like they had a—device—here yesterday, and it looks as if they don’t have
     it