”I, uh, heard she came back. Then vanished.
”Yes,” Kit said quietly. “Do you have any ideas at all?”
Malcolm halted. For just an instant his shoulders drooped. “No.” Then he straightened his back again. “But I heard something odd this morning. I thought you ought to know. You know, just in case…”
”Park ’em. Talk.”
Malcolm hesitated, then took the chair. But he still wouldn’t meet Kit’s eyes. “I was down in the gym working out. Ripley Sneed came in.”
”Ripley? Where the hell has he been keeping himself? I haven’t seen him in months.”
Malcolm grimaced. “Went down an unknown gate and damn near didn’t come back. Had some pretty wild stories to tell. Anyway, I mentioned you’d been asking about unknown gates anybody had explored recently. He said he’d gone through one a couple of months back, but it was completely worthless.”
Kit frowned. “What gate? Where?”
Malcolm rubbed the fingers of one hand. “He said it opened in the back of Phil Jones’ store.”
”Phil Jones? Isn’t he the nut who goes down time and rescues totem poles?”
”Yeah, that’s the one. His shop gives me the creeps. Phil gives me the creeps. Anyway, Ripley said a small gate opened up in his storeroom. He went through, logged it, came back, told Phil the gate was useless.
”Why was it worthless? Where and when did it go?”
Malcolm glanced at his hands, pretending to inspect his fingernails. “He wouldn’t say.”
Kit tightened his hands down around the edge of his desk. “Ripley Sneed always was a goddamned bastard How much did he want?”
Malcolm sighed unhappily and finally met Kit’s gaze. “A thousand.”