The Mind Thing by Fredric Brown

Author:Fredric Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

probably even spell. But do you know if she's free now?"

"I can find out." Ed Hollis reached for the phone, but stopped before he picked it up. "How much of a job will it be? An hour or a week or what?"

Doe said, "I'd guess about four hours' dictation, give or take an hour. And then a day or two to transcribe it on a typewriter."

Hollis nodded and picked up the phone. He asked for a number and got it. "Miss Talley? Friend of mine here's got a couple of days' work, typing and shorthand. Can you do it for him? . . . Fine. Just a second."

He held his hand over the mouthpiece and looked up at Doe. "Says she can start whenever you want her. But it's practically noon now. Shall I tell her you'll see her around one o'clock? I can tell you how to get there; it's only a few blocks."

"Excellent"

Hollis spoke into the phone again. "Right, Miss Talley. He'll see you somewhere around one o'clock. His name's Doc Staunton. . . . Okay. 'Bye now."

He looked up at Doc again. "She reminded me to tell you her rates." He grinned. "Guess she thought they might scare you. Ten bucks a day. Or buck and a half an hour for shorter jobs."

"Reasonable as hell. Have lunch with me, Ed, to help me kill time till one?"

"Wish I could, but I've got about an hour's work and then I'm knocking off for the day. Rather get it over with first, and then go home. Just phoned the missus I'd be home be'-tween one and half past and to hold lunch."

He gave Doc Miss Talley's address and then walked to the door with him and showed him how to get to the place.

When Doc got there at one o'clock, he found it a neat, well-kept little cottage. Matching it in size was a little Volkswagen in the driveway beside it.

Miss Talley, when she answered his knock at the door, proved not to be equivalently small, at least vertically. She was almost a head taller than Doc, albeit so slender that their weight was probably just about the same. She could have been anywhere from fifty-five to sixty-five, and probably, Doc decided, was just about half way between. She wore steel-rimmed spectacles and was dressed neatly and conservatively in gray that just matched her hair, which she wore in a tight bun at the back of her neck.

Add a frumpy hat and an umbrella, Doc thought, and she'd exactly fit his mental picture of Stuart Palmer's female

THE MIND THING 79

detective character, Hildegarde Withers. But she looked competent and, after all, he wasn't hiring her as a party girl.

"Dr. Saunders?" And when he nodded, she stepped back. "Won't you come in?"

Doc said, "Thank you, Miss Talley," and entered.

"If you'll be seated, Doctor, I'll get my notebook and—"

"Uh—Miss Talley. 1 suppose I can dictate here, but I think I'd be distracted and I could do a lot better at my own place.

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