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unenlightening reply.
    “Glad he did. We came down on a Code One call but when Pirate and I got to the edge of the mob to get them moving, they closed in like we was Christmas in July. Somebody got Pirate in the head and I couldn’t turn anywhere without getting it.” Harry dabbed at the cuts on his hands. “I’d sure like to know what set them off.”
    Wizard and the bigger dog were wandering around the street, nervously sniffing. The paddy wagon arrived and Wiz and Pirate assisted in rounding up the incidentals, just begging for one legal bite. Then they started whiffling around again.
    “What’s with the dogs?” Harry asked as Pete helped him into a car. “Look at old Wiz pumping.”
    Wizard’s tail was wagging like he was on the way to his best girl.
    “Maria!” Pete gasped and called Wizard to heel. The dog came bounding over, wriggling with delight. “Find Maria!” but Wizard barked three times, sneezed and shook his head. Pirate came up, nuzzled Harry, sniffed Wizard and then he barked three times.
    “I got a girl that only talks to dogs yet,” Pete said in bitter disgust.
    Back on their own beat, Pete tried to figure out why Maria would have called Wizard. Harry and Pirate weren’t in trouble at the time Wiz took off. Maria must have been worried . . . yeah, that was it! Worried about her old man! She’d called Wizard because her old man had been in that crowd.
    And that explained why Wizard was so happy-acting. He’d found Maria’s father’s trail leading away from the rumble.
    Pete left a note for Harry to keep an ear and an eye open for any crippled kids on his beat and to let him know if Pirate ever acted . . . strange. She might keep in touch with Pirate, too, since the big dog had been involved in getting her father out of a tough scrape.
    Two of the men picked up that day were known numbers runners. They stuck to their story that the cop had come busting in where he wasn’t needed and his damn dog had spooked the crowd into the rumble. They just ‘happened’ to be there.

    For the next few weeks Pete got no signs from Wizard that Maria was in distress. This bothered him almost as much as hearing from her when she was hungry. At headquarters they were hearing nasty rumors about a new numbers racket. Certain hoods were being seen in new cars, in new quarters, acting raunchy. Two runners were picked up on suspicion, in the hope of cracking them. They had to be released twenty-four hours later, clean, but one of them had bragged a little. Pete heard one of the detective lieutenants complaining bitterly about it.
    “Yeah, the punk says ‘you gotta have evidence, looten-ant, and this time there ain’t any, lootenant. Not unless ya can read minds.’ That’s what he says, s’help me.”
    Maria! Pete thought with a sense of shock.
    What was it Maria had said? When she was hungry, she didn’t have the strength to hear far away. If she were well-fed, how far could she hear? All the way to Chicago?
    The conclusion just couldn’t be dodged. Maria and her Pa were involved. But how would she know she was doing something wrong? Whoever had latched onto her would be jubilant that they were putting something over on the cops. To Maria, cops were just the fuzz. Cops spelt trouble for her father. Cops meant the Welfare, and hospitals, and she didn’t know which one scared her the most.
    “At least,” Pete said to Wizard, “she’s not in that crummy room. She’s cared for. That was all I wanted wasn’t it? And she is a minor, so even when the gang gets pulled in, she won’t be booked. Why, those hoods might even get a doctor to try and fix her up.” He groaned. And I sure as hell can’t go to the Chief and say, ‘Look, there’s a kid telepath running the numbers’. Not even if I knew where to find her.”
    Wizard nuzzled his hand.

    “Now what would Al Finch be wanting with a high-priced specialist from Minneapolis?” the desk sergeant asked Pete when he came on duty the next night.