Had he left the notebook on the street somewhere, just dropping it by accident? Malone couldn't quite see that happening. It was, of course, possible--but the possibility was so remote that he decided to try and think of everything else first. There was Dorothy, for instance.
Was it possible that she might have the book?
Malone enumerated possibilities on his fingers. First, he could have dropped it or something like that, and she could have picked it up. But dropping the notebook was a chance he'd eliminated already. It just didn't sound likely.
Besides, if he were going to work on the dropping hypothesis, he might as well start from anywhere, on the assumption that he had dropped it anywhere on the street.
But if he _had_ dropped it--second finger--and Dorothy had picked it up, wouldn't she have given it back?
She would have, Malone decided, unless she actually intended to steal it.
And if she had intended to steal it, she could just as easily have lifted it out of his pocket in the first place. She didn't need to wait for it to fall out conveniently, all by itself.
Third finger: why would she steal the notebook? What good was it to her? And how did she even know he had it?
None of those questions seemed to have any answers. Of course, if she'd been connected with the Silent Spooks in some way, it would explain a little--but somehow Malone couldn't see Dorothy as a Silent Spook.
Malone stared at his ring finger and pinky. He pressed the ring finger down, thinking that perhaps Dorothy had picked the notebook up and just forgotten to give it back. That was possible, even if not likely.
Only it required that notebook dropping out again.
The pinky went down. She might be some sort of a kleptomaniac, Malone thought.
No, Malone decided, realizing that he had no more fingers left, it was impossible to shake off the feeling that the girl had deliberately taken the book for some definite purpose of her own.
He took the drink from Ray and slid off the bar stool. Two steps away he remembered one more little fact.
He didn't have her number, and he didn't know anything about where she lived, except that it could be reached by subway. That, Malone told himself morosely, limited things nicely to the five boroughs of New York.