The Einstein Papers Read Online Free PDF Page B

O’Toole said. “I’ll just shuffle down to your office and take a nap on your office couch for a few hours.”
    With a wink at Einstein, O’Toole walked away from the truck. As he shuffled up the street toward Einstein’s office, Agent Talbot turned the Ford sedan around. Keeping a respectful distance, the Ford sedan carrying the FBI agents followed O’Toole.
    Neither Talbot nor Agnews was watching in the rearview mirror as Einstein backed the truck from the driveway and slowly pulled away.
     
    Grinding the gears, Einstein forced O’Toole’s 1939 Chevrolet pickup into first gear and set off for Hartley’s Marina. It was a hot summer day and the air hung over the land like a burning blanket.
    Inside the dark-green Chevy truck Einstein clutched the wheel in a death grip. At the stop sign down the street from his house Einstein managed to stop the truck in time. Restarting the engine, which had stalled when Einstein had slammed on the brakes while forgetting to push down on the clutch, he lurched from the stop in second gear. A thin trickle of sweat ran down the side of Einstein’s face as he reached for third gear.
     
    Appearing like some bizarre circus parade, the procession of the fake Einstein followed by the FBI agents in the black sedan was nearing its end. O’Toole was less than 125 yards from the outer door to Einstein’s laboratory and was already savoring the pride from a job well done.
    O’Toole slowed as a perky young female student approached from the opposite direction. Her head was down, staring toward the pavement, but she raised her face to smile at O’Toole as they got closer. Two steps later the toe of her left shoe hooked on a piece of uneven sidewalk and sent her tumbling to the ground.
    “Are you okay?” O’Toole asked excitedly.
    “Fine, fine,” said the student. “I just need to be fitted for glasses and I’ve been too vain to follow through with it.”
    Agnews and Talbot had stopped the Ford sedan and were watching the scene.
    “Here, let me help you up,” O’Toole said.
    The female student raised her arm to O’Toole, who bent at the waist to help lift the girl to her feet. At that instant, the hat O’Toole was wearing fell from his head, flipped over once, then landed, crown down, on the cement. From the passenger side of the Ford sedan Agnews stared at O’Toole in shock.
    “We’ve been had,” he said to Talbot as he stared at O’Toole.
    “That looks like the gardener,” Talbot said.
    “Then Einstein must be driving his truck,” Agnews said.
    Talbot swung the Ford in a half-circle and raced off after the truck. But the FBI agents were too late to catch the fleeing scientist.
     
    Princeton Police Patrolman Duke Tanner was stopped at a filling station four blocks from Einstein’s house when the pickup rolled past. Tanner listened as the driver of the truck ground the gears. He watched as the driver swerved to avoid a metal trash can on the side of the road. Tanner decided to follow the Chevrolet. After following the truck for several miles he pulled abreast of the pickup at a stoplight.
    Tanner stared at the driver in amazement before shouting out his open window. “Is that you, Dr. Einstein?”
    Einstein glanced at the light nervously before turning to Tanner. Einstein was still having trouble coordinating the clutch and gas pedals when pulling from a dead stop and he feared he was going to stall out the engine again when the light changed. “Hello, Officer, it’s me.”
    “I didn’t know you could drive,” Tanner said.
    “Just learning,” Einstein said as he stared again at the light. “You’re never too old to learn new skills.”
    “Let me follow behind you to make sure you get safely out of town,” Tanner said.
    Einstein said nothing, he just gave Tanner a thumbs-up sign. When the light changed he lurched from the stop in the wrong gear. Tanner followed Einstein several miles, then tooted his horn and turned back toward Princeton as the truck made