“Couldn’t hear what she said, is that it?”
“Knew she was calling over to them, though. Waving for them to get in.”
“And they just got in.”
“Got in, and she drove off with them.”
“In a blue car, is that right?”
“Blue Chevrolet Impala.”
“Notice the license plate?”
“No. Told the cops the same thing. Wasn’t looking for it.”
“Florida plate was it, though?”
“Must’ve been, don’t you think?”
“Why’s that?”
“Cause it was a rental car.”
“How do you know?”
“Had a bumper sticker on it. ‘Avis Tries Harder.’”
Bingo, Charlie thinks.
The call from Captain Steele comes at twenty minutes to three.
“What does Oleander Street look like right this minute?” he asks Sloate.
“Empty. No traffic at all, nobody parked.”
“Do you think they’re watching the house?”
“No.”
“If I sent somebody over right now, with those bullshit hundreds from the Henley case, can he drive right into the garage?”
“Yes. It’s a two-car garage, there’s only the vic’s car in it right now.”
The vic, Alice thinks.
She is pacing the floor near the table where Sloate sits with the phone to his ear. The vic.
“I’ll call when he’s on his approach. You can raise the door then.”
“Got it.”
“I’m sending Andrews and Saltzman to check out that babysitter,” he says. “You think there’s any meat there?”
“I hope so.”
“Meanwhile, when your lady calls, tell her you’ve got the money.”
“Okay.”
“And set up a drop.”
“Okay.”
“Do you think they know we’re already in this?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Stay in touch.”
Sloate puts the phone back on its cradle.
“What?” Alice asks.
“He’s sending two of our people to talk to Maria Gonzalez.”
”They found her then?”
“Yes. And he’s sending someone else here to—”
“No! Why?”
“With bogus bills.”
“Bogus…?”
“Counterfeit hundred-dollar bills.”
“No. If anyone’s watching the house…”
“He’ll be driving right into the garage.”
“If they smell something fishy…”
“They won’t, don’t worry.”
“These are my kids we’re talking about!”
The grandfather clock now reads 2:45 P.M.
In fifteen minutes, the woman will call again with instructions.
“When she calls,” Sloate says, “tell her you have the money. That’s the first thing.”
“They’ll know the bills are phony.”
“No, they won’t,” he says. “These are confiscated super-bills. The Federal Reserve loaned them to us when we were working another kidnapping case down here.”
“What’s a super-bill?”
“All you got to know is they’re so good nobody can tell them from the real thing. She won’t recognize them, believe me.”
“How do I get my children back?”
“That’s the whole point of this phone call. You’ll set up an exchange. Kids for money. No kids, no money.”
“They won’t go for that.”
“You’ve got to insist on it.”
“How?”
“Way we’ve done it before—”
“How many damn kidnappings do you have here in Florida?”
“One every now and then. Way we do it is this. You get out of your car with a satchelful of money. You go to her alone. She checks out the money while you’re there with her. But you don’t actually give her the money till she goes to get the kids from wherever…”
“Why would she do that? Once she’s got her hands on that money—”
“She’ll do it. That’s the way we’ve worked it before. They need to have some assurance…”
“No! I’m the one who needs—”
“Mrs. Glen—”
“—assurance that I’m going to get my kids back! Either she has the kids with her, or I don’t turn over the money. Period!”
“Well, that’s what we hope will be the case.”
“That’s not what you said. You said she takes the money and runs. That’s what you said.”
“I said you don’t actually give her the money. All you do is show it to her. Mrs. Glendenning… ma’am… let us try to help you, okay? Give us a chance here.”
Alice says nothing.
“Let me go over it one more time, okay? One: You set up the meet.”
The meet, Alice thinks.
“Two: You get out of the car, walk over to her…”
“Why would she risk that? Me seeing her?”
“Tell her to disguise herself however she wants, okay? We’re not interested in identifying anyone at this point in time. The bills are marked, the minute they try to spend them, we’ve got ’em. All we want to do right now is get your kids back.”
“Will I be alone?”
“No. We’ll be there, wherever she says you’re to bring the money.”
“I’d rather go alone.”
“No. We may have to move in.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of. These are my kids, damn it!”
“I know that. But these people—”
“What do you mean, you may have to move in? I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.”
“Can you think of a better way?”
“Yes. Leave me alone. Let me handle this alone.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how, damn it!”
Sloate looks at his watch.
“You’ve got ten minutes,” he says. “Relax a bit till the call comes.”
“I’m relaxed,” she says.
He looks at her.
“I’m relaxed, damn it!”
“Ma’am, we’re just trying to help,” he says. “No one wants anything to happen to—”
“Please don’t call me ma’am. My name is Alice.”
“And mine’s Wilbur,” he says.
Alice nods. She cannot in a million years imagine calling this man Wilbur. Or any other man, for that matter. He is still standing near the table where the recording equipment is set up. Leaning against the table. Big gun holstered on his right hip. In the hallway beyond, the grandfather clock ticks noisily.
“Why do you suppose Rafe popped up here all of a sudden?” he asks.
“I don’t know why. My sister said Jacksonville.”
“But here he is on the Cape.”
“I don’t know what he’s doing here.”
“A coincidence probably,” Sloate says.
“Probably,” Alice says.
They look at each other.
“Unless they wanted an inside man at the skunk works,” Sloate says. “Somebody who’d know what’s going on in here.”
“I don’t think Rafe is involved in this,” she tells him.
“Be nice to know if he told anybody about that big insurance policy, though. Be real nice to know,” Sloate says. “How much longer you think he’ll be snoring in there?”
“I have no idea.”
He looks at her again. He’s really trying to figure this out, she thinks. But he seems so very damn stupid. If this wasn’t a hick town with a Mickey Mouse police force…
But it is.
This is Cape October, Florida, population 143,000, and my children have been kidnapped, and in ten minutes the woman who has them will call again and we will make arrangements for an exchange, kids for money, money for kids. And if it works…