“You found out all that about him since Friday? Tell me again.” She listened carefully this time while he repeated everything. “A lawyer,” she said thoughtfully. “Why would she have a lawyer following me?”
“Maybe she wants to sue you.”
“Fontenoy Drive in Charleston Heights. That’s not far from my old house.”
“And the funeral parlor’s in that neighborhood too, isn’t it?”
“Right.”
“Maybe he popped into the funeral because he happened to be in the neighborhood.”
“How did you find all this out, Erskine?”
“I told you. I have my methods, Jardell.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“You’re really impressed, aren’t you?”
“I just don’t see how you did it.”
“A magician never reveals his tricks.”
“Are you serious? You’re not going to tell me?”
“Oh, of course I’ll tell you,” he said, grinning. “If you’ll play the flute for me.”
“I don’t think I can.”
“Well, in that case—”
“Erskine—”
“I’ll tell you,” he said gently. “You’ll play the flute for me someday. You can always play my flute, Ariel.”
“Gross pig.”
“Oink. The first thing I did, Saturday morning, was steal a hubcap.”
“From Channing’s car? How did you know where to find it?”
“I didn’t. You want to let me tell this?”
“Sorry.”
“I just took a screwdriver and I went out and stole a hubcap, and not from his car. As a matter of fact it was from a car parked all the way over on Savage Street. That’s how far I had to walk before I found a Buick with nobody around to see me pry the hubcap off.”
“Why a Buick? Oh, because his car’s a Buick.”
“Good thinking. I brought it home and I told my mother it rolled off a car and the driver didn’t notice it but I got the license number. Guess what license number?”
“DWE-something something something.”
“628. I told her the driver would probably like to get his hubcap back, and she was really proud of me for being so public-spirited, but she didn’t know how to find out who he was. I had to suggest it to her.”
“Suggest what?”
“That she should call the Department of Motor Vehicles and tell them what happened. I thought of calling myself, and if I did that I wouldn’t have had to actually steal the hubcap, because they wouldn’t ask to see it over the phone. But I figured they wouldn’t be as likely to cooperate with a kid. I thought of trying to sound grown up. I didn’t think it would work.”
“Probably not.”
“Anyway, she made the call. You know my mother. God help anybody who tries to tell her it’s against policy to give out information, blah blah blah. She got his name and address and a description of the car, and it was the same car, a maroon and black Buick Electra. Then she said she’d drive me out there so I could return the hubcap.”
“Did you go?”
“She couldn’t take me right away, and I said maybe I’d go by bus instead. I think she was afraid I would get lost, but she didn’t come right out and say so, and she just told me to call first.”
“So you called them?”
“I pretended to. I looked up the number in the phone book, and that’s when I saw the office listing on Meeting Street. Then I went out and walked past the office, just to be doing something, and I kept walking and wound up seeing a movie at the theater on King near George. The Olympia. They really ought to call it the King George. There were two science fiction movies and I got there in the middle of one and walked out in the middle of the other. I left the hubcap under my seat.”
“Clever.”
“Well, I had to ditch it somewhere. I wasn’t going to try putting it back on the car on Savage Street.”
“He’ll be missing a hubcap and never know it played a part in a larger drama.”
“It’s a shame we can’t tell him. Anyway, I came home and later that night she asked me if Mr. Channing gave me a reward. I said no, and she said didn’t he even reimburse me for my busfare, and I said no because I wasn’t thinking too fast, and she said that was terrible and she had a good notion to give him a piece of her mind.”
“Did she call him?”
“She was getting ready to. Then I managed to tell her that a kid answered the door and took the hubcap, and of course the kid didn’t think to give me money, and I didn’t really want any money anyway. And she said why didn’t I say so in the first place, and of course I would have if I’d thought of it, but I just mumbled something and went upstairs.”
“That’s amazing,” she said. She thought for a moment. “There were other things you said before. About him being a lawyer.”
“It said so in the phone book.”
“And his wife’s name, and his kids.”
“Elaine and Greta and Deborah. I got that over the phone yesterday afternoon.”
“What did you do, pretend you were taking a survey?”
“No. I called up and asked to speak to Margaret Channing.”
“And?”
“And the woman who answered said there was no Margaret there, and she didn’t know of any Margaret Channing in the Charleston area, that her name was Elaine Channing. Then I said Margaret was a kid, and she said her daughters were named Greta and Deborah. For the hell of it I asked her if she had a son and she said she didn’t. I thought of asking her if her husband was a pervert but I decided against it.”
“Probably wise of you.”
“That’s what I figured.”
She got up, turned on Erskine’s short-wave radio, waited for the tubes to warm up. “Jeffrey Channing,” she said. “Who is he? Why is he following me around?”
“He wasn’t exactly following you. It’s more like lurking in ambush.”
“Terrific. How old are his kids?”
“What’s the difference?”
“Maybe I used to know them. I think I remember where Fontenoy Drive is. It’s not far from our old house. Maybe I went to school with Greta and Deborah.”
“We could find out.”
“How?”
“We could take the bus out there tomorrow after school. Or we could wait for the weekend.”
“I suppose so.”
“Or there’s a faster way. C’mon.”
He used the phone in his mother’s room on the second floor, dialing the number rapidly, asking to speak to Greta. ”This is Graham Littlefield, Mrs. Channing. I’m in Greta’s class in school.... Hi, Greta. It’s Graham. Sure you do. Look, I’m having a party and I wanted to check how old you are. Uh-huh. When’s your birthday? And you’ll be ten then? Thanks. Oh, by the way, how old is Deborah? Your sister. Right, Debbie. Okay, thanks a lot, Greta. See you tomorrow.”
He replaced the receiver and looked up in triumph. “Greta’s nine. She’ll be ten the eleventh of February. Don’t forget to send her a card.”
“You’re amazing.”
“I know. Debbie’s the younger one. That’s what they call her, not Deborah, and when I called her Deborah Greta giggled. She does that a lot. Debbie’s six and a half, going on seven. Why do people say that, do you suppose? Everybody who’s six and a half is going on seven.”
“I guess I didn’t know them. They’re a lot younger.”
“I guess not.”
“How come you said Graham Littlefield?”
“Well, I had to say something. Now she’ll spend the next few days trying to figure out which kid is Graham. And waiting for an invitation to his party.”
“Then she’ll read in the paper when you kill Graham and she’ll get suspicious.”
“When I kill Graham — oh, right, I forgot that conversation. Maybe that’s why I used his name. It’s easier than killing him. We could still go look at Channing’s house tomorrow or Saturday. If you want.”