Graves checked his watch. It was 8:39. A moment later the limousine sped past them while he was making a note of the scientific supply company and its address. Lewis followed a short distance behind.
The limo again went uptown and pulled over in front of a machine shop. Wright got out and was met at the door by a man carrying a small paper bag. Wright shook hands with the man, who was dressed in dungarees and a blue work shirt. Then Wright opened the paper bag to look inside. He removed one small, shiny metal object, nodded, exchanged a few more words with the man, and got back into his car.
The limousine drove off.
As they passed the machine shop, Graves noted the address and the name. He stared at his list. `A plastics manufacturer, a scientific supply house, and now a machine shop.'
`He isn't buying presents for his girls,' Lewis said, and laughed.
`Did you check out that purchase last week?' The week before, Wright had also visited several small industrial manufacturers.
`Yeah,' Lewis said. `It was two twelve-foot lengths of flexible hosing. Very unusual.'
`What's unusual about that?'
`It was stainless steel.'
`Meaning?'
Lewis shrugged. `The guy I talked to said that nobody bought flexible stainless steel hosing any more. People use either plastic or something like aluminium. Stainless is only used for piping very corrosive materials.'
`Such as?'
`Concentrated dyes, corrosive gases, that kind of thing. The guy said it was pretty uncommon. Most highly corrosive stuff is pumped through glass piping. But of course, glass isn't flexible.'
`And Wright bought two lengths of flexible steel?'
`Right. Twelve-foot lengths. At eighty-three dollars a foot.'
Graves nodded and watched the car. `He's buying a lot of specialized equipment. Why?'
`You mean, why is he doing it?'
`No,' Graves said. `I mean, why is he doing it himself, in person?'
`I don't follow you. Why shouldn't he do it himself?'
`Because he's too smart for that,' Graves said.
The limousine went uptown twenty blocks and pulled over in front of another building. The sign said HARRELSON GARMENTS AND CUSTOM GOODS. They watched Wright get out of the limo and go inside.
`I'll be goddamned,' Graves said.
`What is it?' Lewis said.
'Harrelson was in the papers a year ago. They made rubber suits and whips and things like that; there was a minor scandal.'
Lewis shook his head: `It really is true, then.'
`What?'
`About your memory.'
Graves shook his head. He'd been through all this before. `I don't have a photographic memory,' he said. `I have a better than average memory, that's all.'
`Are you trying to convince me?'
`No, just telling you.'
`You sound sore.'
`You better understand,' Graves said, `that I don't have any special powers. None at all. I just plod along, doing a job.'
`Here he comes,' Lewis said. He pointed to Wright emerging from the store with an armful of packages wrapped in brown paper. George, the chauffeur, jumped out and came around to help carry the packages. Wright indicated that they were to go into the trunk of the car. George locked them there, then came around, shut Wright's door, and drove off.
`I'd like to know what was in those packages,' Graves said, making notes in his book.
`Bet you anything it's kinky rubber clothing,' Lewis said.
`What will you bet?'
At that, Lewis laughed. He knew you didn't bet with Graves. Nobody bet with Graves. He might deny special skills until he was blue in the face, but the fact was that Graves was the best gambler, bettor, poker player that any of them had ever seen.
They followed the car for another five minutes. Then it pulled up in front of a sporting goods store. Wright again got out. He said something to George, who nodded and went across the street to a coffee shop. The car was left alone. It could not be seen easily from either the sports store or the coffee shop.
`Looks like we have our chance,' Graves said. `Pull over.'
As Lewis pulled the sedan over, Graves opened the glove compartment and took out a large, circular key ring. On it were keys to Wright's apartment in New York, his apartment in San Diego, his limousine, his Alfa sportscar, his summer house in Southampton, his winter house irr Jamaica. And several others as well. They were all neatly tagged.
Lewis said, `Isn't this a little risky '
`We're going to arrest him today,' Graves said. `It doesn't matter now.' He got out of the car, feeling the heat of the morning air. He walked forward to the limousine. It took just a moment to insert his key in the trunk and open it. He raised the trunk lid partway and looked at the brown paper packages. There were three, closed with strips of tape. He opened a c. -aer of one and peered inside.
The package contained black rubber belts, about six inches wide, formed into loops of varying diameters. He closed the package and squeezed the others. They all seemed to contain belts.
Frowning, he shut the trunk. And then, because he was in a gambling mood, he walked into the sporting goods store. As he went through the door he glanced back at Lewis. Lewis looked horrified.
The store was large and spacious; he did not see Wright immediately. Walking among the aisles of equipment, he finally spotted him in the water sports department. Wright was gesturing with his hands, forming a shape in the air.
Graves walked over and stood beside him at the counter. To do so gave Graves an immediate burst of excitement. He had never been so close to his subject before. Wright was smaller than he had thought -several inches shorter than Graves himself. And much finer-boned. A delicate man in an English-cut suit, dapper as Phelps, but without the vanity that made Phelps unbearable.
The salesman said, `I'll be right with you, sir,' and Graves nodded.
Wright glanced over at him and smiled vaguely. There was no recognition in the glance. None at alclass="underline" Graves was sure of it. They were just two customers at the same counter.
Graves bent over, peering down at the glass case, which contained depth gauges and underwater watches. He could see Wright's face reflected in the glass surface.
`Is this the one you mean, sir?' the salesman asked.
Graves glanced up and saw the salesman holding a small air tank, painted yellow.
`That's the one,' Wright said.
`Now, do you understand about this tank?' the salesman said. `It's not the standard seventy-two cubic foot model. This one only has twenty-five minutes of air at -'
`That's the one I want.' Wright said it quietly, but his voice cut the salesman off. Graves was impressed by the understated authority in the voice - and presumably in the man.
`Yes, sir. How many was that?'
`Three.'
`I think we have three in the storeroom,' the salesman said. He turned to Graves: `Was there anything in particular?'
It seemed to Graves that the salesman was much less deferential to him than he was to Wright. But perhaps he was being paranoid.
`I need a depth gauge,' Graves said.
`They're all down there,' the salesman said, pointing to the case. `Be with you in a minute. Three, was it, sir? I'll get them.'
The salesman walked off.
After a moment Graves said, `I don't know anything about this.'
There was a short, ambiguous pause. Finally Wright said, `Diving?'
`Yes. It's a present for my son.'
`He does a lot of diving?' Wright was being formal, polite, barely interested.
Wait until 1 put the handcuffs on, Graves thought. `Oh, he's a nut about it, but he doesn't really get much chance. Twice a year during school vacations we go down to Mexico. That's really all.'
Wright said, `That one there is a good one.' He pointed to a gauge in the case.
Graves nodded. `I really don't know anything about this,' he repeated.
`You don't dive yourself?'
`No,' Graves said. `It always seemed too dangerous to me.'
`There's a certain thrill in danger, though.'