Barton reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a roll of cash that had a thousand-dollar bill on the outside. He opened it and peeled off a twenty and a five, handing them to Alex.
“Your daily rate, I believe,” he said. “I won’t be needing your services any longer.”
Alex accepted the money.
“There’s still a chance,” he said as Barton turned away. “Give me till Saturday to find your motor.”
Barton looked back and shook his head.
“I never throw good money after bad, kid,” he said.
“Are you a betting man, Mr. Barton?”
Barton’s handlebar mustache turned up in a smirk.
“You’re speaking my language,” he said. “What do you have in mind?”
“You give me till Saturday, double or nothing,” Alex said.
Barton considered him for a moment, looking Alex up and down.
“For someone who seems to be right out of clues, you seem awfully confident,” he said, then he stuck out his hand and Alex shook it. “Done then,” he said. “You have till Saturday to find my motor. Good luck.”
With that, Barton turned and swept down the hall and out onto the metal stairs that led to the factory floor.
“Coffee,” Alex told Doris as he dropped his hat on the stool in front of The Lunch Box counter. “And some poached eggs on toast.” She smiled and nodded at him, laying out a cup and saucer.
Alex moved to the pay phone on the wall and dropped a nickel in the slot. He didn’t know if Leslie would be back from Suffolk county yet, but he gave the operator his office number anyway. The phone rang for a long time until Leslie’s voice came on.
“How was your trip?” Alex asked.
“Divine,” she said with a smile Alex could hear. “I’m not even mad at the mass of people already here who want anti-ghost runes.”
“Wow,” Alex said. “Is Randall as happy as you are?”
“You’re just jealous.”
“So, do you have anything for me? Other than gloating I mean.”
“Be nice,” Leslie said. “Randall worked late last night and we found twenty-three names of people who worked for Seth Kowalski.”
“Good,” Alex said. “I’m at The Lunch Box right now, but I’ll come by as soon as I eat, and we can go over it.”
“That’s great, but there’s more,” Leslie absolutely purred. “I convinced Randall to look for any suspicious activity during Kowalski’s tenure.”
“Did he find anything?”
“Not yet, but he’s going to call me this afternoon if he finds anything.”
“You must have made quite an impression on him.”
“What can I say? I’m very good at my job.”
“See if you can run down any of the names on that list and I’ll see you soon,” Alex said.
“Wait,” she said before he could hang up. “Did you find the guy who was kidnapped?”
Alex sighed. He didn’t want to talk about Leroy. Despite Iggy’s assurances, he didn’t have any better idea how to proceed now than he had at breakfast.
“You need to call the wife right now,” Leslie admonished when Alex explained his situation. “She must be going crazy, Alex.”
He sighed again. Leslie was right, of course. He’d been a heel to make Hannah wait by the phone for any word on her husband. The news wasn’t good, but she ought to know the truth.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll call right now.”
He said goodbye, then dropped another nickel in the slot. Pulling out his notebook, he gave the operator the number for Hannah Cunningham’s apartment.
“I’m sorry,” the operator came on a few minutes later. “Your party doesn’t answer.”
Alex thanked her and hung up, being sure to retrieve his nickel from the return slot. He’d try her again after he’d finished his eggs.
“You look like hell,” Mary said, setting down Alex’s plate. She winked at him as he came back to the counter. “You need to eat better,” she said. “Come by more often.”
“Sorry,” Alex said. “I’ve been up to my neck in impossible cases.”
Mary opened her mouth to ask him about it, but right then a half dozen people came in and she had to vanish back to the kitchen. Alex hated to admit it, but he was grateful not to have to talk about his frustrations, even to Mary.
It felt good to just sit and eat and not have to think.
“Hey, where are you?” Danny’s voice suddenly cut through his thoughts.
Alex looked up from his empty plate and was surprised to find his friend sitting next to him. He checked the clock on the wall and found that nearly three-quarters of an hour had gone by.
“Sorry,” Alex said, finding it difficult to focus. “I guess I was lost in thought.”
“I’ll say,” Danny said with a concerned look. “I was talking to you for a couple of minutes before I noticed that you’d punched out.”
“You here for lunch?”
“As I tried to explain, Leslie told me where to find you,” Danny said. “I was wondering if you could help me with all these thefts. The Captain is leaning on Callahan and he’s leaning on me and I don’t have any idea where to look next.”
“Join the club,” Alex said.
“What?”
“I don’t know if I can help,” Alex said. “I’ve been officially forbidden from helping the police.”
Danny gave him a steady look.
“When has that ever stopped you before?” he asked. “Besides, I really need your help.”
Alex rubbed his eyes. He could feel a headache coming on.
“All right,” he said after a long minute. “Come by the brownstone tonight and bring your case file. We’ll go through it and see if there’s anything you missed.”
Danny slapped him on the back and Alex winced. The spots where the bullets hit him were still bruised and tender.
“Thanks, I really appreciate it,” Danny said, oblivious to Alex’s discomfort.
Alex nodded and stood.
“Where you off to now?” Danny asked.
“I’ve got a lead on your ghost killer,” Alex said, heading for the phone. “Need to run it down.”
Alex called Hannah one more time with the same result. As he hung up, her absence bothered him. Why would a woman whose husband was missing leaver her phone unattended? He should have thought of that before. It didn’t feel right.
Dropping the nickel back in the phone, he called Leslie.
“Did Hannah Cunningham call you recently?” he asked once Leslie picked up.
“No, but I was out most of yesterday and all of this morning, remember?”
“I’ve tried her twice with no answer.”
Leslie started to respond but stopped, picking up on Alex’s tone.
“You think something’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” he said, surer now that there was. “I’ll be by as soon as I can, but I’m going to go by Hannah’s apartment first.”
“Be careful,” she said. “Remember somebody out there took a shot at you.”
“You’ve been talking to Iggy,” Alex accused.
“Just be careful,” she said with a sigh. “It’s starting to look like you might actually get paid soon.”
“You’re all heart,” Alex chuckled.
12
The Tail
Hannah and Leroy Cunningham lived in a six-story apartment building of stained, brown brick on the Outer-Ring side of Alphabet City. Alex left the crawler station two blocks away and turned south. The streets were lined with beggars and the lucky few who had boxes of apples or newspapers to sell. Since the market crash large parts of the city were overrun with the desperate, the drunk, and the vagrant.