Jason watched the second hand sweep around the face of the wall clock behind the check-in counter. The agent was busy counting the tickets. Another agent made the final announcement for-the departure to Seattle. It was two minutes before four.
With his carry-on bag draped over his shoulder, Jason looked up the concourse toward the terminal proper. At the point he was about to give up all hope, he saw her. She was running in his direction. Jason should have been elated. The only problem was that a few steps behind her was the impressive hulk of Bruno. Farther down the hall was a policeman, lounging at the point where bags were picked up from the X-ray machine. Jason made a mental note: that would be his direction of flight if the need arose.
With her own carry-on shoulder bag, Carol was having some difficulty running. Bruno made no attempt to assist her. Carol came directly up to Jason. Jason saw the expression on Bruno’s broad face go from vexation to confusion to anger.
“Did I make it?” she panted.
The agent was now at the door to the jetway, kicking out the doorstop.
“What the hell are you doing here, creep?” Bruno shouted, looking up at the destination sign. He turned accusingly on Carol. “You said you were going home, Carol.”
“Come on,” Carol urged, grasping Jason’s arm and pulling him toward the jetway.
Jason stumbled backward, his eyes on Bruno’s pudgy face, which had turned an unattractive shade of red. The veins in his temple swelled to the size of cigars.
“Just a moment!” Carol called to the agent. The agent nodded and shouted something down the jetway. Jason watched Bruno until the very last second. He saw him lumber over to a bank of telephones.
“You people like to cut it close,” the agent said, ripping off a part of each boarding card. Jason finally turned to face ahead, at last convinced that Bruno had decided not to cause a scene. Carol was still pulling Jason’s arm as they descended the jetway. They had to wait while the jetway operator pounded on the side of the plane to get the cabin attendant inside to reopen the already sealed aircraft. “This is about as close as you can make it,” he said, frowning.
Once they were seated, Carol apologized for being late. “I’m furious,” she said, jamming her carry-on under the seat ahead of her. “I appreciate Arthur’s concern for my well-being, but this is ridiculous.”
“Who’s Arthur?”
“He’s my boss,” Carol said disgustedly. “He told me if I left now he might actually fire me. I think I’ll quit when we get back.”
“Would you be able to do that?” Jason asked, wondering just what Carol’s work involved besides dancing. It was his understanding that women like Carol lost control of their lives.
“I was planning on stopping soon anyway,” said Carol.
The plane lurched as it was towed backward out of the gate.
“You do know what kind of work I do?” Carol asked.
“Well, sort of,” Jason said vaguely.
“You’ve never mentioned it,” Carol said. “Most people bring it up.”
“I figured it was your business,” Jason said. Who was he to judge?
“You’re a little strange,” Carol said, “likable but strange.”
“I thought I was pretty normal,” Jason said.
“Ha!” Carol said playfully.
There was a good bit of air traffic and they waited for over twenty minutes before they lifted off the ground and headed west.
“I didn’t think we were going to make it,” Jason said, finally beginning to relax.
“I’m sorry,” Carol said again. “I tried to lose Bruno, but he stuck like glue. I didn’t want him to know I wasn’t heading back to Indiana. But what could I do?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Jason said, although in the back of his mind it disturbed him that anyone but Shirley knew where he was going. He’d meant it to be a secret. At the same time he couldn’t figure out how it would make any difference.
Taking notes on a yellow pad, Jason began quizzing Carol as to Hayes’s schedule on each of his two trips to Seattle. The first visit was the more interesting. They’d stayed at the Mayfair Hotel and among other things had visited a club called the Totem, similar to the Cabaret in Boston. He asked her what it was like.
“It was okay,” Carol said, “nothing special. But it didn’t have the excitement of the Club Cabaret. Seattle seems a bit conservative.”
Jason nodded, wondering why Hayes would waste his time at a place like that when he was traveling with Carol. “Did Alvin talk to anyone there?” he asked.
“Yes. Arthur arranged for him to speak to the owner.”
“Your boss did? Did Alvin know your boss?”
“They were friends. That was how I met Alvin.”
Jason recalled the rumors about Alvin’s taste for discos and the like. Apparently they’d been true. But the idea of a world-famous molecular biologist being chummy with a man who managed a topless bar seemed ludicrous.
“Do you know what Alvin spoke to this man about?”
“No, I don’t,” Carol said. “They didn’t talk very long. I was busy watching the dancers. They were quite good.”
“And you visited the University of Washington, correct?”
“That’s right. We did that the first day.”
“And you think you can find the man Alvin saw there?” Jason asked, just to be sure.
“I think so. He was a tall, good-looking fellow.”
“And then what?”
“We went up into the mountains.”
“And that was vacation time?”
“I suppose.”
“Did Alvin meet anyone up there?”
“No one in particular. But he talked to a lot of people.”
Jason settled back after the cocktail service. He thought about what Carol had told him, believing the most critical event was the visit to the University of Washington. But the visit to the club was also curious and deserved to be checked out.
“One other thing,” Carol said. “On the second trip we had to spend some time looking for dry ice.”
“Dry ice? What on earth for?”
“I didn’t know and Alvin didn’t tell me. Alvin had a cooler and he wanted it full of dry ice.”
Perhaps to transport the specimen, Jason thought. This sounds promising.
When they touched down in Seattle, they dutifully changed their watches to Pacific Coast time. Jason looked out the airplane window. True to expectations, it was raining. He could see the drops in the darkened pools of water on the runway. Soon, even the window was streaked with moisture.
They rented a car and once they were clear of the airport traffic, Jason said, “In case it helps your memory, I thought we’d stay at the same hotel you did last time. Separate rooms, of course.”
Carol turned to eye him in the half-light of the car. Jason wanted it very clear this trip was all business.
Two cars behind Jason and Carol was a dark blue Ford Taurus. Behind the wheel was a middle-aged man dressed in a turtleneck sweater, suede jacket, and checked slacks. He’d gotten a call only about five hours earlier to meet the United flight from Boston. He was supposed to spot a forty-five-year-old doctor who’d be arriving with a beautiful young woman. The names were Howard and Donner, and he was to keep them under surveillance. The operation had been easier than he’d expected. He’d confirmed their identity simply by coming up behind them at the Avis counter.
Now all he had to do was keep them in sight. Supposedly he’d be contacted by somebody who’d be coming from Miami. For this he was being paid his usual fifty dollars an hour plus expenses. He wondered if it were some kind of domestic problem.
The hotel was elegant. Judging from Hayes’s usual disheveled appearance. Jason wouldn’t have expected the man to have such expensive tastes. They got separate rooms, but Carol insisted they open the connecting door. “Let’s not be prudish,” she said. Jason didn’t know how to take that.