“Yeah?”
“Said to call Detective Carella and tell him the license number is D-N-1556. Is this on the level? Is there really a Carella?”
“Yeah,” Havilland said. “What was that number again?”
“What?”
“The license number.”
“Oh. D-N-1556. What’s it all about?”
“Mister,” Havilland said, “your guess is as good as mine. Thanks for calling.”
Kling sat in the squad car alongside the patrolman.
“Can’t you make this thing go any faster?” he asked.
“I’m sorry, sir,” the patrolman said with broad sarcasm, somewhat miffed with the knowledge that not too many months ago Kling had been a patrolman, too. “I wouldn’t want to get a speeding ticket.”
Kling studied the patrolman with an implacable eye. “Put on your goddamn siren,” he said harshly, “and get this thing to Chinatown, or your ass is going to be in a great big sling!”
The patrolman blinked.
The squad car’s siren suddenly erupted. The patrolman’s foot came down onto the accelerator.
Kling leaned forward, staring through the windshield.
Charlie Chen leaned forward, staring through the windshield.
He did not like to drive in city traffic.
Doggedly, he headed uptown.
When he heard the siren, he thought it was a fire engine, and he started to pull over to his right.
Then he saw that it was a police car, and not even on his side of the avenue. The police car sped by him, heading downtown, its siren blaring.
It strengthened Chen’s resolve. He gritted his teeth, leaned over the wheel, and stepped on the accelerator more firmly.
Carella swatted at the fly and then sat upright in his chair, suddenly wide awake. He blinked.
The apartment was very silent.
He stood and yawned. What the hell time is it, anyway? Where the hell is Teddy? He looked at his watch. She was usually home by this time, preparing supper. Had she left a note? He yawned again and began looking through the apartment for a note.
He could find none. He looked at his watch again. Then he went to his jacket and fished for his cigarettes. He reached into the package. It was empty. His fingers explored the sides. It was still empty.
Wearily, he sat down and put on his shoes.
He took his pad from his back pocket, slid the pencil out from under the leather loop, and wrote: Dear Teddy: I’ve gone down for some cigarettes. Be right back. Steve. He propped the note on the kitchen table. Then he went into the bathroom to wash his face.
“87th Squad, Detective Havilland.”
“I wanted Carella,” the woman’s voice said.
“He’s out,” Havilland said.
“A young lady stopped me and gave me a note,” the woman said. “I really don’t know whether or not it’s serious, but I felt I should call. May I read the note to you?”
“Please do,” Havilland said.
“It says, Call Detective Steve Carella, FRederick 7-8024. Tell him license number is D-N-1556. Hurry please! Does that mean anything?”
“You say a young lady gave this to you?” Havilland asked.
“Yes, a quite beautiful young lady. Dark hair and dark eyes. She seemed rather in a hurry herself.”
For the first time that afternoon, Havilland forgot his trunk murderer. He remembered, instead, that the Chinaman who’d called had said, “Man who tattoo girl. He was here shop. With Mrs. Carella.”
And now a girl who answered the description of Steve’s wife was going around handing out messages. That made sense. Carella’s wife was a deaf mute.
“I’ll get on it right away,” Havilland said. “Thanks for calling.”
He hung up, consulted his list of numbers, and then dialed the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. He gave them the license number and asked them to check it. Then he hung up and looked up another number.
He was dialing Steve Carella’s home when Charlie Chen walked down the corridor and came to a breathless stop outside the slatted rail divider.
Steve Carella put on his jacket.
He went into the kitchen again to check the note, and then, because he was there, he checked the handles on the gas range to make sure all the jets were out.
He walked out of the kitchen and into the living room and then to the front door. He was in the corridor and closing the door behind him when the telephone rang. He cursed mildly, went to the phone, and lifted the receiver.
“Hello?” he said.
“Steve?”
“Yeah.”
“Rog Havilland.”
“What’s up, Rog?”
“Got a man here named Charlie Chen who says your killer was in his shop this afternoon. Teddy was there at the time, and—”
“What!”
“Teddy. Your wife. She trailed the guy when he left. Chen says the girl with him was very sick. I’ve gotten half a dozen phone calls in the past half hour. Girl who answers Teddy’s description has been handing out notes asking people to call you with a license number. I’ve got the MVB checking it now. What do you think?”
“Teddy!” Carella said, and that was all he could think of.
He heard a phone ringing someplace, and then Havilland said, “There’s the other line going now. Might be the license information. Hold on, Steve.”
He heard the click as the hold button was pressed, and he waited, squeezing the plastic of the phone, thinking over and over again, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy.
Havilland came back on in a minute.
“It’s a black 1955 Cadillac hardtop,” Havilland said. “Registered to a guy named Chris Donaldson.”
“That’s the bird,” Carella said, his mind beginning to function again. “What address have you got for him?”
“41–18 Ranier. That’s in Riverhead.”
“That’s about ten minutes from here,” Carella said. “I’m starting now. Get a call in to whichever precinct owns that street. Get an ambulance going, too. If that girl is sick, it’s probably from arsenic.”
“Right,” Havilland said. “Anything else, Steve?”
“Yeah. Start praying he hasn’t spotted my wife!”
He hung up, slapped his hip pocket to make sure he still had his .38, and then left the apartment without closing the door.
Nineteen
Standing in the concrete and cinder block basement of the building, Teddy Carella watched the indicator needle of the service elevator. She could see the washing machines going in another part of the basement, and beyond that, she could feel the steady thrum of the apartment building’s oil burner, and she watched the needle as it moved from numeral to numeral and then stopped at four.
She pressed the down button.
Donaldson and the girl had entered that service elevator and had got off at the fourth floor. And now, as the elevator dropped to the basement again, Teddy wondered what she would do when she discovered what apartment he was in, wondered, too, just how sick the girl was, just how much time she had. The elevator door slid open.
Teddy got in, pressed the No. 4 in the panel. The door slid shut. The elevator began its climb. Oddly, she felt no fear, no apprehension. She wished only that Steve were with her, because Steve would know what to do. The elevator climbed and then shuddered to a stop. The door did open. She started out of the car, and then she saw Donaldson.
He was standing just outside the elevator, waiting for the door to open, waiting for her. In blind panic, she stabbed at the panel with the floor buttons. Donaldson’s arm lashed out. His fingers clamped on her wrist, and he pulled her out of the car.
“Why are you following me?” he asked.
She shook her head dumbly. Donaldson was pulling her down the hallway. He stopped before apartment 4C, threw open the door, and then shoved her into the apartment. Priscilla Ames was lying on the couch face down. The apartment smelled of human waste.