“She doesn’t know I still smoke,” he explained, letting out a self-satisfied poisonous cloud. “Her brother had his larynx removed last month, she thinks everybody in the world’s gonna get throat cancer now. I been smoking since I was sixteen, I don’t even cough. Why are you looking for Avery Hanes?”
“Few questions we need to ask him,” Carella said. “Would you know where…?”
“Him and his girlfriend were living here for almost a year. All of a sudden, he tells me he’s moving when the lease expired.”
“When was that, Mr. Hedrings?”
“April one,” Hedrings said.
“Any idea where he went?”
“None at all.”
“And you say he was living here with his girlfriend?”
“Redheaded girl.”
“Would you know her name?”
“Kellie. With ani.e. ”
“Kellie what?”
“Don’t know. He was the one signed the lease.”
So now they had three names.
Or, more accurately, two and a half names.
JUST AS LOOMISpulled the town car off Exit 5, he spotted the blue Mercury with Endicott and Lonigan in it driving past the parking lot as though looking for an address somewhere on the street, cruising slowly, stop-and-go-ing. He pulled the car into the lot, and sat there, looking out over the wheel at the headlights zipping by on the Drive. Sitting beside him, Corcoran said into his phone, “We’re here. See anything yet?”
“Nothing,” Endicott said.
The car’s cell phone rang a moment later.
It was seven-twenty-sixP.M. on the dashboard clock.
“WHEREare you?” Avery asked.
“Off Exit 5,” Loomis said.
“Take a left onto Fairlane. Drive downtown to the Grace Wagner School of Design on Cronley. Park in front of the statue there. No tricks.”
There was a click on the line.
“What’d he say?”
“The Wagner School of Design on Cronley. Wants us to park in front of the statue there.”
Corcoran tapped a button on the face of his cell phone.
“Endicott.”
“Heading downtown to Cronley, Wagner School of Design. He wants us to park there. Check out the building. Careful, they may be watching, same as before.”
“Moving,” Endicott said.
“He told me no tricks,” Loomis said.
Corcoran merely nodded.
“IS THIS PICTUREa mystery or something?” Ollie asked.
“No, not at all,” Patricia said. “It’s Shakespeare, I told you.”
“Because it’s calledLooking for Richard, you know,” Ollie said, “which sounds like a sort of mystery, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe so.”
“Like a missing person or something, you know?”
They were sitting watching commercials on the screen, eating popcorn and waiting for the movie to start. Ollie had bought two big cartons of popcorn with extra butter, and two Diet Pepsis because a person couldn’t be too careful, and two big bars of Hershey’s chocolate with almonds in case Patricia was still hungry after she finished her popcorn. It bothered him that he had to sit here and watch commercials for restaurants and clothing stores, as if he hadn’t paid for the tickets and was getting something free.
It also bothered him that he didn’t knowexactly what this movie was about. If it was about a missing person, he’d had some experience along those lines, you know, and could relate to the movie more easily. But if it was about Shakespeare, the way Patricia said it was, then why had they named itLooking for Richard, which made it sound as if somebody had been kidnapped or something?
“Are you sure this is going to be Shakespeare?” he asked her.
“Oh yes,” she said. “It’s about doingRichard the Third. ”
“Ah-ha!” he said. “Itis a mystery!”
“It is?”
“You just said it’s about doing Richard the Third.”
“Oh. I didn’t mean ‘doing’ in that sense. I meant performing the play. DoingRichard the Third. ”
“So why are they calling itLooking for Richard if there’s no ticking clock?” he asked. Reminded, he looked at his watch. It was seven-forty-three and the movie was scheduled to start at seven-forty-five. So where was it? Why did they have to sit here watching a commercial for an antiques store, as if anyone would want to buy old used furniture and stuff?
“I’m really excited about seeing this again,” Patricia said, and suddenly reached over for his hand and squeezed it.
“Me, too,” Ollie said dubiously.
His hand was sticky with butter.
Which was okay because her hand was, too.
THE GRACE WAGNERSchool of Design had once been called William Howard Taft High School, after the twenty-seventh President of the United States. Back then, it was a so-called academic high school, which meant that its students took subjects to qualify them for college entrance. But that was the good old days.
Nowadays, it was a vocational high school for kids looking for easy entrée to the world of high fashion. If you could maintain a C-average and draw a straight line, you were admitted to Grace Wagner, which incidentally had been named after a woman who’d served on the Board of Education and played flute.
A bronze statue that looked like a huge bolt of lightning striking an oversized soccer ball stood on the patchy front lawn of the school. By the time Loomis pulled the Lincoln up in front of the statue, Endicott and Lonigan had already driven twice around the school’s surrounding blocks. They had seen no one suspicious lurking about, but there was a light burning in one of the school’s top-floor windows, and they thought they’d seen shadows moving past.
Endicott reported this to Corcoran now.
“May be using the same M.O. they did in The Wasteland,” Corcoran suggested. “Take the high ground, cover the area through binocs.”
“I’ll wait for the second car to show,” Endicott said. “We’ll go in the back way, try to surprise them up there.”
“Don’t do anything to jeopardize the girl’s safety,” Corcoran warned.
Loomis figured this was for his benefit.
Besides, his phone was ringing.
“HELLO?” he said.
“We see you,” Avery said. “Get out of the car, both of you. Leave the money on the back seat. Leave the car unlocked with the keys in the ignition. Walk toward the school entrance. Now! Do itnow! ” he said, and hung up.
“He wants us to leave the money and get out of the car. He wants us to walk toward the school. Wants it unlocked with the keys in it.”
Corcoran stabbed at his cell phone.
“Endicott.”
“They’re trying an end run,” he shouted. “Get around to the front of the school!Quick! ”
“What?” Endicott said.
The car phone rang again.
Loomis picked up.
“Yes?” he said.
“I saidnow! ” Avery said, and hung up.
“Let’s go!” Loomis said.“Please!”
Both men got out of the car. Corcoran looked up the street, to where he could see a green SUV moving swiftly toward the parked Lincoln.
“Here they come!” he said, and reached under his jacket into his shoulder holster.