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“Good question. Whelkin seemed to take it for granted that I killed Madeleine Porlock. That’s why he wasn’t surprised I had the book. Which means he didn’t kill her. Unless, of course, he was pretending to believe I killed her, in which case…”
“In which case what?”
“Damned if I know. That leaves Demarest, and there’s something refreshing about him. He was very open about his name and he didn’t have to be coaxed into supplying his phone number. What do you suppose that means?”
“I don’t know.”
“Neither do I.” I helped myself to more coffee. “The murder’s what screws things up. If somebody hadn’t killed Madeleine Porlock I wouldn’t have a problem. Or if the police weren’t looking to hang the killing on me. I’d just sell the book to the highest bidder and spend the next two weeks in the Bahamas. One of those three killed her, Carolyn.”
“One of the ones who just called?”
“Uh-huh.” I looked at my watch. “We don’t have a hell of a lot of time,” I said. “I’m supposed to call them at hourly intervals, starting with Demarest at four. That gives us a couple of hours to set things up.”
“To set what up?”
“A trap. It’s going to be tricky, though, because I don’t know who to set it for or what to use for bait. There’s only one thing to do.”
“What’s that?”
“What I always do in time of stress,” I said. “Bribe a cop.”
CHAPTER Fifteen
When he came to the phone I apologized for the intrusion. “Your wife didn’t want to disturb you,” I said, “but I told her it was important.”
“Well, I got Wake Forest and ten points,” he said. “So all I been doin’ is watch twenty bucks go down the chute.”
“Who are they playing?”
“ University of Georgia. The Bulldogs got what they call the Junkyard Dog defense. All it means is they’re chewin’ the ass offa poor Wake Forest.” There was a long and thoughtful pause. “Who the hell,” he said, “is this?”
“Just an old friend and enemy who needs a favor.”
“Jesus, it’s you. Kid, I seen you step in it before, but I swear this time you got both feet smack in the middle of God’s birthday cake. Where are you callin’ from, anyway?”
“The Slough of Despond. I need a favor, Ray.”
“Jesus, that’s the truth. Well, you came to the right place. You want me to set up a surrender, right? First smart move you made since you iced the Porlock dame. You stay out there and it’s just a question of time before somebody tags you, and what do you want to get shot for? And the word is shoot first on you, Bern.” He clucked at me. “That wasn’t too brilliant, you know. Shootin’ a cop. The department takes a dim view.”
“I never shot him.”
“C’mon, kid. He was there, right? He saw you.”
“He saw a clown with a beard and a turban. I never shot him and I never shot her either.”
“And all you do is sell books. You told me the whole story, remember? How you’re straight as a javelin and all? Listen, you’ll be okay now. I’ll set up a surrender, and don’t think I don’t appreciate it. Makes me look good, no question about it, and it saves your ass. You get yourself a decent lawyer and who knows, you might even beat the whole thing in court. Worst comes to worst, so you do a couple of years upstate. You done that before.”
“Ray, I never-”
“One thing that’s not so good, this Rockland kid’s young and feisty, you know? If it was an old-timer you shot, he’d probably take a couple of kay to roll over in court and fudge the testimony. ’Course, if it was an old-timer, he probably woulda shot you instead of waitin’ to get hisself shot in the foot. So I guess you break even on that one, Bern.”
We went a few more rounds, me proclaiming my i
“Oh?”
“I have three phone numbers. I want you to run them down for me.”
“You nuts, Bernie? You know what’s involved in tracin’ a call? You gotta set up in advance, you gotta be able to reach somebody at the phone company on another line, and then you gotta keep the mark on the phone for a couple of minutes and even then they sometimes can’t make the trace work. And then if you-”
“I already know the three numbers, Ray.”
“Huh?”
“I know the numbers, I want to know the locations of the phones. As if I already traced the calls successfully and I want to know where I traced them to.”
“Oh.”
“You could do that, couldn’t you?”
He thought it over. “Sure,” he said, “but why should I?”
I gave him a very good reason.
“I don’t know,” he said, after we’d discussed my very good reason for a few minutes. “Seems to me I’m takin’ a hell of a chance.”
“What chance? You’ll make a phone call, that’s all.”
“Meanwhile I’m cooperatin’ with a fugitive from justice. That’s not go
“Who’s going to hear?”
“You never know. Another thing, how in the hell are you ever go
“It leaves you alive. Think where it leaves me.”
“That’s why I’m sayin’ you oughta surrender.”
“Nobody’s going to shoot me,” I said, with perhaps a shade more confidence than I possessed. “And I’ll deliver what I promised. When did I ever let you down?”
“Well…”
“Ray, all you have to do is make a phone call or two. Isn’t it worth a shot? For Christ’s sake, if Wake Forest is worth a twenty-dollar investment-”
“Don’t remind me. My money’s gurglin’ down the drain and I’m not even watchin’ it go.”
“Look at the odds I’m giving you. All you got with Wake Forest is ten points.”
“Yeah.” I listened while his mental wheels spun. “You ever tell anybody we had this conversation-”
“You know me better than that, Ray.”
“Yeah, you’re all right. Okay, gimme the numbers.”
I gave them to him and he repeated them in turn.
“All right,” he said. “Now gimme the number where you’re at and I’ll get back to you soon as I can.”
“Sure,” I said. “The number here.” I was about to read it off the little disc on the telephone when Carolyn grabbed my arm and showed me a face overflowing with alarm. “Uh, I don’t think so,” I told Ray. “If it’s that easy for you to find out where a phone’s located-”
“ Bern, what kind of a guy do you think I am?”
I let that one glide by. “Besides,” I said, “I’m on my way out the door, anyway. Best thing is if I call you back. How much time do you need?”
“Depends what kind of cooperation I get from the phone company.”
“Say half an hour?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Sounds good. Try me in half an hour, Bernie.”
I cradled the receiver. Carolyn and both cats were looking at me expectantly. “A camera,” I said.
“Huh?”
“We’ve got half an hour to get a camera. A Polaroid, actually, unless you know somebody with a darkroom, and who wants to screw around developing film? We need a Polaroid. I don’t suppose you’ve got one?”
“No.”
“Is there one you could borrow? I hate the idea of ru
“If I knew what to buy. I’d hate to get it home and find out it doesn’t work. What do we need a camera for, anyway?”
“To take some pictures.”
“I never would have thought of that. It’s a shame Randy walked in when she did. She’s got one of those new Polaroids, you take the picture and it’s developed before you can let go of the shutter.”