Desperate Measures

4

The phone booth was outside a brightly lit convenience store. Pittman parked with other cars in front, and as people went in and out of the store, he remained in the Duster, coaching Mrs. Page on what he wanted her to say.

“Can you remember all that? Do you think you can do it?”

“I’m going to enjoy this,” Mrs. Page answered grimly, the tautness of her face emphasized by shadows in the car. “It’s exactly what I want to say to him.”

“I hope I’m not misleading you. You understand that this can put you in danger.”

“I’m already in danger. I need to protect myself. But I don’t see why we have to use a pay phone. Why can’t we rent a hotel room and use its phone? We’d be more comfortable.”

“If your father’s as obsessed about security as I think he is, he’ll have equipment to trace the phone calls he receives. It’s not that hard to do anymore. Look at Caller ID. It can be done instantly,” Pittman said. “In that case, he’d send men to the hotel. Our room would be a trap.”

“Of course,” Mrs. Page said. “I should have thought.”

“But you thought of it,” Denning told Pittman.

Pittman rubbed his brow, troubled. “The precaution just seemed obvious to me.” He was beginning to realize that he had a talent for being on the run. His head throbbed as he wondered what else he didn’t know about himself.

Jill came back from the store, handing Pittman coins from a five-dollar bill that she had changed. “We’ll soon be out of cash.”

“I know. Thanks for the coins.” He pointed. “What’s in the paper bag?”

“Coffee and doughnuts for everybody.”

“You’ll never eat right again.”

“I just hope I get the chance to try.”

Pittman touched her hand, then turned to Mrs. Page. “So what do you think? Are you ready? Good. Let’s do it.” He escorted Mrs. Page to the phone booth, which was situated where they wouldn’t be disturbed, a distance from the store’s entrance. He pulled out a sheet of paper with the list of telephone numbers that he’d gotten from Brian Botulfson’s computer. After putting coins into the box, he pressed the buttons for Eustace Gable’s home and handed Mrs. Page the telephone.

She stood in the booth and glared through the glass wall before her as if she was seeing her father. In a moment, she said, “Eustace Gable…. Oh, in this case, I think he’ll want to be disturbed. Tell him it’s his loving daughter.” Mrs. Page tapped her pointed fingernails impatiently against the glass of the phone booth. “Well, hello, Father dear. I knew you’d be concerned, so I thought I’d call to tell you that in spite of the goons who came to my house, I’m safe.” She laughed bitterly. “What goons? The ones you hired to kill me, of course…. Stop. Don’t insult my intelligence. Do you actually expect me to believe your denials? I know I’ve disappointed you in a number of ways, not the least of which is that I’m not perfect. But you can take pride in this. You did not raise an idiot. I know what’s happening, Father, and I’m going to do everything in my power to guarantee that you’re stopped…. What am I talking about? Duncan Kline, Father…. What’s the matter? All of a sudden, you don’t seem to have anything to say. When I was young, you always interrupted everything I tried to tell you. Now you’re finally listening. My, my. Duncan Kline, Father. Grollier Academy. The snow. You murdered Jonathan Millgate to keep it a secret. But I’m going to let your secret out. And damn you, I hope you spend the rest of your life suffering. For what you did to Mother.”

Mrs. Page set the telephone on its receptacle, stared at it, exhaled, and turned to Pittman. “That was extremely satisfying.”

“You’ll have plenty of other chances. I want to put pressure on your father, on all of them,” Pittman said. “But right now, we need to get back to the car and drive out of this area-in case your father did trace the call.”

Twenty seconds later, Pittman watched the lights of the convenience store recede in his rearview mirror. “We’ll drive for a couple of miles, then use another pay phone.”

“Right. Now it’s my turn to make a call,” Jill said. “To Winston Sloane. I can’t wait. It feels so good to be confronting them.”