Murder on the Aisle

22

11:26 P.M.

After Marcie Pierce had left, Tobin worked out on his rowing machine, took a shower, and then put The Lady in Red on the VCR. He was writing a piece on John Sayles for American Film and he considered the Sayles script for Lady his absolute best.

Then it was time for Harold Ebsen to show up.

Tobin paced around the large, drafty apartment. Several times tonight he had considered calling Detective Huggins and telling him all the things he’d learned in the past twenty-four hours — but he knew that Huggins would offer no help in following up his leads. He already had his killer — Tobin.

Around eleven-thirty Tobin, curious and tense now from the waiting, decided to go downstairs to the vestibule to see if the bell was out of order or something.

When he reached the vestibule, the door was flung back and the young married couple from across the hall came tripping in under the burden of their Christmas packages. Tobin stuck his head out the door — looked left and right, seeing nothing — then helped the couple carry some of their load upstairs.

Back in his apartment, he looked up Harold Ebsen’s phone number in the book and dialed it. Busy. He went in the john and whizzed and came back and tried again. Still busy. For some reason Harold Ebsen had decided not to keep his appointment.

Tobin needed to know why.