Nighttime Is My Time

57

Amy Sachs went off duty at four o'clock, shortly after Sam Deegan left the Glen-Ridge House. She and Jake Perkins had arranged to meet at a McDonald's about a mile away. Now, over hamburgers, she was filling him in on Sam Deegan's activities and the conversation she had managed to overhear between him and, as she described him, "that uppity playwright, Carter Stewart."

"Mr. Deegan came to the hotel looking for Mr. Brent," she explained. "Eddie Zarro, the other investigator, was waiting for him. They both looked kind of mad. The minute Mr. Deegan couldn't reach Brent on the phone, he made Pete, the bellman, take them up to Brent's room. When Brent didn't answer the door, Mr. Deegan told Pete to open it. That's when they found out that Mr. Brent hadn't come back last night."

Between bites of hamburger, Jake was jotting in his notebook. "I thought Carter Stewart checked out after the reunion," he said. "What made him come back this afternoon? Who was he meeting?"

"Stewart told Mr. Deegan that he had agreed to go over scripts for Robby Brent's new television show. Then they were talking about a cell phone. I couldn't get all of it because Mr. Deegan doesn't speak loud. Mr. Stewart isn't all that loud, either, but his voice carries, and I've been blessed with good hearing. In fact, Jake, they said my grandmother, even at age ninety, could hear a worm slither through the grass."

"My grandmother is always telling me I mumble," Jake said.

"Actually, you do mumble," Amy Sachs whispered. "But, anyhow, Jake, when Mr. Deegan asked Mr. Stewart if he thought all this was a publicity trick by Laura Wilcox and Robby Brent, Mr. Stewart seemed to think it was. And maybe I missed something, but didn't Dr. Sheridan get a call from Laura Wilcox last night?"

Jake was practically salivating with the unexpected torrent of information. All afternoon he felt as if he had been watching a silent movie. He sat in the hotel lobby observing the activity but not daring to hang around the desk or obviously try to overhear the conversations. "Yes, Dr. Sheridan did get a call from Laura Wilcox. I happened to be around when they were talking about it in the small dining room."

"Jake, I don't think I've got this all straight. You know how it is- you hear part of one thing, then part of another. You can get only so near to people without seeming to be too near, but I get the impression that Robby Brent may have made that call last night and pretended to be Laura Wilcox."

Jake's hand was in midair, firmly grasping the uneaten portion of the hamburger. Slowly he lowered it to the plate. It was obvious he was mentally computing what Amy had just told him. "Robby Brent made that call and now he's not around, and they think all this is just a publicity stunt for some new television series?"

Amy's oversized glasses bobbled on her nose as she nodded happily. "Sounds like a reality series, doesn't it?" she asked. "Do you think that maybe there are hidden cameras filming in the hotel now?"

"It's something to wonder about," Jake agreed. "You're a sharp lady, Amy. When I open my own newspaper, I'm going to make you a columnist. Anything else you've noticed?"

She pursed her lips. "Just one thing. Mark Fleischman-you know, the really cute honoree who's a psychiatrist-"

"Sure, I know him. What about him?"

"I swear he has a crush on Dr. Sheridan. He went out early this morning, and when he came back, the first thing he did was come rushing to the desk and phone Dr. Sheridan. I overheard him."

"Of course," Jake said, grinning.

"I told him she was in the coffee shop. He thanked me, but before he hightailed it into the coffee shop, he asked if Dr. Sheridan had received any more faxes today. He looked almost disappointed when I said no, and he asked me if I was sure she hadn't gotten one. Even if he does have a crush on her, I think it's a little nervy of him to ask about her mail, don't you?"

"In a way I do, yes."

"But he is nice, and I asked him just casually if he'd had a pleasant day. He said yes, he'd been looking up some old friends at West Point."