On the Other Hand, Death

10

McWhirter, his voice breaking, barely audible, said, "We have to pay them."

Dot groaned. "Yes, of course, of course."

I said, "The money will arrive here at three. But we'll get it back, don't worry."

"Yeah," Bowman said grimly. "I guess we better have the cash ready. Just in case. Jesus, these people aren't fooling around." He sat gazing at the finger, tapping two of his own on the table. He looked up at McWhirter now and said, "Mr. McWhirter, I've heard of kidnappers who have…

Well, let me just put the question to you directly. Are you certain that the finger in that box belongs to your friend Peter Greco?"

McWhirter blanched, looked away, and said quietly, "Yes. Oh, God, yes."

Bowman grimaced, in part no doubt at the thought that one man could know another's finger that intimately. Then he dispatched one of the junior detectives to retrieve some equipment from his car.

I said, "Obviously, we've got to get Greco away from these people fast. How do we set this up?

We've got thirteen hours to do it in."

"Unless they're even dumber and sloppier than I think they are," Bowman said, "they'll arrive minus Greco in a stolen car, snatch the money, and off they'll go, thinking we won't dare follow so long as they've still got a hold of

Greco. I'll have to have this place totally covered, plus the other end of Moon Road, Central 48

Avenue out to Colonie, and back as far as Everett Road. I'll order up a chopper too."

"At three in the morning?"

"No!" McWhirter croaked. "Just give them the money. Don't I have anything to say about this?

You people are just going to get Peter killed, the way you're talking. Look at what these people are capable of. Just look at that." We looked. "Just… give them the money, and I'll… I'll pay it back."

"Mr. McWhirter," Bowman said, "I think I can understand how you feel-sort of." He shot me a warning look, apparently fearing that I might begin to think of him as human. "By that I mean," he sputtered on, "I can see, Mr. McWhirter, how you might be pretty scared and upset at this point. But believe me, the chances that we'll get your friend back in one piece-" We all looked down at the finger again. "I mean, by that I mean… the best way to make sure we get your friend back here alive is to not let these people slip away at the one time we can be sure we know where they are. You get what I'm saying? We let them run off with that hundred grand, and they might just get cocky and start thinking they can get away with any thing. If you follow my meaning."

McWhirter screwed up his face in agonized confusion. His mouth tried to make words, but he couldn't get them out.

I said, "Lieutenant Bowman has experience with these things, Fenton. He's right. You can be sure it'll be done with all the finesse the Albany Police Department is capable of."

Bowman looked my way, waiting for any qualifications I might be going to add, and when I offered none-nauseating flattery was called for here-he said, "You bet."

Dot Fisher's small fist suddenly hit the table. "Now, you people are just the absolute limit! Whom was that letter addressed to, may I ask? And the package. Whom was that sent to? Well?"

No one had yet called the finger a finger. It was just "it." Or "the package." I said to Dot, "The ransom note and the package were both sent to you."

"Exactly! So it seems to me that I should have some say in all this. And what I say is, you are all putting Peter in terrible, terrible danger. Well, I won't stand for it! The decision is mine to make, and I've decided. We will pay the kidnappers what they've asked for and let them go their way.

And then, when Peter is safely back here with those who love him, then I will expect all of you to do everything within your power to retrieve that money and put those reprehensible savages in the penitentiary where they belong!"

Bowman said, "But-"

"And one other thing," Dot went on, waving Bowman into silence. "If the money is not returned to Mr. Strachey within seven days, I will sell my property and repay him promptly. No one can stop me, and that is that."

My options had now doubled in number. If the hundred grand somehow slipped away, I could then decide whether I wanted to be a monumental deadbeat or a mere son of a bitch.

Bowman had begun shaking his head and yammering on about how Dot would be making a big mistake by simply handing over the ransom, and it was out of her hands anyway, and it was well known among professionals that in seven out of ten cases it turned out that…

Dot sat rigid, the lavender veins in her neck pulsing wildly.

I caught Bowman's eye. "She wants to do it her way,

Ned. It's Mrs. Fisher's decision to make. Not ours."

He glowered at me, and while Dot and McWhirter cringed and waited for him to pop off irrelevantly, I looked back at Bowman and lightly winked. He immediately got the point.

"Well," he said, throwing his hands up. "If that's the way you want it, Mrs. Fisher. If you insist, 49 you go ahead and pay the ransom, and then we'll do all we can to track down these vicious perverts-sorry, no offense, Strachey — and then we'll get your money back. Or what's left of it."

McWhirter had been gazing fixedly at the finger, and now suddenly he reached toward it and touched it lightly. He moaned and flung himself out of his chair, across the kitchen, and down the hall. I guessed that the sound of a door slamming came from the downstairs bathroom.

The two junior detectives had entered the room during the discussion, and now one of them opened a plastic case full of foam pellets. He flipped the lid back onto the finger box and, using tongs, lifted the entire business, wrapping and all, into the case of pellets. The other detective opened a fingerprint kit and prepared to take the prints of those of us who had handled the ransom note and package. I was about to go outside and fetch Kay Wilson for the fingerprinting session when the telephone rang and Dot went to answer it.

Bowman came over to me and whispered, "I'll have fifty men out here tonight. We'll get 'em."

I said, "I have lied to my friends, Ned. That's not one of my usual bad habits. You guys hadn't better slip up."

"No sweat. And congratulations, pal. It's the first time I've known you to be all the way on the side of the law. I may shed a tear."

Dot slammed down the receiver. "Now this is just beyond endurance!"

"Who was that?" Bowman snapped.

"It was… that voice again. 'You dykes better get out of there. You dykes leave or die.' If I ever get my hands on-"

The phone rang yet again.

"You got an extension?" Bowman asked.

"In our bedroom upstairs. The front, southwest corner.

Bowman said, "Pick up when I do," and trotted off down the hall. I placed my hand on the receiver. Midway in the fifth ring the phone fell silent and I lifted the receiver and passed it to Dot.

"Y-yes. Hello?"

We waited, watched her breath catch, then flow slowly out of her.

"It's for Timmy." She sighed. "It's not the voice. It's a man for Mr. Callahan. Oh me, oh my."

I said, "Did the first caller mention Peter?"

"Why no," Dot said. "He didn't. Or she. I'm still not certain whether it's a man or a woman."

Bowman came back. I said, "I think we've got two of them. Two separate people, or groups."

"Yeah. Or thirty-five. I've gotta get a tap and trace rig on this phone number, but fast."

Out in the yard, Kay Wilson had Timmy backed into a lilac bush and was singing the praises of Crane "Quite-a-Guy" Trefusis. Timmy's eyes were open, but I suspected he was nonetheless napping lightly. I'd seen him do it before at cocktail parties put on by insurance industry lobbyists. Edith was off by herself over by the peonies, gingerly emptying the Japanese beetle traps.

"Phone call," I said, ambling up to Timmy and Kay.

Kay turned. "For me? It must be Wilson, wants his lunch. Tell him I just left."

"No, it's for Mr. Callahan."

"Oh, your boyfriend, huh?"

"This is the man."

She snickered. "Hey, Bob. Tell me somethin', then. Which one of you's the boy and which one's the girl?"

Timmy quickly walked by me toward the house, his eyes raised heavenward.

I said, "Wouldn't you like to know. To tell you the truth, Kay, only our chiropractor knows for 50 sure."

"Your what?"

I said, "What's your hubby up to today, Kay? Bill Wilson make you rich yet?"

"Hah! You pullin' my leg, kiddo? The day that bozo gives me more'n a lotta lip'll be the day Charles Bronson sends me a dozen roses and a case of Jack Daniel's. Say, don't you just love Dot's flower garden? Hey, what are you doin' over there, Mrs. Stout? Mealybugs chewin' up your tulips?"

"Eh? What's that, Mrs. Wilson?"

"I asked if you got chigs on your posies? Looks like you got 'em, all right. Up to your left tit. I got a can of Raid down to the house if you want to try a shot of that. That stuff'll fix 'em."

I said, "Kay, you're needed in the house for a few minutes. The police need a set of your fingerprints. So they can tell yours from those of whoever else handled that package you delivered."

Her eyes got big as we turned toward the house. "Hey, Bob, what the Sam Hill is goin' on around here, anyways? Police dicks crawling all over the place. This used to be a respectable neighborhood. What was in that package anyhow? Your lover boy wouldn't tell me what was goin' on. What's the big secret?"

I said, "One of Dot's houseguests is missing. The police are helping locate him. He'll turn up, though, don't worry."

"Maybe he was snatched," she said eagerly. "And they're sending him back here a piece at a time.

I read in the paper how the Mafia does it like that. Is that what was in the package? Some poor clown's tongue, or left ear, or pecker? Hell, nobody's safe anyplace anymore. They're gonna getcha, they're gonna getcha."

I went queasy but didn't reply as we stepped into the house. Timmy was off the phone now and Bowman was on the line with, judging by his civil tone, a superior in the department. I presented Kay Wilson to the fingerprint man, and Timmy pulled me aside.

"Mel Glempt just called. You don't know him. At least I think you don't. One of the Green Room bartenders I phoned earlier ran into him a while ago and told him Peter was missing. Just missing, no more. That's all anybody knows so far. Glempt saw something last night, and the barkeep had him call me and tell me about it. Glempt saw some kind of fight or scuffle in the Green Room parking lot last night just before midnight. He'd just pulled in."

"And?"

"And… well, this must have been it. A young man-a 'kid,' Mel said, but it must have been Peter-this young man was shoved into a car. He seemed to be resisting, but a guy wrapped a bandage or something around his head so he couldn't see, and got him into the back seat of this car-some kind of big old dark green job-and then the car drove away fast. There were two men, the shover and the driver."

"And Glempt didn't report this to anybody? Shit." Timmy said nothing." Well, did he at least get a make and model on the car?"

"No."

"Did he recognize the people doing it?"

"No."

"Can he describe them?"

"One of them, he said. The one who was outside doing the grabbing, but not the driver."

"Which way did they go?"

"Out Central. West."

"We'd better clue Bowman in right away. Have his people talk to Glempt. I'll want to talk to him too."

I turned toward Bowman, who was still on the phone. Timmy said, "Wait."

He looked grim, his cornflower blue eyes taking on the November gray cast they had whenever he was apprehensive about something, or frightened.

Timmy said, "At least one of the two-the one outside the car, the one Mel got a quick look at was a cop. A cop in a uniform. That's why Mel didn't call the police. He thought it was the police."

I looked over at Bowman, who, catching me watching him, turned his back to me as he spoke quietly into the telephone. end user