Stranger in Paradise

12.

In the Gray Gull, Crow was nursing Johnnie Walker Blue on the rocks at the bar when his cell phone rang. He checked the caller ID, and answered it as he walked outside to talk.

“The kid charged a big television set,” a voice said at the other end.

“On your account?” Crow said.

“Yeah. She got one of those satellite cards, you know? Her name’s on it, but the bill comes to me.”

“Her real name?”

“Yeah.”

“She know the bill comes to you?” Crow said.

“Who knows what she knows. Bills been coming to me all her life. I doubt that she ever thought about who pays. Hell, she may not even know that somebody has to.”

Crow smiled in the darkness outside the Gray Gull.

“Where’d she get it,” Crow said.

“Place called Images in Marshport, Massachusetts.”

“So she is around here,” Crow said.

“I told you she would be.”

“What kind of TV?” Crow said.

“I wrote it down,” the voice said.

It was a soft voice. But there was tension in it, as if it wanted to yell and was being restrained.

“Mitsubishi 517,” the voice said. “Fifty-five-inch screen.”

“So she didn’t carry it away,” Crow said.

“Not her,” the voice said.

“Maybe they’ll tell me where they sent it,” Crow said.

“Maybe,” the voice said.

The connection broke. Crow folded up his cell phone and put it away. He stood for a moment looking across the parking space toward the harbor.

“When I find her,” he said aloud, “then what?”