THURSDAY 11:48 P.M.
I bent nearly double as I walked the few short steps to the El station. The scattering of passengers on the platform huddled on the lee side of a glass partition. While waiting for the train, my phone buzzed. By holding it inside my hat and hood up against my ear, I could hear and talk. It was Norbert Cefeli, Duncan’s friend, the nurse from the hospital.
He said, “You asked me to watch out for any anomalies or something I noticed about that time frame you told me about.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I got something. An ambulance driver, Brad Machevski, from that night.”
“What does he know?”
“Maybe nothing, but you should talk to him. He didn’t want to tell me too much. He was afraid he might get in trouble, but he said he’d talk to you.”
“Can I meet him tonight?”
“He’s on shift, but nothing is moving in the city. We’ve gone from mobs to nobody. They’ll be having coffee across the street at Myrtle’s, but I’ll call ahead and let him know you’re on the way.”
“Thanks.”
Several El rides later, I arrived at Myrtle’s across from the hospital. Wind yanked and rammed snow between bare trees and dark buildings.
It was the only all night coffee shop I knew of in this part of the city. It catered to the hospital crowd. I saw Brad, the guy Norbert described, sitting at a table in the back.
I joined him. We were the only customers in the place. Brad had a three day growth of beard, light brown skin, dark heavy eyebrows, and wavy black hair. He frowned. His EMT outfit fit tight on his broad shoulders and lithe frame.
I introduced myself and sat down. I took off my gloves. A waitress came, and I ordered coffee. She already had the pot with her. She filled my cup and left.
Brad frowned, sipped some coffee, and glanced around. He said, “I don’t know if I should be talking to you.”
“What’s the problem?”
“That’s what I don’t know if I should be talking about. Norbert’s a good guy, but these guys looked nutso.”
“How so nutso?”
“You know in spy movies, or caper movies, how the evil guy always has burly minions around him.”
I said, “Except for Bambi and Thumper in Diamonds are Forever, Grace Jones in A View to a Kill, and Maud Adams in Octopussy, although she turned out to be a heroine not a villain.”
“Huh?” Brad gave me a strange look.
“Not important.”
“Well, they looked like low-rent versions of that.”
“Low rent?”
“Big but scruffy. They warned me to keep my mouth shut. I didn’t really care except for one thing.”
“Yeah.”
He pulled in a deep breath.
“Okay, see, here’s the thing. Dispatch sent us out. They said there were five bodies.”
“Yeah.”
“When we got to the scene, there were only four.”
“So?”
“We gotta keep track of everything. Every syringe, bag, everything, but especially people. They don’t like it when you lose people somewhere in the city, even if they are dead. See, and I wouldn’t have cared, but my ass is on the line if there’s something wrong with a count at the end of a shift. I’ve been waiting to be called in. I talked to Norbert about it. He said call you.”
“Another ambulance crew couldn’t have come by and picked someone up?”
“It doesn’t work that way. We all keep in contact. No matter how busy or how crazed. We keep records or people get fired.”
“And the shit hasn’t hit the fan?”
“No. I’m worried. Who the hell were those guys? What’s going on?”
I said, “I’m going to try to find out.”
“Don’t tell anyone I talked to you.”
“Not a problem. What was the timing on the accident?”
“You mean when was the call and when did we get there?”
“Yeah.”
He checked his phone. He said, “I keep track as well. The original call came at 6:52, supposedly twenty minutes after the accident. On a normal day, half the planet would be calling in with reports of an accident and bodies. At the height of a blizzard, not so much.”
I placed my hands around my cup of coffee. I liked the feeling of warmth it gave. I mused about where the missing body might be and why was it wherever it was? Who had ambushed the motorcade? Why would the government or terrorists need to cover up a dead body? Or why not hide all five? Maybe there wasn’t time. Or maybe the fifth body wasn’t dead? Or Vincek lied? The report was erroneous? Somebody was dead and then they weren’t? The last time that was reported was a couple of thousand years ago, and they’re still arguing about it. I didn’t have that kind of time to spend on that. Who does?
I thanked him. I hiked down the center of more deserted streets to get back to the scene. It took half an hour.