18
THE PRINTOUT
“Mom, are you asleep?”
“Not anymore, Herculeah.”
“Well, can I use your computer?”
“What’s wrong with your own computer?”
“Nothing, only I don’t have the program for looking up addresses. I just want to print out a quick map.”
“I suppose there’s no point in my asking what address it is you want to print out.”
Herculeah sighed. “Just tell me yes or no.”
“Well, if the address is One Kings Row, don’t bother; I already printed it out myself.”
“Mom! You read the back of my envelope.”
“May I remind you again that I could have steamed the whole thing open and sealed it back if I’d wanted to. When I was half your age, I was an expert at steaming open envelopes illegally. My mom used to have me do it all the time when my dad received a suspicious letter. Dad never suspected a thing. I was that good.”
“I would accuse you of steaming open my mail except that I don’t get any.”
“Also the name of the street rang a bell.”
“You’d heard of the street before?”
“Yes.”
“Did it have something to do with one of your cases?”
“I thought it might.”
“Which one?”
“But then I thought maybe it rang a bell because there was a movie by that name.”
“Mom, get to the point.”
Her mom obviously had no intention of getting to the point. She said, “I lay here, thinking and thinking about it, and then I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I remembered.”
“Tell me!”
“A couple of years ago I was contacted by the League of Women for Education. Every year, the league would have a tour of homes—they raised money for scholarships that way.”
“Go on!”
“They’d get eight or ten homes and there was always a theme. One year it would be homes of artists, one year homes of the rich and famous, once it was musicians.”
“Is that why they contacted you? They wanted to do a tour of homes of private detectives?”
Her mom laughed. Even though the room was dark—Herculeah had not turned on the light—she enjoyed her mother’s smile.
“This was to be a Halloween tour. The theme was secret rooms, secret passages. The league contacted me because they weren’t having any luck. I had a case at the library at that time—remember someone was ripping off books—and I got up a list of old houses that qualified and, if my memory serves me correctly, One Kings Row was on the list.”
Herculeah was silent for a moment. Then she said, “Secret passage or secret room?”
“My memory doesn’t serve me that well.”
“But you did print the map?”
“I did.”
“And did you find the house?”
“I did. Actually there’s only one house on the street. It’s marked on the map by a small red star, so you can’t miss it.”
“And will I go there by bus, by foot, by bicycle, or will you drive me?”
“Oh, bicycle.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“You can take the bike trail through the park.”
“Good. I’ll do that.”
She turned to go back to her room, and her mom said, “Come sit down by me for a minute.”
She patted the side of the bed, and Herculeah went over. The queen-size bed was the same bed her parents had shared when they were married. Her mom still slept on her own half. She shifted to make room for Herculeah, and Herculeah sat down.
“I’m a little worried about you.”
“Oh, Mom, it’s just a party.”
“I’m not worried about that. I get the feeling that there’s something more serious troubling you. And I don’t like you to be troubled.”
“Well—”
“Did you and Meat have a misunderstanding?”
“Well.”
“Is that ‘well’ a ‘yes’?”
“I guess so, but, Mom, this is something I have to figure out for myself.”
“Are you sure you can figure it out?”
Herculeah smiled. “Hey, of course I can. I’m a detective, remember?”