24 Sep 90—NEW YORK CITY
Mickey Connors picked up the phone in the back room. The telephone had no number on it and was not connected in any way to the telephone at the bar in front. His telephone had not even been installed by the telephone company, though it used company lines. It was untappable because it didn’t exist. He dialed a number; he preferred dials on telephones and whiskey drunk straight and boxer shorts and a number of other set and precise things that you might not have expected in a seemingly unfussy man.
“So what’d he do?” he began without greeting.
“He was booked on United and then on Delta. He took Delta to Atlanta and turned around and took Delta to Washington. Our fella saw him get on the D.C. plane and he called the man down there.”
“Good fella,” Mickey said.
“The fella caught the cab number and we made a cabbie twenty bucks richer an hour later. He went to the apartment.”
“And she was there.”
“Well, we figure so. He left an hour ago and the lights were on. And then they went out so she’s up there. She was there, ninety percent certain.”
“That’s love for ya, ain’t it?”
“I wouldn’t know,” the voice said. “After that, he goes to Dulles and catches a red-eye out to San Francisco. So he’s not going through LAX at all.”
“He’s a devious fella, Devereaux. Well, you can’t blame him and the girl for missin’ each other, I suppose.”
“What do you want to do with him?”
“Ah, there’s time, there’s time, Tommy. Never tap the tree till the sap’s ready to burst. Plenty of time to figure out things.”
“You wanta watch him at the other end. I can call up to San Fran—”
“Naw, naw. He’s not gonna go anywhere but right where I told him to go. The thing is about the girlie, Rita Macklin. What d’ya think he might of told her, her being a newspaperwoman and all.”
“You wanna do somethin’ there?”
“We don’t harm women, Tommy. There’s nothin’ to do.”
“You can make an exception.”
“If I was to do that, Tommy, you’d lose respect. For me and yerself. Shut your gob, now, Tommy.”
Silence on the line. Mickey was thinking and he didn’t realize he was smiling as well.
“Well, the thing about her is we gotta watch her. I want a couple of men, good fellas now and not some boys from the force out to make a little extra money on the side. Good fellas. Just watch her and you call up the bar when you got somethin’ to say.”
He broke the connection.