'You just got here two minutes before Kay got arrested,' Wesley said to him.
'I didn't get arrested,' I said. 'Her middle name actually is Jayne, with a y,' I added, and then I filled them in.
'This changes everything,' Wesley said, and he called New York.
It was almost eleven when he got off the phone. He stood and picked up his briefcase and his bag and a portable radio that was on his desk. Marino rose from his chair, too.
'Unit three to unit seventeen,' Wesley spoke into the radio.
'Seventeen.'
'We're heading your way.'
'Yes, sir.'
'I'm coming with you,' I said to Wesley.
He looked at me. I was not on the original passenger list.
'All right,' he said. 'Let's go.'
19
We discussed the plan in the air as our pilot flew toward Manhattan. The Bureau's New York field office would assign an undercover agent to the pharmacy at Houston and Second Avenue, while a pair of agents from Atlanta would be dispatched to Live Oaks Plantation. This was happening even as we talked into our voice-activated microphones.
If Mrs. Gault maintained the usual schedule, money was due to be wired again tomorrow. Since Gault had no way of knowing his parents had been told their daughter was dead, he would assume the money would arrive as usual.
'What he's not going to do is just take a taxi to the pharmacy.' Wesley's voice filled my headset as I looked out at plains of darkness.
'Naw,' Marino said. 'I doubt it. He knows everybody but the queen of England is out looking for him.'
'We want him to go underground.'
'It seems riskier down there,' I said, thinking of Davila.
'No lights. And the third rails and the trains.'
1 know,' said Wesley. 'But he has the mentality of a terrorist. He doesn't care who he kills. We can't have a shoot-out in Manhattan in the middle of the day.'
I understood his point.
'So how do you make certain he travels through the tunnels to get to the pharmacy?' I asked.
'We turn up the heat without scaring him off.'
'How?'
'Apparently, there's a March Against Crime parade tomorrow.'
'That's appropriate,' I said ironically. 'It's through the Bowery?'
'Yes. The route can easily be changed to go along Houston and Second Avenue.'
Marino cut in. All you do is move traffic cones.'
'Transit PD can send out a computerized communication notifying police in the Bowery that there is a parade at such and such a time. Gault will see on the computer that the parade is supposed to go through the area at the exact time he is supposed to pick up the money. He'll see that the subway station at Second Avenue has been temporarily closed.'
A nuclear power plant in Delaware glowed like a heating element on high, and cold air seeped in.
I said, 'So he'll know it's not a good time to be traveling above ground.'
'Exactly. When there's a parade, there are cops.'
'I worry about him deciding not to go for the money,' Marino said.
'He'll go for it,' Wesley said as if he knew.
'Yes,' I said. 'He's addicted to crack. That is a more powerful motivator than any fear he might have.'
'Do you think he killed his sister for money?' Marino asked.
'No,' Wesley said. 'But the small sums her mother sent her were just one more thing he appropriated. In the end, he took everything his sister ever had.'
'No, he didn't,' I said. 'She was never evil like him. That's the best thing she had, and Gault couldn't take it.'
'We're arriving in the Big Apple with guns,' Marino's voice blurted over the air.
'My bag,' I said. 'I forgot.'
'I'll talk to the commissioner first thing in the morning.'
'It is first thing in the morning,' Marino said.
We landed at the helipad on the Hudson near the Intrepid aircraft carrier, which was strung with Christmas lights. A Transit Police cruiser was waiting, and I remembered arriving here not that long ago and meeting Commander Penn for the first time. I remembered seeing Jayne's blood in the snow when I did not know the unbearable truth about her.
We arrived at the New York Athletic Club again.
'Which room is Lucy in?' I asked Wesley as we checked in with an old man who looked as if he had always worked unearthly hours.
'She isn't.' He handed out keys.
We walked away from the desk.
'Okay,' I said. 'Now tell me.'
Marino yawned. 'We sold her to a small factory in the Garment District.'
'She's in protective custody, sort of.' Wesley smiled a little as brass elevator doors opened. 'She's staying with Commander Penn.'
In my room I took my suit off and hung it in the shower. I steamed it as I had the last two nights and considered throwing it out should I ever get a chance to change my clothes again. I slept under several blankets and with windows open wide. At six I got up before the alarm. I showered and ordered a bagel and coffee.