Cozy (Stanley Hastings Mystery, #14) by Hall Parnell

Author:Hall, Parnell [Hall, Parnell]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery & Crime
ISBN: 9781936441334
Publisher: Parnell Hall
Published: 2011-12-09T05:00:00+00:00

22.

I FOUND A pay phone in the Summit House, called the Blue Frog Ponds.

“Louise, it’s Stanley Hastings. I need to talk to Chief Pinehurst.”

“Oh, he left.”

“Left?”

“Yeah. About a half hour ago. I saw him getting into his car.”

“Where’d he go?”

“I have no idea. He didn’t say anything, he just took off.”

“I need to reach him. It’s important.”

“Well, he probably went back to the police station. You want the number?”

“Please.”

Louise gave me the number. I didn’t have a pencil to write it down, but I repeated it to Alice, who dialed it for me once I got off the phone with Louise.

I got a busy signal.

A busy signal?

No way.

The police station only has one line?

I hung up the phone.

“What’s the matter?” Alice said.

“Busy,” I said.

We gawked at each other. To New Yorkers, the concept of a police line being busy did not compute. Being put on hold would have been more in our realm of experience.

I retrieved the quarter from the coin return, dropped it in again.

“Still remember it?” I said.

Alice gave me a look and punched in the number.

Still busy.

“Maybe Louise gave it to me wrong.”

“You wanna call information?”

“You call information. I’m gonna check on the train. See if I can get a seat.”

I went out, inquired about the Cog Railway.

No luck. The return trip was sold out.

“When does it leave?” I asked.

“Forty-five minutes.”

“And it takes an hour and ten minutes to go down?”

“More or less.”

“Thanks.”

I went back inside to find Alice. On the way I kept an eye out for our friend.

I spotted him sitting on a rock, one of a pile of rocks off to one side of the Summit House where people liked to climb. He was talking to a young man with long, blond hair, wearing jeans, work boots, and an army jacket. What the two of them had in common, I couldn’t imagine.

But I sure meant to find out.

I went back inside to Alice. She’d been joined by Jean and Joan.

“Still busy,” Alice said.

I raised my eyebrows.

“Oh, I told them,” Alice said. “How could I not tell them?”

“We’ll be discreet,” Jean/Joan, the plumper one said.

“It’s exciting, isn’t it?” said the other.

I’m sure my smile was forced. The last thing I needed was people who found the whole thing exciting.

“Any luck?” Alice said.

“No. I can’t get on the train. But it’s all right. In fact, it’s probably better.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t leave for forty-five minutes, and it takes over an hour to get down. Our van takes half the time, and leaves before. So I can get the car, drive around, and be there when the train arrives.”

“Terrific,” Jean/Joan said. The thin one. “You mean we’re gonna follow him?”

“I’m going to follow him. You can get a cab back.”

“Don’t be silly,” Alice said. “You’re not going to leave us.”

“Well, you can’t come along.”

“Why not?”

“He’ll spot us.”

“How will he spot us? We’ll be in the car.”

“Exactly. He’ll see the car following him.”

“Stanley. You’re not making sense. The car will be following him in any case. What difference does it

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