The John Connolly Collection #2 by John Connolly

Author:John Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Walter Cole got back to me the next morning. I was still asleep when he called. I had faxed him the list of the numbers called from Eddie Tager’s cell phone and asked him to see what he could do with them. If he had no luck, there were others I could turn to, this time outside the law. I just thought Walter could get the information more quickly than I could.

“You know that tampering with mail is a federal crime?” he said.

“I didn’t tamper. I mistakenly assumed that it was addressed to me.”

“Well, that’s good enough for me. Anyone can make a mistake. I have to tell you, though: I’m running out of favors I can call in. I think this is it.”

“You’ve done enough, and more. Don’t sweat it.”

“You want me to fax this to you?”

“Later. For now, just read me the names. Take them from around 1 A.M. on the date I marked. That’s about the time Alice was picked up on the streets.” Someone must have contacted Tager to tell him to bail Alice, and I was hoping that he had called that person back once he was done.

He read me the list of names, but I didn’t recognize any of them. Most of them were men. Two were women.

“Give me the women’s names again.”

“Gale Friedman and Hope Zahn.”

“The second one, was that a business or personal number?”

“It’s a cell. The bills go to a box number on the Upper West Side, registered with a private company named Robson Realty. Robson was part of the Ambassade group, the same one that was looking after the apartment development in Williamsburg. Seems like Tager called her twice: once at 4:04 A.M., and once at 4:35 A.M. There were no more calls from his cell until the next afternoon, and her number doesn’t show up again.”

Hope Zahn. I pictured Sekula in his pristine anteroom, asking his coldly beautiful secretary not to disturb him—No calls, please, Hope—while he sized me up. Sekula’s days were numbered.

“Is that any help?” asked Walter.

“You just confirmed something for me. Can you fax that info to my room?”

I had a personal fax machine on the desk in the corner. I gave him the number again.

“I also checked the cell phone number that G-Mack gave us,” said Walter. “The phone belonged to a Point junkie named Lucius Cope. Cope vanished three weeks ago.”

“If they had his phone, then he’s dead.”

“So, what now?”

“I have to go home. After that, it all depends.”

“On what?”

“The kindness of strangers, I guess. Or maybe kindness isn’t the right word . . .”

∗ ∗ ∗

I headed out for coffee and called Sekula’s office along the way. A woman answered the phone, but I could tell that it wasn’t Sekula’s usual secretary. This girl was so chirpy she belonged in an aviary.

“Hello, could I speak to Hope Zahn, please?”

“Uh, I’m afraid she’s out of the office for a few days. Could I take a message?”

“How about Mr. Sekula?”

“He’s also unavailable.”

“When do you

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.