watching them from the porthole.
He waved.
They waved and smiled.
“Still,” Duvall said, “it’s a wonder the wife didn’t tumble to it sooner. He’d been experimenting with his ‘performance’ art for four years before she got wise.”
“She wasn’t an artist.”
“What?”
“She didn’t have the vision to anticipate. Without the vision to anticipate…she wouldn’t become suspicious without good reason.”
“Can’t say I follow you. Four years, for heaven’s sake.”
Then six more until the boy had found out. Ten years, forty-two victims, slightly more than four a year.
The numbers, Roy decided, weren’t particularly impressive. The factors that made Steven Ackblom one for the record books were his fame
“But why,” Roy wondered again, “would the son want to hold on to that property? With all its associations. He wanted to change his name. Why not rid himself of the ranch too?”
“Strange, huh?”
“And if not the son, why not the grandparents? Why didn’t they sell it off when they were his legal guardians, make that decision for him? After their daughter was killed there…why would they want to have anything to do with the place?”
“There’s something there,” Duvall said.
“What do you mean?”
“Some explanation. Some reason. Whatever it is, it’s weird.”
“This caretaker couple—”
“Paul and Anita Dresmund.”
“—did they say whether Grant ever comes around?”
“He doesn’t. At least, they’ve never seen anybody with a scar like he’s got.”
“So who oversees them?”
“Until a year and a half ago, they only ever saw two people related to the Vail Memorial Trust. This lawyer, Lingerhold, or one of his partners would come by twice a year, just to check that the ranch was being maintained, that the Dresmunds were earning their salary and spending the upkeep fund on genuinely needed maintenance.”
“And for the past year and a half?”
“Since Vanishment International has owned the place, nobody’s come around at all,” Duvall said. “God, I’d love to find out how much he’s got stashed away in Amelia Earhart Enterprises, but you know we’re never going to pry that out of the Swiss.”
In recent years, Switzerland had grown alarmed by the large number of cases in which U.S. authorities had sought to seize the Swiss accounts of American citizens by invoking asset-forfeiture statutes without proof of criminal activity. The Swiss increasingly viewed such laws as blunt tools of political repression. Every month they retreated further from their traditional cooperation in criminal cases.
“What’s the other taco?” Roy asked.
“Huh?”
“The second taco. You said you had two tacos to feed me.”
“Enchiladas,” Duvall said. “Two enchiladas of information.”
“Well, I’m hungry,” Roy said pleasantly. He was proud of his patience, after all the tests to which the Mormon cops had put it. “So why don’t you heat up that second enchilada?”
Gary Duvall served it to him, and it was as tasty as promised.
The moment he hung up on Duvall, Roy called the Vegas office and spoke to Ken Hyckman, who would soon conclude his shift as the morning duty officer. “Ken, where’s that JetRanger?”
“Ten minutes from you.”
“I’m going to send it back with most of the men here.”
“You’re giving up?”
“You know we’ve lost radar contact on them.”
“Right.”
“They’re gone, and we’re not going to reconnect with them that way. But I have another lead, a good one, and I’m jumping on it. I need a jet.”
“Jesus.”
“I didn’t say I needed to hear a little profanity.”
“Sorry.”
“What about the Lear I came in on Friday night?”
“It’s still here. Serviced and ready.”
“Is there anywhere in my vicinity it can land, any military base where I could meet it?”
“Let me check,” Hyckman said, and he put Roy on hold.
While he waited, Roy thought about Eve Jammer. He would not be able to return to Las Vegas that evening. He wondered what his blond sweetness would do to remember him and to keep him in her heart. She had said that it would be something special. He assumed she would practice new positions, if there were any, and try out erotic aids that she had never used before, in order to prepare an experience for him that, a night or two hence, would leave him shuddering and breathless as never before. When he attempted to imagine what those erotic aids might be, his mind spun. And his mouth went as dry as sand — which was perfect.
Ken Hyckman came back on the line. “We can put the Lear down right there in Cedar City.”
“This burg can take a Lear?”
“Brian Head is just twenty-nine miles east of there.”
“Who?”
“Not who. What. First-rate ski resort, lots of pricey homes up on the mountain. Lots of rich people and corporations own condos in Brian Head, bring their jets in to Cedar City and drive up from there. It doesn’t have anything like O’Hare or LAX, no bars and newsstands and baggage carousels, but the airfield can handle long landing requirements.”
“Is a crew standing by with the Lear?”
“Absolutely. We can get them out of McCarran and to you by one o’clock.”
“Terrific. I’ll ask one of the grinning gendarmes to drive me to the airfield.”
“Who?”
“One of the courteous constables,” Roy said. He was in a fine mood again.
“I’m not sure this scrambler is giving me what you’re saying.”
“One of the Mormon marshals.”
Either getting the point or deciding that he didn’t need to understand, Hyckman said, “They’ll have to file a flight plan here. Where are you going from Cedar City?”
“Denver,” Roy said.
Slumped in the last seat in the starboard aisle, Ellie dozed on and off for a couple of hours. In fourteen months as a fugitive, she had learned to put aside her fears and worries, sleeping whenever she had a chance.
Shortly after she woke, while she was stretching and yawning, Spencer returned from an extended visit with the two-man crew. He sat across from her.
As Rocky curled up in the aisle at his feet, Spencer said, “More good news. According to the boys, this is an extensively customized eggbeater. For one thing, they have jumped-up engines on this baby, so we can carry an extra-heavy load, which allows them to saddle her with big auxiliary fuel tanks. She’s got a lot more range than the standard model. They’re sure they can get us all the way across the border and past Grand Junction before there’s any danger of the tanks running dry, if we want to go that far.”
“The farther the better,” she said. “But not right in or around Grand Junction. We don’t want to be seen by a
