“Search a square mile a day and, if he doesn’t move, we’ll have him within ten years.”
Hawk looked at me in amazement. “My God,” he said in a flawless English accent, “Holmes, you’re incredible.”
“Elementary,” I said.
“So what we know about Grace leaves us no better off than we were,” Rachel Wallace said.
“Only technically,” I said.
“‘Fore we discovered about her,” Hawk said, we thought we have to search three million square miles.“
CHAPTER 47
NARROWING THE SEARCH AREA TO 3,600 MILES was about as well as we did for the rest of the afternoon. When we finished trying at six o’clock, we were no closer to finding Costigan than we had been at lunch. But dinner was closer. No cloud is all dark.
“I need a drink,” Rachel Wallace said. “Or maybe twelve.”
“I go out and get a bottle,” Hawk said. “Stretch my legs.”
“Why not have it sent up,” Rachel Wallace said. “You might be spotted.”
Hawk looked at her as if she’d said the world was flat.
“Or someone might follow you back here,” Rachel Wallace said.
Hawk looked at her as if she had just fallen off the edge of the world.
“Scotch?” he said.
“And soda and ice and glasses,” I said.
“Hotel will send them up,” Hawk said. “I don’t do set-ups.”
He opened the door quietly and went out. “Why,” Rachel Wallace said.
“He feels like it,” I said.
“But we all feel like things, he could cause trouble, he could jeopardize… it’s childish.”
“I know,” I said. “Why don’t you call and have set-ups delivered.”
Rachel Wallace looked at Susan.
“They understand each other,” Susan said. “Something about not letting the world dictate to you. As you said, it’s childish.”
Rachel Wallace shook her head and reached for the phone on the nightstand.
Susan said to me, “I need to talk.” I pointed to the connecting room.
To Rachel Wallace, I said, “When they deliver, let me know before you open the door. And don’t stand in front of it when he knocks.”
She smiled and nodded. Susan went into the connecting room. I followed her and closed the door. She sat on the bed. I sat beside her.
“I need to talk with Russell,” she said. I nodded.
“I am clear on what I want. I don’t want to be with him again. But I can’t just end our relationship like we did. Just drive away and leave him standing by the side of the road.”
I nodded again. “You know if you want to be with me?” I said.
“I know I don’t want to be without you,” she said.
“You know a number to call him?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you do it in here,” I said.
She nodded. “If you had the number Martin Quirk could probably get the location.”
I nodded. “I can’t,” she said.
“I know,” I said. “I didn’t ask.”
“He may not be with his father,” she said.
“Maybe not,” I said.
“Even if he were,” Susan said, “I couldn’t…”
“No,” I said, “you couldn’t. You couldn’t use your private knowledge of him to get his father killed. Even though Russell might like it.”
“You understand that?”
“Yes.”
“You understand that I can tell you about Jerry and about Grace and that sort of thing. But I can’t give you his number that he trusted me with.” I nodded.
“You see the difference,” Susan said.
