I got out of my car and walked to the glass front door and knocked. There was a security guy at the desk inside, watching television on a small screen. He picked up the phone and pointed toward me. There was a phone outside the door. I picked it up.
'May I help you?' the security guy said.
'I was supposed to meet Trent Rowley here,' I said. 'At seven o'clock.'
'Your name, sir?'
'Johnny Weismuller,' I said.
'I don't see you on our list, Mr. Weisman.'
'It was social,' I said.
'I don't see how I can help you,' the security guy said.
He didn't want to be missing the jackpot question on Jeopardy.
'I'm getting worried about him,' I said. 'His car is still here.'
'Have you called his office?' the security guy said.
'I have. No answer.'
'When Mr. Rowley is working late,' the security guy said, 'he doesn't like to be disturbed.'
A nd so it went, until I finally said I was going to call the cops.
The security guy heaved a big sigh.
'Wait there,' he said. 'I'll have someone check.'
I waited. He put down my phone and picked up another one and dialed and spoke briefly and hung up and redirected his gaze to the television. I waited. In maybe five minutes the seurity guy picked up his phone again, and listened, and leaned suddenly back in his chair and looked out at me. Then I saw him nod and break the connection and punch out another number. I saw him wait and then he talked for maybe another two minutes, and hung up. He looked at me again through the glass doorway. Then he picked up the intercom phone and pointed and I picked up my end.
'We are still trying to track Mr. Rowley down, sir. Could I have your name again?'
'Johnny Weismuller,' I said and spelled the last name. I wasn't sure how to spell it. Next alias I used would be simpler. Lex Barker, maybe.
'Just hang out there a little longer, sir,' he said. 'If you would.'
'Sure,' I said, and hung up and leaned against the outside wall of the entryway.
Something was up and I wanted to know what. In only another minute or two a car pulled into the empty lot, and cruised up and stopped behind me with the headlights pointed at me. It was hard to see in the glare of headlights, but I was pretty sure it was a police cruiser. Two men got out, one from each side, and stood behind the open doors. Through the glare they looked very much like cops. They were cops. It looked like I was the something that was up.
'Step over to the car, please,' one of the cops said. 'Put your hands on the hood.'
I did. The cop on the passenger side came around. He had his gun out, holding it down next to his leg pointed at the ground. I put my hands behind my head with my fingers laced.
'He's done this before, Freddie,' the cop said.
He holstered his weapon and held my laced hands together with his left hand while he patted me down.
'Gun,' I said. 'Right hip.'
He patted me down anyway, and when he was through, took the gun from the holster and let go of my clasped hands and stepped away from me. I straightened.
'You got some ID?'
'In my wallet.'
'Get it out,' the cop said.
He was a big kid with freckles and sergeant stripes. I got my wallet out and got out my license to detect and handed it over. He took it and handed it to his partner to read.
'Private detective,' the partner said.
He was shorter than his partner, with a narrow face and a low hairline.
'So tell me your story,' the first cop said.
Two more cruisers pulled into the parking lot, and behind them an unmarked Ford Crown Vic, with the dead giveaway buggy whip antenna. Unmarked was probably mostly a status symbol. Two guys in plain clothes got out of the Crown Vic and walked toward us. An ambulance pulled into the lot, and behind it a State Police Cruiser.
Big doings at Kinergy.
'This the guy?' one of the plainclothes cops said. The freckle-faced cop said, 'Private eye, Sal.'
'Get what you can,' Sal said. 'We'll talk to him when we come out.'
The security guy had the glass door open and Sal and the other detective and four uniforms and two ambulance guys went on into the lobby and up in the elevator.
