‘In Manhattan?’
‘Trenton. He has his own practice.’ It would only be for today but she had to remember, not change the story.
‘He design this place? It’s cute.’
‘No,’ she said. Then, hurrying: ‘I’ve got eggs and some ham, although the bread’s not fresh. You want some breakfast before we go?’
‘I want to make calls before we go.’
‘Yes, of course, we’ll call the Bureau.’
‘And Rosemary Pritchard,’ insisted Jane.
‘It wasn’t intended as a positive deceit, although I guess it was,’ said Alice. ‘You’ll understand when we get to the Bureau.’
‘I need to understand now.’
‘Let’s get breakfast,’ Alice tried to avoid.
‘Let’s get breakfast and talk now, so I’ll understand,’ insisted Jane.
Bizarrely, they prepared breakfast together easily, Jane setting the table and making the coffee, Alice putting out the ham and scrambling eggs, which meant she could talk mostly turned away from the other woman, concentrating upon the stove. Alice once more referred to Northcote being tricked into involvement and used the phrase organized crime and said the details had been in some office archives that had been made available to her. She’d immediately told John – ‘Like I said, he was the liaison between your father and me’ and gave him what she’d found and she understood he’d put them in a safe deposit in Citibank. Alice listened to her own words and decided it was close enough to the truth and sounded a great deal better than her first stumbled attempt.
‘What you call a trick, you mean my father did some work for gangsters, without knowing who or what they were?’
‘That’s what it looked like. As soon as I realized the significance I gave it to John, without reading it all.’ Almost true, Alice consoled herself.
‘A long time ago?’ pressed Jane.
‘That’s what John thought, from some other stuff he found.’
‘And which neither he nor my father told me about! But you know all about it.’
Alice saw her lifeline and seized it. ‘I know about some of it because I was the person who came across it first: before I realized the significance I even made a few computer enquiries. It could have been embarrassing for the firm. That’s surely why they didn’t tell you, until they’d sorted it out.’
The look on Jane’s face on the opposite side of the long table was quizzical but not as openly suspicious as it had been earlier.
‘If all this happened a long time ago why are you – we – hiding now?’
There was an explanation here, too! ‘I told you, before I realized what I’d come across I made a few computer enquiries. They must have picked them up.’
‘Serious organized crime?’
‘I don’t know who they are. Names, I mean. But professional, certainly.’
‘How do you know that, if you don’t have names?’
‘It’s what John thought. Another reason for not telling you: not wanting to frighten you.’
‘What reason would there be for neither my father nor John telling me about this book you’re writing?’
The suspicion – the disbelief – was back! ‘I don’t know.’ Pleading ignorance was all that she could do: all that it was safe to do.
‘How much have you written?’
‘None, yet. I was just collating material.’ Alice hoped her face wasn’t shiny from the sort of perspiration she could feel on her back.
‘You got the material here? I’d like to read it.’
‘It’s in New York.’ She had to stop this! Get away!
‘Pity. I’d like to have seen it. Maybe some other time.’
‘Maybe.’ Alice thrust up from the table, collecting up her plate and mug. ‘We should get moving.’
‘There’s a call I need to make.’
‘Two,’ said Alice. ‘Mine first.’ It was time to speak to Gene Hanlan. Get everything over with.
Alice was bewildered by what happened, how it happened. She was conscious of Jane behind her as she dialled the Federal Plaza number but didn’t expect the abrupt hand over her shoulder to snatch away the telephone the moment she’d finished punching the number. By the time that happened – Alice close enough to hear the answering identification as the FBI herself – Jane had come from behind, to look down at her, and Alice saw the tension go from Jane’s face.
‘My name is Jane Carver. I want the agent-in-charge,’ and then, instantly: ‘I want to know your name.’ Jane’s face relaxed even further. She said: ‘I am all right. She’s told me who she is, a lot of other things.’
There was a pause, while she listened, and now Alice couldn’t hear the other end. She rose from the desk chair, gesturing Jane into it. It wasn’t important who made the contact, just that it was made and their being brought in was arranged. Jane sat. Alice watched.
Jane said: ‘Was my father tricked? That’s what Alice says,’ and listened again.
Then: ‘Was my father murdered? My husband? Janice?’ There was some frowning head-shaking at whatever reply Hanlan gave. Jane said: ‘Only me?’ and then quickly: ‘I’ll call my lawyers, to block that. So don’t try.’ She smiled up at Alice and said: ‘She’s here,’ and handed over the telephone.
Hanlan said: ‘What the hell’s going on?’
‘You tell me. And I mean just that – tell me.’
Jane had walked away from the desk, to be near the outside door, but was looking at her intently.
‘I told her we’d reopened the investigation into the deaths of her father and Janice Snow. But not her husband.’
‘Why? ’
‘To get her in. To get you both in. We know you’re somewhere around Bearfort: you marked your photographs at Princes Street. Someone got there ahead of us. They know you’re there, too. They’ll be looking.’
‘We’re leaving right away.’
‘Don’t! I’ll have people at Paterson within an hour. Tell me where you are. We’ll come for you.’
‘Four miles out of West Milford, on the main mountain road. It’s the fourth track, unmarked, on the left. There’s a green mailbox. The name’s Snelling. How long?’
‘Two hours, tops.’
‘Hurry!’
‘Two hours. What’s your telephone number there?’
Alice told him and physically sagged with relief as she put down the telephone, smiling up at the still expressionless Jane. ‘They’re on their way. All we’ve got to do is wait.’
‘How long?’ asked Jane, echoing Alice’s question.
‘Two hours.’
‘West Milford is just four miles away. We could be there and back in less than an hour. There was only one left in your box.’
‘Didn’t Gene tell you there were people looking for me?’
‘You any idea of the size of the Bearfort range? Less than an hour. Please.’
‘You haven’t made your call.’
‘It can wait.’
There was something she could get from a pharmacy, too, Alice thought. It was worrying her.
‘I don’t believe it!’ erupted Hanlan. ‘I don’t fucking believe it!’
‘What?’ asked Ginette Smallwood.
‘Jane Carver! She doesn’t think she’s in any danger! And when I told her I could get a court order to open her husband’s safe deposit she threatened to block me, in court!’
‘I heard what you told her,’ said the woman. And had believed it to have been a mistake as the man spoke. She said: ‘You’d better tell Washington there’ll be opposition, to cover your ass.’
