Fighting back nausea, Joe saw Chief Louis Carruthers standing on the tarmac, two steaming cups of coffee in hand.
“Agent Mauser,” Louis said, offering up the java. “Agent Denton.”
“Lou,” Joe said. The men shook hands, a solemn gesture.
Sipping the coffee, Mauser grimaced. Louis must have poured an entire dairy farm into the cup. Damn thing tasted more like milk than coffee. As they walked toward the Crown Victoria parked in a lot near the hangar, Mauser’s cell phone chirped. He took it out, found his voice-mail icon blinking. He must have missed the calls while in the air. He checked the call log and felt his heart drop.
Six calls from Linda. She’d left three messages. Joe didn’t have the heart to listen to any of them. He pictured his sister at home, waiting for good news, a sign that her husband’s death wouldn’t go unpunished. But right now he couldn’t give her that hope, and it was eating at him like acid through a drainpipe.
“Fredrickson’s widow?” Denton asked. Joe could only nod.
“So fucking hard on her,” Mauser said. “I wish we had something. If I could, I’d string that fuck Parker up by the thumbs and give her a key to the room. I just want this kid so bad.”
“You’ll get him, Joe. It’s almost over,” Louis said. “We’ve got the city locked up tighter than my sister on prom night. If he’s here, he’s not going anywhere.”
“You know how many fucking black holes there are in this city?” Mauser seethed, forcing another swallow of the so-called coffee down his throat. He felt the caffeine settle right into his bloodstream, a surge of adrenaline coursing through him. “You know how easy it is to disappear? Parker’s not stupid, but he only needs to fuck up once. Use a credit card. Make a telephone call. Cross the street at a red light. Anything.”
Just then another officer, this one young enough to look like Denton’s son, came running up. He held a clipboard and a walkie-talkie in his hand and spoke like the world would end if he didn’t get out a hundred words a minute.
“Slow down,” Mauser said. “I missed the first, middle and last thing you said.”
“Sorry, sir,” the kid said, grinning from ear to ear. “But we got him.”
“Parker?” Joe’s stomach dropped. The kid nodded, then smiled at Chief Carruthers. Goddamn police force being overrun by guys who looked like they weren’t physiologically old enough to even have children.
“How?”
“Telephone call, Agent Mauser. Parker used a pay phone and charged it to the same calling card we got him with before.” Joe smiled, nudged Denton.
“Who did he call?” Denton asked. The kid looked at his clipboard. Static came over the radio. Mauser couldn’t understand a word of it, but the kid clicked a button and responded “ten-four.”
“Parker called his parents in Bend, Oregon,” he said. “We traced his call to a pay phone on East 80th Street, by the river. It was placed nine minutes ago.”
“About goddamn time we had a break,” Mauser said. “You have a tape of the call?”
“Absolutely.”
“I want to hear it,” Mauser said, making a beeline for the Crown Vic. “Lou, have them patch the recording through to my cell phone. I want to hear Parker’s voice, I want to hear the phone call.”
“Done. You heard him,” Carruthers said. The young officer clicked the radio again.
“Uh, dispatch, can you patch through the Henry Parker call to Agent Mauser’s cell phone?” Joe gave him the number. Denton stood there chewing gum, his hands fidgeting. Mauser nodded slightly, acknowledging Denton. It would be over soon. Finally the rat had nowhere else to run.
“Take care, Joe,” Louis said. “Be careful.”
Mauser clapped his friend’s shoulder, then he and Denton hurried to the car. Denton got into the driver’s seat, Mauser holding the phone, awaiting the call. He held the door open and yelled to the officer who’d delivered the message.
“Hey, kid, any way you can hook me up with a speaker to connect to the phone?” The kid gave a thumbs-up and sprinted over to a van parked on the edge of the tarmac. A minute later he reappeared with a small black speaker. He took Joe’s cell phone and made sure the connection fit. He pressed a few buttons and Mauser heard a dial tone ring loud and clear. He thanked the kid and closed the door.
They took the Grand Central Parkway exit, and a minute later Mauser’s cell phone rang. Joe picked up the speaker, nodded to Denton. “Let’s see what our boy has to say.”
Merging onto the highway, Mauser caught Denton readjusting his pants quite voraciously.
“You got crabs in there or something?” Joe asked.
“Just riding up on me a bit.” Mauser nodded and pressed the send button.
“This is Mauser.”
“Agent Mauser? This is Officer Pratt at dispatch. I’m going to patch Henry Parker’s call through.”
“We’re waiting.” Joe felt sweat beading on his palms. He gripped the armrest, his hands slippery. Denton remained surprisingly calm. Mauser could practically feel Parker’s neck in his hands, choking the life out of him.
There were several loud clicks and then they heard a raspy male voice. The owner sounded like he’d spent too many years with his best friends Marlboro and Cutty Sark.
“Yeah, hello?” the voice said.
“Dad?”
It was Parker. Mauser would recognize that voice through a thunderstorm. The other man was Henry’s father.
“Who’s this…Henry? That you?”
“It’s me, Dad.”
“Fucking hell, haven’t heard your voice in a while. Cops called here a few times, idiots thought I might actually know where you were. You in trouble, boy?”
“I guess you could say I’m in a bit of trouble. You know I spoke to Mom last Monday. I asked how you were, she said you went out that night. Not like you to go out.”
“Got me a bowling league now, every Monday. Boys call me the anchorman ’cause I always pick up where their sorry asses fall down.”
“Glad to hear you’re getting some exercise.”
“Yeah, right,” Parker Senior said. “So why’re you calling, Henry? I told you I got no money to just hand out. And why are these cops calling me? Do you owe money?”
“No, I don’t need money or owe anybody, Dad. I have a job. A good one. The one I wanted, at the newspaper, the Gazette. ”
“That right? Someone actually hired you?” Henry’s father laughed derisively.
“I’ve worked hard, Dad. A lot harder than you ever did.”
“Whatever. So why’re you calling so late? It’s almost midnight for crissakes.”
A moment of silence. Mauser feared the connection had been lost, but then he heard a choking sound come through the line. He looked over at Denton, who seemed unmoved. Mauser settled back and listened.
Henry said, “I just want you to know I don’t hold anything against you for the way you were when I was growing up.” Henry’s voice trembled, but it remained strong. “I’m not mad. In fact, I want to thank you for making me stronger.”
“The hell’re you talking about boy? You sound crazy.”
“You know, it’s funny how you remember things sometimes. I can remember almost every word you said to me-trust me, there weren’t many. How you always told me I wouldn’t amount to anything because nobody in our family ever did. How the night of my high school graduation you told me I’d be better off moving away because I’d only bring you and Mom misery.”
“I never said that,” the elder Parker said, but his voice was unconvincing.
“It doesn’t matter now,” Henry continued. “Because I wanted to thank you. I was able to take all that negative shit you lumped on me and turn it into something good. I used you, Dad. I fucking used your hate as my fuel.”
“What’s your goddamn point?” Parker senior rasped. “Did you call just to bitch and complain? I’m too tired to deal with that and I get enough already from your mother.”
“No, that’s not why I called. I wanted to let you and Mom know that I’m in trouble. Serious trouble, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get out of it. People think I did something that I didn’t. Something terrible. But I don’t
