Vector

En route to his own office, Jack looked into Laurie's, expecting at the very least to find out the 'when and where' for the evening's longawaited dinner party. But Laurie's office was dark and deserted.

To make matters worse, her door was locked. Jack knew that was incontrovertible evidence that she, too, had gone home.

'For crissake! ' Jack said out loud. Feeling thwarted in all directions, he grumbled under his breath as he walked the rest of the way down the corridor. For a brief moment he entertained the idea of being unavailable for the rest of the evening so that Laurie would not be able to get ahold of him. But he quickly gave up the idea. It wasn't his style, and besides, he was genuinely curious.

Jack turned into his own office. At least Chet was still there, busily writing on a yellow legal tablet.

'Ah, the adventurer has returned, ' Chet commented as he caught sight of Jack. He put down his pencil.

'I guess I can cancel the missing persons report I filed.'

'Very funny, ' Jack commented as he hung up his bomber jacket.

'At least you arrived back in one piece, ' Chet said. 'How was it out there in the field? Any attempts on your life? How many fellow civil service workers did you manage to enrage? '

'I'm in no mood to be teased, ' Jack stated. He plopped himself down heavily in his desk chair as if his legs had suddenly given out from under him.

'It doesn't sound like you enjoyed yourself, ' Chet remarked.

'It was a bust, ' Jack admitted. 'Except for the bike ride.'

'I'm not surprised, ' Chet said. 'It was a doomed mission from the start.

Did you learn anything at all? '

'I learned that it takes a long time to go through a company's records, ' Jack said. 'Even a small company.

And after all the effort, there was no payoff. In a perverted way I was hoping to find that some of the rug company's latest shipment of Turkish hides had been sent out so I could rub the information in flinty old Clint Abelard's face. But no soap. The whole shipment is locked up tight in the Queens ware , , house.

'At least you meant well, ' Chet said with a self-satisfied chuckle.

'If you so much as whisper I told you so, I'm taking you out of my will, ' Jack warned.

'I wouldn't stoop so low as to say I told you so, ' Chet laughed.

'Yeah, but I could hear you thinking it, ' Jack said.

'I do have to say you were missed. But not to worry. I covered for you.

I used your old quip about that group of nuns you've been expecting. I said they'd come to town for a bowling convention, and you'd stepped out to welcome them.'

'Who was asking for me? '

'Laurie for one, ' Chet said. 'In fact, I was just writing you a note.'

Chet tore off the top page of his tablet and balled up the paper.

Holding the ball between thumb and index finger, he arced it cleanly into the communal wastebasket.

'What was the message? ' Jack demanded.

'I was to tell you that tonight's dinner is at Elio's on Second Avenue at eight-thirty.'

'Eight-thirty! ' Jack commented irritably. 'Why so late? '

'She didn't say. But eight-thirty doesn't sound late to me.'

'It's later than she likes to eat, ' Jack commented. He shook his head.

The mystery kept deepening. He remembered her making the comment that morning about whether she'd be still on her feet that evening, suggesting she anticipated being tired. Why then would she make plans to meet late?

'Well, she didn't seem at all concerned, ' Chet said. 'In fact, she was in a rare, spunky mood if you ask me.'

'Really? ' Jack asked.

'I'd even have to say ebullient.'

'She was the same way this morning.'

'She was so up' I mentioned the possible plan for Thursday evening, ' !g Chet said.

'You mean about the four of us going to the Monet exhibit? ' Chet nodded. 'I hope you don't mind.'

'What was her response? '

'She said she was very appreciative of our thinking of her, but she said she already had plans.'

'She actually used the word appreciative'? '

'A direct quote, ' Chet said. 'I questioned it, too. It seemed so uncharacteristically formal.'

'Who else was looking for me? ' Jack asked. He wanted to get away from talking about Laurie. It was making him even more curiousand anxious.

'Calvin stopped in, ' Chet said. 'I think he'd been to histology and just stopped in because he was on the floor.'

'What did he say? '

'He wanted to remind you that Jefferson's case has to be signed out by Thursday.' Jack made a gesture of dismissal with his hand. 'That's going to be up to the lab, not me.'

'Well, I'm on my way, ' Chet said. He stood up, stretched, and then retrieved his coat from behind the door.

'Let me ask you a question, ' Jack said. 'You've lived in New York longer than I. What's the story with yellow cabs vis-a-vis radio calls?'

'Yellow cabs thrive on people hailing them, ' Chet explained. 'They generally don't do radio calls.

Among the drivers the expression is, you cruise or you lose. They don't want to sit around and wait or drive someplace empty. They have to hustle or they lose money.'

'Why do a lot of them have radios? ' Jack asked.

'They can do radio calls if they want, ' Chet said. 'But it doesn't pay.

Generally the radios just keep them informed of where there's the greatest need, like uptown or downtown or out at the airport. And what areas to stay out of because of traffic congestion, that sort of thing.

' Jack nodded. 'That's what I thought.'

'Why do you ask? ' Chet questioned.

'A cab driver came by the Corinthian Rug Company to pick up Jason Papparis while I was there, '

Jack said with a wry smile.

Chet laughed. 'That's the first time I've heard of a dead man calling for a cab. It makes you wonder from where he placed the call.'

'Or where he wanted the cab to take him.' Chet laughed again in an equally hollow manner.

'The driver gave me the number of the dispatcher, ' Jack said. 'I called them to see if Jason was a frequent customer. I thought that if he was, then maybe the cab company might be a source of information about the last time the man went to his Oueens warehouse.'

'What did they say? '

'They were not helpful, ' Jack said. 'They wouldn't even tell me when Jason Papparis had called to set up the pickup. They just said they don't give out any information on their drivers or their clients.'

'That's being nice and helpful, ' Chet said. 'It could be subpoenaed, suppose.'

'I can't imagine it would be worth it, ' Jack said.

'It's still curious, ' Chet said. 'If someone calls for a cab in New York City, it's generally not a yellow cab that responds.'

'I'll tell you something even more curious, ' Jack said. 'The taxi driver was Russian and he'd grown up in Sverdlovsk.'

'Sverdlovsk! ' Chet exclaimed. 'That's the Soviet town that had the anthrax bio-weapons accident you pointed out to me in Harrison's textbook of medicine! '

'Can you believe it? ' Jack asked. 'I mean that's a coincidence.'

'Only in New York, ' Chet said. 'I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, because anything and everything happens here.'

'This guy even knew about anthrax, ' Jack said.

'No kidding? '