“You’re only piling up demerits, Cor.”
“Fuck the demerits!”
Carmine watched him go, then got into his Fairlane and drove off toward the shoreline of Busquash Bay, where his list said Nick and Delia were searching on the far side of the peninsula from the Inlet and getting close to the neighboring district of Millstone, home to Delia.
He found them walking along the rocks at the base of the low Busquash cliffs, and paused to take in the sight before they knew he was in the offing. Nick had changed into shorts, a tee shirt and tennis shoes, but Delia possessed no leisure apparel in her lavish wardrobe. She was paddling along bare-legged, her miniskirt hitched up a few inches, something like a multihued crab with two pallid rear legs; her dress was marbled in bright green, orange, cyclamen and ultramarine blue.
“Hi!” he yelled. “It’s lunch time, see you in the Lobster Pot-Nick, you’re okay dressed like that!”
“What on earth do you hope to find literally foot-deep in water?” he asked when they were settled in a booth.
“Old gun emplacements,” said Delia.
“They went years ago, Deels.”
“You’d be surprised. How many have we found, Nick?”
“Four so far, east of the Carew-East Holloman boundary. Ben Cohen and his team found nine in East Holloman, on the point, mostly. The guns are all gone, the emplacements are cunning,” Nick said. “I guess no one sees them, so no one bothers about them.”
“The things you learn!” Carmine said.
Nick and Delia were ravenous, and made short work of their lobster rolls; Carmine let them eat in peace. Over coffee he broached the reason for seeking them out.
“Patsy says you know something about the Dodo.”
“No, about the kidnap,” Nick said, lighting a cigarette and inhaling luxuriously. “Tell the man, Delia.”
“We think we found the spot where the kidnappers jumped Kurt-not really important, as it offers no clues of help, but interesting. We can show you if you like.”
One hand waving for the check, Carmine looked eager. Nick and Delia piled into their unmarked and Carmine ranged his Fairlane behind them, forcing himself to a sedate pace as the two cars headed for Persimmon Street in Carew. There Nick and Delia pulled into the kerb, Carmine following suit. Once he joined them Delia pointed to the intersection with Spruce Street. Curzon Close was clearly visible two hundred yards away.
“It was here, on this corner,” Nick said. “See the skid marks? I checked, the tires are Michelin and the right size for the Porsche. Von Fahlendorf’s a good driver, he came out of the skid slowly, and left us some pattern. See here? Glass from a Porsche parking light, forensics told us. And see this? It’s blood, the same type as Kurt’s.”
“Look at these bushes,” said Delia, leading Carmine over to the corner house, where tall smoke bushes grew along the edge of the sidewalk. “They pounced when he got out of his car, and he must have reeled before he lost consciousness. Someone landed heavily in the bushes. We took photos of everything.”
“Why haven’t you mentioned this?” Carmine asked.
“Since we’re looking for him, we couldn’t see a good reason why,” said Delia. “We dealt with the forensics in case it was ever needed in the future-you had enough on your plate, boss, when this blew up.”
“How could the kidnappers stage their abduction between ten and ten-thirty on a busy street in Carew?”
“Persimmon and this side of Spruce are concealed and dampened by trees,” Nick said. “All they needed were a couple of minutes.”
“But the collision?”
“Was staged, we think. Someone stepped out in front of Kurt, he braked in a well driven skid, and when he got out of the car, they jumped him. The blood is his, whether from a head blow or the finger amputation, who knows?”
“Well done,” said Carmine. “Kurt was loaded into their car, one of the two drove the Porsche, and they accomplished whatever they had to do in two and a half hours. By one, both of them were putting the Porsche in Kurt’s garage. All they needed to do then was walk around the corner to their own vehicle. A pity Gordie Warburton went back to bed.”
“It looks like two kidnappers to me,” said Nick.
“And to me,” said Carmine. “The gall! Whoever they are, they have superb confidence in themselves.”
Mention of Gordon Warburton prompted Carmine to go and see Amanda Warburton, who was in her shop and looking well.
“I continue to enjoy a trouble-free existence,” she said.
“Did you get a museum expert to look at the glass teddy bear, Miss Warburton?”
“No,” she said, and laughed. “Even if he is as valuable as you say, Captain, he’s as much a fixture in my window as Frankie and Winston. People don’t believe that he’s priceless.”
“Business is good?”
“Very good.”
“And the twins? How are you getting on with them?”
“What a shock when they turned up! I don’t have any idea why they moved to Holloman and then didn’t tell me, except that it’s not money, I gather.” She smiled. “To answer your question, I’m on good terms with them. Perhaps they’re not ideal nephews, but now they’ve confessed that they’re down the road in Carew, they are behaving delightfully. I’ve decided to leave them in my will as my heirs, which solved a dilemma.”
He concealed his alarm. “You didn’t tell them, I hope?”
“No, Captain, I won’t do that. Let it come as a surprise-oh, thirty years from now.”
“Take care of yourself.”
“I do, honestly.” Her eyelids dropped, she looked a little inscrutable. “Hank Murray is a great help to me.”
He left carrying an image of her pretty, smiling face, and decided to see Hank Murray before he left the Busquash Mall.
Hank was dressed casually in jeans and an open-necked shirt; Carmine caught a glimpse of a sparsely hairy chest, and decided that if he himself were to wear a chest toupee, it would sport better hair than Hank Murray’s! Hank’s chest hair, he concluded, was the real thing.
“You look as if you’re going on a picnic,” he said.
Hank grinned. “No, Captain. I’ve been out searching for Professor von Fahlendorf. Captain Vasquez roped in quite a few local men to comb the vacant lots and houses of Carew. Mark Sugarman, Mason Novak and I all volunteered. Kurt was a friend.”
“How’s Miss Warburton?”
“She’s well.” Hank went red. “I see her most evenings-just dinner and a board game or cards. She and Marcia Boyce don’t have many friends, which I guess is the fate of single women working every day. It’s especially hard for Amanda, working weekends. As Tuesday is the slackest day, we both take it off, and go somewhere.”
“That’s good. Have you met the twins?”
“Pah! What poseurs!”
“Interesting word, poseur. If they present as that, what do you think they are underneath?”
“Something creepy, Captain. Or slimy-words like that. Amanda was in two minds about them, but of late she seems to be coming down on their side. They’ve managed to impress her.”
“Well, they’re blood kin after all. Maybe they’re late bloomers.” Carmine went to the door. “Keep in touch if you have any worries, Mr. Murray.”
“Any news about the bank robbery?”
Carmine shrugged, “Not a thing,” he said.
And more than that he couldn’t do.
Now it was off into Dodo territory. Mark Sugarman would probably be home.
Mark Sugarman was. He looked tired, and not a lot had gone on at the drawing board.
“Searching for Kurt?” Carmine asked.
“Yes, but also walking, Captain. If the Dodo strikes within his usual three weeks, we’re running out of time. October 15 means he’s due to pounce up to and including the presidential elections. A lot more people vote in presidential years.”
“I’m beginning to realize that.”
