“Do you want my social security number too?! How about my mother’s maiden name?!”
“It was just a question. No harm intended.”
They sat in silence for several minutes. Alvarez still didn’t eat.
“Are you going to eat or should we get back to it.”
Alvarez looked at his burger. “Let’s get out of here.”
They packed up their trays before Beckett lifted the duffel bag over his shoulder. He followed Alvarez to the door. Neither noticed the wallet lying on the floor behind them.
“Lose something?” Molly asked from Corbin’s doorway. Her feet were spread as far apart as her tight skirt would allow, and she tossed an orange back and forth between her hands as if she were juggling.
“Like what?”
“Your roomie, perhaps? Where’s Becks?”
“I don’t know. He’s in high demand today, like a hooker at a cattleman’s association ball.”
“That’s lovely.”
“I thought so.”
Molly drifted toward Beckett’s desk. “It’s funny I haven’t seen him all day.”
“That’s not funny. Wanna hear something funny?”
“What?”
“What do you do with an elephant with three balls?”
“Walk him and pitch to the rhino. Why haven’t I seen him all day?”
“I don’t know, how’s your vision?”
“You know what I think?”
“Does anyone?” Corbin asked.
“I’m thinking he didn’t even come to work today. Did he?”
“That would be quite a surprise to the people who’ve seen him.”
“I’m supposed to take their word for it?”
Corbin chuckled. “You’re right, this could all be some vast conspiracy to give him a day off. What exactly do you think he’s doing if he’s not here?”
“You tell me, you’re his accomplice.”
Beckett and Alvarez stood on the steps of a post office, arguing over the map.
“I’m telling you, we need to go back down this road and over one,” Beckett said, pointing to his right.
“No, you’re wrong. We need to go this way, and over one in that direction,” Alvarez countered, pointing to the left.
“Let me see the map, I’ll show you.”
“I know how to read maps.”
“Apparently, you don’t.”
Alvarez pointed toward a glass building. “That’s the IACC Bank. That’s the direction we need to go.”
“No, that’s the back of the bank.”
“If you’re so sure, why don’t you walk over there? Then you can meet me at the next bank after you realize you’re wrong.”
“Why don’t we ask someone?”
“And ruin that low profile you keep whining about?” Alvarez asked snidely.
“Ok then, let’s keep arguing in the street, because that doesn’t look suspicious.”
“Let’s flip a coin. That’s the best way to solve this.”
Beckett laughed. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard today.”
“All right, how do you want to resolve this?”
Beckett paused to consider. “I’ll flip, you call.”
Alvarez won the toss. “Good. This way.”
“Oh look, there’s a CVS on the way. We can stop and get your valium refilled.”
“Keep it up and we’ll be stopping for bandages.”
Corbin picked up the telephone. It was time to call Beckett’s house. By pure chance, Beckett’s wife was at a parent-teacher conference right now, so Corbin wouldn’t need to pretend to be a solicitor. Instead, he could let the answering machine record silence. Corbin entered the number from Beckett’s phone card and then Beckett’s home phone number. The machine answered. Corbin placed the receiver on mute and waited until the line disconnected. As far as the phone company records were concerned, Beckett just made his daily call home.
Of all the bank managers Alvarez encountered, he liked none less than this one. This guy was a jerk. He checked and double checked everything, he made photocopies and more photocopies, and he made snide comments throughout. At first, he seemed decent enough, until he learned Alvarez was only depositing $100. From that moment on, the man delighted in taking shots at him. Alvarez even tried to soften him up by suggesting he would deposit a large sum in the coming week, but this just increased the man’s animosity.
“I see” — the man dismissed everything Alvarez said with the phrase “I see” — “We do get a large number of Penn kids in here who have their parents send them money from overseas.”
“It’s my money, not my parents’.”
“I see. Will you be needing checks?”
“Yes, I’d like checks.”
“You do know there is a fee for those checks?” the man added drolly.
Alvarez clenched his fists. “Yes, I understand that,” he said with open hostility.
The man ignored Alvarez’s hostility and continued with his snide tone. “You do realize you can’t write checks for more than you have in the account, correct?”
“I know that too. I’ve had bank accounts before.”
“I see.”
“This is making me very angry, Alex,” the gray-haired woman said to Corbin.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Patricia.”
“I asked you to call me when Evan returned to his desk.”
“And I’ve done that three times now.”
“He’s never been here when I arrived.”
“I can’t help that. I’m not a warden. I don’t control his movements. I notified you as ordered.”
“Alex, it’s important I get this done,” the old woman said sternly. “I want you to find out where he’s at and let me know. I’ll go there and get the file directly from him.”
“I don’t know where he’s at, Pat, and frankly, it’s not my job. If you want to find him, send out your little minions and let them hunt him down.”
As Beckett sat on the park bench, watching the bank, a large number of grade-school children began pouring around the corner and gathering at the bank’s entrance. “What the heck?” Soon a woman appeared. She looked like a teacher. Then another woman appeared, possibly a second teacher. When the flow of children finally stopped, Beckett estimated the herd at fifty head. The two women lined the children up into rows of ten and started them into the bank. “He’s gonna love this.”
Corbin politely informed the well-wisher, the fifth in the last twenty minutes, that he had just missed Beckett. Corbin told the same thing to each of the other well-wishers as well. This one, however, hung on longer than most.
“I thought he might be here. I just got an e-mail from him,” the man in the gray striped suit and ugly orange tie repeated. For being nowhere near his desk all day, “Beckett” sent out a large number of e-mails throughout the day.
“I’ll tell him you dropped by,” Corbin reassured the man, sneaking a peek at his brown shoes and white socks, beneath his too-short suit pants.
“Thank you, Alex. How are you doing? Have you met your new officemate yet?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“He’s a fine fellow. You two should get along quite nicely.”
“So I’ve heard.”
As the well-wisher finally drifted off down the hallway, Molly replaced him at the door. She spent more time in Corbin’s office today than in her own. This time, she stirred a coffee cup.
