book. He notes the address of a local Chevrolet car dealership.
“A switch to a Chevy would be fitting. Don’t you think?” he says to his unseen companion. “A kind of tribute to the late Rosalie Sanchez who’d fuck anyone but me. And look where it got her.”
He pays his bill in cash. He has paid all his expenses in cash so far, except for the rented car. He drives to the Chevy dealership and surveys the lot. After a bit, he wanders in and asks about a short-term rental. One or two weeks should do it. “Just to give it a good test drive. Yes, I know it’ll be an expensive rental for two weeks.”
He thanks the salesman, says he’ll think it over, and then drives back to Posner’s neighborhood, but he’s already decided not to do anything with the dealer. Too much information to give up. He doesn’t know how he’ll handle things from now on, yet he isn’t worried.
Henry Stern has come to believe in premonitions. He also appreciates that certain events have fallen into his lap; like the time he happened to show up just as Posner was leaving to drive to the Montauk Overlook. He feels such happenings are preordained and that Posner will at some point lead him to Heidi’s grave. He has already acknowledged to himself that she is gone and that Posner has killed her. Now he must watch the man like a hawk and wait for the mistake. This is why he again sits in his car a block away from Posner’s house.
It’s not the most comfortable place to wait, but he has nowhere else to go. He plans to sleep in his car and at about eleven that night he sees the lights go off in Posner’s house. He waits another fifteen minutes then gets out of his car to stretch. He walks aimlessly up the nearby driveway of an oversized modern house. He is about to turn back when he sees the garage door lock set vertically, in what is usually the open position. He tries it and it opens. He carefully rolls up the door and looks inside. The light from the gibbous moon is more than enough to illuminate a parked car. A white Chevy Malibu no less. A Chevy. Another omen. Not just a coincidence. He tries the connecting door between the garage and house and finds it open. He calls out without response. And then again. Still silence.
Inside the house is all whitewashed walls and bleached wooden floors. He passes through the kitchen and into a living room with empty leather armchairs and sofas.
“Abandoned for the season, are we?” The lack of vocal response confirms the obvious.
“Well not for long.”
The portents are too numerous. His mind works in overdrive and in less than ten minutes his blue Ford rental rests in the large garage alongside the Chevy while he stands at the window of an upstairs bedroom with a clear unfettered view of Posner’s house. He sets his watch alarm for six and falls asleep. That night he doesn’t dream.
CHAPTER 13
Peter Wisdom is about to call Posner to delay their meeting when he finds himself on the receiving end of Posner’s call. At first he thinks Posner might also want a delay, but that’s not the reason for the call. He seems agitated and raises a different issue.
“I am pretty sure someone’s following me. If it’s the police I want you to know your department’s way out of line to try something like that.”
Wisdom barely waits for Posner to finish before he denies it all.
“There is no one from our department following you. Believe me or check with Chief Ferris. There is no interest in following you. All we wanted to do was go over some of your earlier comments about the missing woman. In fact, I was just going to call you to reschedule.”
The last part is, of course, completely true and the denial of interest completely false. He’s used the same line before with potential suspects when he didn’t want to give them a heads-up.
“What makes you think someone’s following you?”
Posner hesitates, and then clears his throat. Just like that, Wisdom’s put him on the defensive.
“There’s this blue car. It’s been following me around for the last few days. I couldn’t see the driver, but I know it’s been following me.”
“When was the last time you saw it?”
“Yesterday morning.”
“Where was this?”
Posner hesitates. Maybe he shouldn’t be bringing this up at all. He’s about to say he isn’t sure, but he knows that sounds too evasive.
“It was on Montauk Highway. I was taking a short drive toward Montauk.”
“Where to?”
“Why is that important?”
“In case someone was following you for a reason. Like they expected you to lead themsomewhere.”
“Oh. I didn’t think of that.”
But of course that is exactly what Posner had thought about when he called Wisdom. And now things were getting messed up. Too much so. He holds the phone away and bites into the air to slow himself down.
“You still there?” asks Wisdom, who wonders why Posner seems to be pulling back.
“Yes. Sorry. I was clearing my throat. Let’s see. I really wasn’t going anywhere special. Just out for a drive. I do that a lot.”
“So where did you first notice the car?”
“I think I saw it in my rearview mirror on the highway. Then when I got into the village and it came closer, I could see it was the same small blue car I’d seen hanging around my house the day before. I stopped and let it go past and I was sure of it.”
“Recognize the driver?”
“No. It went by too fast and I had just stopped.”
“Okay,” Wisdom sighs into the receiver and sips from a small bottle of Poland Springs.
“What can you tell me about the car? New? Size? Make? Whatever you remember.”
“It was small and blue. I think domestic. Kind of shiny so I guess it was new.”
“Anything else?”
“Sorry. That’s all I remember.”
Wisdom draws another breath.
“We’ll look into it. You can be sure. And if you see a police cruiser in your area, it’ll be one of ours just looking around for your friend. Now as long as you’re on the phone, I did want to postpone our meeting. Something came up on our side.”
“Till when?”
“Just for a few days. Let’s shoot for Friday. At about two. I’ll confirm in the morning. Is that okay?”
“It’s okay,” says Posner, but in the back of his mind, he still sees things building up too fast.
Events are closing in on him. Then he remembers that Sara will be out on Friday, and he won’t be alone, but Wisdom has already hung up.
Wisdom can’t hang up the phone fast enough before he calls Bennett, but all he can do is leave a message. He paces, squirms, and chews at a fingernail for twenty minutes until Bennett calls back. Another two minutes to update Bennett. Afterward there is only silence.
“You still there?”
“Yeah. Just looking for something that came in yesterday from NYPD.”
“What’s that?”
“Seems our doctor friend rented another car from Avis. We tracked him through his credit card. Guess what kind of car he took off in?”
“Don’t know the model, but I bet the color was blue.”
“Bingo! And for the record it was a new Ford Focus. Supposed to get good gas mileage. By the way, in about five minutes you should get a color photo of the car courtesy of the Ford PR department.”
“So the doctor is out here somewhere. This could turn into a big problem since he’s already told us he thinks that either Welbrook or Posner are involved in Heidi’s disappearance. Guess Posner was right. I mean, he
“Then it’ll have to wait a bit till we find the good doctor. Time to put out an APB on Stern’s car. It’s quieter
