The Final Detail: A Myron Bolitar Novel Read online

  On the other hand, whining about the changes progress imposes upon us and longing for the good ol’ days make for easy pickings. Harder to answer the question of why, if these changes are so bad, do every place and everybody so quickly and warmly welcome them.

  Wilston had the classic New England Christmas card—conservative facade, but it was a college town, the college in question being Wilston College, and was thus liberal—liberal in the way only a college town can be, liberal in the way only the young can be, liberal in the way only the isolated and protected and rose-tinted can be. But that was okay. In fact, that was how it should be.

  But even Wilston was changing. Yes, the old signs of liberalism were there: the tofu sweet shop, the migrant-friendly coffeehouse, the lesbian bookstore, the shop with the black lightbulbs and the pot paraphernalia, the clothing store that sold only ponchos. But the franchises were sneaking in quietly, slowly eating away at the gray stone corners: Dunkin’ Donuts, Angelo’s Sub Shop, Baskin-Robbins, Seattle Coffee.

  Myron started softly singing “Time in New England.”

  Win looked at him. “You realize, of course, that I’m well armed.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who got the song stuck in my head.”

  They sped through town—with Win driving, you only sped—and arrived at the Hamlet Motel, a quasi-dump on Route 9 hovering on the town’s edge. A sign advertised FREE HBO! and the ice machine was so large you could see it from your average space station. Myron checked his watch. Less than two hours to get here. Win parked the Jag.

  “I don’t get it,” Myron said. “Why would Clu stay here?”

  “Free HBO?”

  “More likely because he could pay in cash. That’s why we didn’t see anything about this on his credit cards. But why wouldn’t he want anyone to know he was here?”

  “Such good questions,” Win said. “Perhaps you should go inside and see if you can find some of the answers.”

  They both stepped out of the car. Win noticed a restaurant next door. “I’ll try there,” he said. “You take the desk clerk.”

  Myron nodded. The desk clerk, definitely a college kid on break, sat behind the counter and stared straight ahead at nothing. He could have looked more bored, but only if a qualified physician induced a coma. Myron took a glance around and spotted the computer terminal. This was a good thing.

  “Hello?”

  The kid’s eyes slid toward Myron. “Yeah?”

  “This computer. It keeps track of outgoing calls, right? Even local ones.”

  The kid’s eyes narrowed. “Who wants to know?”

  “I need to see records for all outgoing guest calls from the tenth and eleventh of this month.”

  That got the kid to his feet. “You a cop? Let me see your badge.”

  “I’m not a cop.”

  “Then—”

  “I’ll pay you five hundred dollars for the information.” No sense in playing around here, Myron thought. “No one will ever know.”

  The kid hesitated but not for long. “Hell, even if I get canned, that’s more money than I clear in a month. What dates did you need?”

  Myron told him. The kid punched a few buttons. The printer started cranking. It all fitted on one sheet. Myron handed the kid the money. The kid handed him the sheet. Myron quickly scanned the list.

  Instant bingo.

  He spotted the long-distance call to FJ’s office. It had come from room 117. Myron looked for other calls made from the same room. Clu had called his answering machine at home twice. Okay, good, fine. Now how about something more local? No reason to come up here just to make long-distance calls.

  Bingo again.

  Room 117. The first call on the list. A local number. Myron’s heart started pumping, his breath growing shallow. He was close now. So close. He walked outside. The driveway was gravel. He kicked it around a bit. He took out his phone and was about to dial the number. No. That might be a mistake. He should learn all he could first. If he called, he might tip someone off. Of course, he didn’t know whom he’d tip off or how they’d be tipped off or what they’d be tipped off about. But he didn’t want to screw up now. He had the phone number. Big Cyndi at the office would have a reverse directory. These were easy to come by now. Any software store sold CD-ROMs that had the entire country’s phone books on them or you could visit www.infospace.com on the Web. You plug in a number, it tells you who the number belongs to and where they live. More progress.

  He called Big Cyndi.

  “I was just about to call you, Mr. Bolitar.”

  “Oh?”

  “I have Hester Crimstein on the line. She says that she urgently needs to talk to you.”

  “Okay, put her through in a sec. Big Cyndi?”

  “Yes.”

  “About what you said yesterday. About people staring. I’m sorry if—”

  “No pity, Mr. Bolitar. Remember?”

  “Yes.”

  “Please don’t change a thing, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I mean it.”

  “Put Hester Crimstein through,” he said. “And while I’m on the line, do you know where Esperanza keeps the reverse phone directory CDs?”

  “Yes.”

  “I want you to look up a number for me.” He read it off to her. She repeated it. Then she put Hester Crimstein through.

  “Where are you?” the attorney barked at him.

  “Why do you care?”

  Hester was not pleased. “God damn it, Myron, stop acting like a child. Where are you?”

  “None of your business.”

  “You’re not helping.”

  “What do you want, Hester?”

  “You’re on a cell phone, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Then we don’t know if the line is safe,” she said. “We have to meet right away. I’ll be in my office.”

  “No can do.”

  “Look, do you want to help Esperanza or not?”

  “You know the answer to that.”

  “Then get your ass in here, pronto,” Hester said. “We got a problem, and I think you can help.”

  “What kind of problem?”

  “Not on the phone. I’ll be waiting for you.”

  “It’ll take me some time,” Myron said.

  Silence.

  “Why will it take some time, Myron?”

  “It just will.”

  “It’s almost noon,” she said. “When can I expect you?”

  “Not until at least six.”

  “That’s too late.”

  “Sorry.”

  She sighed. “Myron, get here now. Esperanza wants to see you.”

  Myron’s heart did a little flip. “I thought she was in jail.”

  “I just got her released. It’s hush-hush. Get your ass over here, Myron. Get over here now.”

  Myron and Win stood in the Hamlet Motel parking lot.

  “What do you make of it?” Win asked.

  “I don’t like it,” Myron said.

  “How so?”

  “Why is Hester Crimstein so desperate to see me all of a sudden? She’s been trying to get rid of me from the moment I returned. Now I’m the answer to a problem?”

  “It is bizarre,” Win agreed.

  “And not only that, I don’t like this whole hush-hush release for Esperanza.”

  “It happens.”

  “Sure, it happens. But if it did, why hasn’t Esperanza called me? Why is Hester making the call for her?”

  “Why indeed?”

  Myron thought about it. “Do you think she’s involved in all this?”

  “I cannot imagine how,” Win said. Then: “Except that she may have spoken to Bonnie Haid.”

  “So?”

  “So then she may have deduced that we are in Wilston.”

  “And now she urgently wants us to return,” Myron said.

  “Yes.”

  “So she’s trying to get us out of Wilston.”

  “It is a possibility,” Wi
n said.

  “So what is she afraid we’ll find?”

  Win shrugged. “She’s Esperanza’s advocate.”

  “So something detrimental to Esperanza.”

  “Logical,” Win said.

  A couple in their eighties stumbled out of one of the motel rooms. The old man had his arm around the woman’s shoulder. They both looked postsex. At noon. Nice to see. Myron and Win watched them in silence.

  “I pushed too hard last time,” Myron said.

  Win did not reply.

  “You warned me. You told me I didn’t keep my eye on the prize. But I didn’t listen.”

  Win still said nothing.

  “Am I doing the same now?”

  “You are not good at letting things go,” Win said.

  “That’s not an answer.”

  Win frowned. “I’m not some holy wise man on the mount,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers.”

  “I want to know what you think.”

  Win squinted, though the sun was pretty much gone by now. “Last time, you lost sight of your goal,” he said. “Do you know what your goal is this time?”

  Myron thought about it. “Freeing Esperanza,” he said. “And finding the truth.”

  Win smiled. “And if those two are mutually contradictory?”

  “Then I bury the truth.”

  Win nodded. “You seem to have a good handle on the goal.”

  “Should I let it go anyway?” Myron asked.

  Win looked at him. “There’s one other complication.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Lucy Mayor.”

  “I’m not actively looking for her. I’d love to find her, but I don’t expect to.”

  “Still,” Win said, “she is your personal connection into all this.”

  Myron shook his head.

  “The diskette came to you, Myron. You can’t run away from that. You’re not built that way. Somehow you and this missing girl are linked.”

  Silence.

  Myron checked the address and name Big Cyndi had given him. The phone was listed to a Barbara Cromwell at 12 Claremont Road. The name meant nothing to him. “There’s a rental car place down the street,” Myron said. “You go back. Talk to Hester Crimstein. See what you can learn.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m going to check out Barbara Cromwell of Twelve Claremont Road.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Win said.

  “A good one?”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  CHAPTER

  34

  Massachusetts, like Myron’s home state of New Jersey, can quickly turn from big city to full-fledged town to hicksville. That was the case here. Twelve Claremont Road—why the numbers reached twelve when the whole road had only three buildings on it Myron could not say—was an old farmhouse. At least it looked old. The color, probably once a deep red, had faded to a barely visible, watery pastel. The top of the structure curled forward as though suffering from osteoporosis. The front roof overhang had split down the middle, the right lip dipping forward like the mouth of a stroke victim. There were loose boards and major cracks and the grass was tall enough to go on the adult rides at a Six Flags.

  He stopped in front of Barbara Cromwell’s house and debated his approach. He hit the redial button and Big Cyndi answered.

  “Got anything yet?”

  “Not very much, Mr. Bolitar. Barbara Cromwell is thirty-one years old. She was divorced four years ago from a Lawrence Cromwell.”

  “Children?”

  “That’s all I have right now, Mr. Bolitar. I’m terribly sorry.”

  He thanked her and said to keep trying. He looked back at the house. There was a dull, steady thudding in his chest. Thirty-one years old. He reached into his pocket and took out the computer rendering of the aged Lucy Mayor. He stared at it. How old would Lucy be if she were still alive? Twenty-nine, maybe thirty. Close in age, but who cares? He shook the thought away, but it didn’t go easy.

  Now what?

  He turned off the engine. A curtain jumped in an upstairs window. Spotted. No choice now. He opened the door and walked up the drive. It had been paved at one time, but the grass now laid claim to all but a few patches of tar. The side yard had one of those plastic Fisher-Price tree houses with a slide and rope ladder; the loud yellow, blue, and red of the play set shone through the brown grass like gems against black velvet. He reached the door. No bell, so he knocked and waited.

  He could hear house sounds, someone running, someone whispering. A child called out, “Mom!” Someone hushed him.

  Myron heard footsteps, and then a woman said, “Yes?”

  “Ms. Cromwell?”

  “What do you want?”

  “Ms. Cromwell, my name is Myron Bolitar. I’d like to talk to you a moment.”

  “I don’t want to buy anything.”

  “No, ma’am, I’m not selling—”

  “And I don’t accept door-to-door solicitations. You want a donation, you ask by mail.”

  “I’m not here for any of that.”

  Brief silence.

  “Then what do you want?” she said.

  “Ms. Cromwell”—he’d clipped on his most reassuring voice now—“would you mind opening your door?”

  “I’m calling the police.”

  “No, no, please, just wait a second.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I want to ask you about Clu Haid.”

  There was a long pause. The little boy started talking again. The woman hushed him. “I don’t know anybody by that name.”

  “Please open the door, Ms. Cromwell. We need to talk.”

  “Look, mister, I’m friendly with all the cops around here. I say the word, they’ll lock you up for trespassing.”

  “I understand your concerns,” Myron said. “How about if we talk by phone?”

  “Just go away.”

  The little boy started crying.

  “Go away,” she repeated. “Or I’ll call the police.”

  More crying.

  “Okay,” Myron said. “I’m leaving.” Then, figuring what the hey, he shouted, “Does the name Lucy Mayor mean anything to you?”

  The child’s crying was the only reply.

  Myron let loose a sigh and started back to the car. Now what? He hadn’t even been able to see her. Maybe he could poke around the house, try to peek in a window. Oh, that was a great idea. Get arrested for peeping. Or worse, scare a little kid. And she’d call the cops for sure—

  Hold the phone.

  Barbara Cromwell said that she was friendly with the police in town. But so was Myron. In a way. Wilston was the town where Clu had been nabbed on that first drunk driving charge when he was in the minors. Myron had gotten him off with the help of two cops. He scanned the memory banks for names. It didn’t take him long. The arresting officer was named Kobler. Myron didn’t remember his first name. The sheriff was a guy named Ron Lemmon. Lemmon was in his fifties then. He might have retired. But odds were pretty good one of them would still be on the force. They might know something about the mysterious Barbara Cromwell.

  Worth a shot anyway.

  CHAPTER

  35

  One might expect the Wilston police station to be in a dinky little building. Not so. It was in the basement of a tall, fortresslike structure of dark, old brick. The steps down had one of those old bomb shelter signs, the black and yellow triangles still bright in the ominous circle. The image brought back memories of Burnet Hill Elementary School and the old bombing drills, a somewhat intense activity in which children were taught that crouching in a corridor was a suitable defense against a Soviet nuclear blitzkrieg.

  Myron had never been to the station house before. After Clu’s accident he’d met with the two cops in the back booth of a diner on Route 9. The whole episode took less than ten minutes. No one wanted to hurt the up-and-coming superstar. No one wanted to ruin Clu’s promising young career. Dollars changed hands—some for the arresting
officer, some for the sheriff in charge. Donations, they’d called it with a chuckle. Everyone smiled.

  The desk sergeant looked up at Myron when he came in. He was around thirty and, like so many cops nowadays, built as if he spent more time in the weight room than the doughnut shop. His nametag read “Hobert.” “May I help you?”

  “Does Sheriff Lemmon still work here?”

  “No, sorry to say. Ron died, oh, gotta be a year now. Retired about two years before that.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Yeah, cancer. Ate through him like a hungry rat.” Hobert shrugged as if to say, What can you do?

  “How about a guy named Kobler? I think he was a deputy about ten years ago.”

  Hobert’s voice was suddenly tight. “Eddie’s not on the force anymore.”

  “Does he still live in the area?”

  “No. I think he lives in Wyoming. May I ask your name, sir?”

  “Myron Bolitar.”

  “Your name sounds familiar.”

  “I used to play basketball.”

  “Nah, that’s not it. I hate basketball.” He thought a moment, then shook his head. “So why are you asking about two former cops?”

  “They’re sort of old friends.”

  Hobert looked doubtful.

  “I wanted to ask them about someone a client of mine has become involved with.”

  “A client?”

  Myron put on his helpless-puppy-dog smile. He usually used it on old ladies, but hey, waste not, want not. “I’m a sports agent. My job is to look after athletes and, well, make sure they’re not being taken advantage of. So this client of mine has an interest in a lady who lives in town. I just wanted to make sure she’s not a gold digger or anything.”

  Two words: truly lame.

  Hobert said, “What’s her name?”