A middle-aged lady with dark bobbed hair opened the door. Behind her, in the foyer, were two little kids, staring at us.
Op Nine went Midwestern. “Evening, how are ya? I’m Detective Bruce Givens with the Evanston PD.” He flashed a badge at her. I looked at him. His face had changed again. He didn’t quite look like Op Nine or the face he used for Lord Polmeroy; he looked just like a police detective should look. My opinion might have been influenced by the fact that he just identified himself as one, though. If he had said I’m Bob from Lucky’s Used Cars, I probably would have thought, Yep, that’s Bob.
“Hate to bother you,” he went on. “But I’m wondering if you could tell me if you’ve seen this kid before?” He jerked his head toward me.
The lady squinted at me. “I don’t think so, no.”
“We’ve had a couple calls, some vandalism with the yard decorations. Found him wandering around the Arnold place just now.”
“Agnes’s?” She looked over his shoulder at the dark house across the street.
“That’s right. Says he’s selling magazine subscriptions.”
“Well, I don’t know about that. But Agnes is out of town.”
“He didn’t try to sell you a subscription?”
“No. I’ve never seen this boy before.”
He turned to me. “Thought you said you stopped by this house.”
I shrugged, rolled my eyes, and tried to curl my upper lip like a hoodlum. A prep school hoodlum, judging from my clothes. I didn’t say anything. I was a lot of things, but actor wasn’t one of them.
“That’s what I thought,” Op Nine said. “Okay, let’s call your folks.” He nodded to the lady with the saucer-eyed kids hovering behind her. “Sorry to bother you. Have a good evening.” He took me by the elbow and walked me down the drive.
He stopped at the road, as if he had just thought of something. He turned back toward the house. She was still standing in the doorway, watching us, a faceless silhouette.
“Agnes is out of town, you said?”
“For two weeks. Her son sent her on a cruise.”
“He’s house-sitting, then?”
“No. I think he went with her. Early Christmas present.”
He nodded. “Maybe I’ll just take a look around over there.
Just to make sure everything is okay.”
He turned me back around and marched me across the street to the car.
“She’s watching, Alfred. Get in the back.”
He opened the back door and I slid inside. He got behind the wheel and closed his door.
“What now?” I asked. “She isn’t here.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. This is a subtle game, Alfred. No doubt he has anticipated this move and also anticipated we would understand his anticipation, and therefore would not pursue him here, thus there would be no need to move his mother.”
I thought about it. Then I said, “Huh?”
“Like Poe’s purloined letter, he hides the object in plain sight.”
“Like whose what?” I looked out the window. The neighbor had closed the door, but I thought I saw a shadow in the window next to it.
“Mike took her on a cruise,” I said.
“Unlikely.”