Page 35 (1/2)

"And it was and it does"

"Right"

"Keller," she said, "you keep this one, you hearon to her"

36

They sat in the car, and he read the phone numbers out loud while she copied theoes ker-blooey," she said "First thing we can do is toss all the numbers with a five-one-five area code You think there’s a chance on earth Al lives in Des Moines?"

"No"

"What about Harry?"

"Harry? Oh, you uy with hair in his ears"

"If you’d rather," she said, "I suppose we could call him Eerie You think he was local?"

"He seemed to know the city He found the Laurel Inn without any trouble"

"So did I, Keller, and the closest I’ve ever been to Des Moines before was thirty thousand feet, and I was in a plane at the tih to recommend the patty melt at the Denny’s"

"So he lives in a city that has a Denny’s That sure narrows it down"

He thought about it "He knew his way around," he said, "but maybe he was just well prepared I don’t think it et the five-one-five numbers If Hairy Ears was local, then he ay down on the totem pole They wouldn’t pick up someone locally and let him know much"

"Point"

"In fact," he said, "if he was local, he’s probably dead"

"Because they’d clean up after themselves"

"If Al would send a team of men to White Plains to kill you and burn your house down--"

"Keller, that was ht"

"But I take your point We’ll concentrate on the out-of-towners"

Thenumber, with three calls to it, had a 702 area code, and turned out to be a Las Vegas tip line for sports bettors Another was a hotel in San Diego Dot said the third tiot coo-wheeeet for her troubles

"The only way to look at it," she said, "is it’s enough of atoo ot one o back to the Laurel Inn and stick this das"

He watched as she dialed, held the phone to her ear, raised her eyebrows as the call went through Someone answered it, and she promptly pressed a button to put the call on speakerphone

"Hello?"

She looked at Keller, and he hand-gestured Coher than her own, she said, "Arnie? You sound like you got a cold"

"You sound like you got a wrong nuerbil"

"Oh, come on, Arnie," she cooed "Be nice You knoho this is?"

The phone clicked

"Arnie doesn’t want to play," she said "Well?"

He nodded It was theup," Dot said "It turns out his name’s not Arnie after all"

"There’s a surprise"

"It’s Marlin Taggert That’s Marlin like the fish, not Marlon like Brando And he lives at seventy-one Belle Mead Lane in Beaverton, Oregon"

"There was an Oregon map in the car"

"This car? Just now?"

"The Sentra"

"You think he left it there?"

"No, how could he? And it wasn’t the car I rented, it was the one I switched plates with at the airport NeverIt’s an actual coincidence"

"And a real interesting one, too, Keller Brightens my whole day"

"Sorry Where’s Beaverton? Is it near anything?"

"Tell you in a second," she said "There you go It’s just outside of Portland"

And just like that they knew his name and where he lived They were in a Kinko’s on Hickman Road, where they’d set her up at a PC for 5 an hour He’d been watching over her shoulder, so he didn’t have to ask how she did it, but that didn’t render the perforle had led her to a site where all you had to do was enter a phone number and it would see if it could find it; once it deter it for 1495 After a quick credit-card transaction, it coughed up the data

"I knew the govern," he said, "but what I didn’t realize was everybody else can, too You’d think he’d have an unlisted nuht there on the screen, at the sa to sell it to ue with the price, can you?"