The more people you talk to, the more likely it is hell know somebodys looking for him.
Thats the other half, all right. And Ill have to talk to these people without letting them know who I am, because I died in a fire in White Plains, as you may recall.
Now that you mention it, it seems to me I heard something along those lines.
I dont know who else did. It would have been a pretty small story outside of the New York area. But I cant be alive with one person and dead with another. Its too small a world for that. She shrugged. Ill figure something out. Maybe Ill use one of those gizmos you clamp on the phone and it changes your voice. If there was anyplace else to start
Well, there might be.
Oh?
They gave me a phone, he said. The guy with the ears gave it to me when he took me to the motel they picked out for me.
The Laurel Inn, or something like that.
That was it. The Laurel Inn. Gave me this phone, told me to use it to call in. Well, I wasnt going to use that phone any more than I was going to stay in that room.
You were suspicious from the jump.
There are certain precautions that are automatic, and yes, it felt a little hinky, but it was my last job and it was going to feel that way no matter what. I wasnt going to stay at the Laurel Inn, and I wasnt going to make any calls on that phone, and I wasnt even going to carry it around with me, because I figured they could locate it whether or not it was turned on.
They can do that?
My rule of thumb is anybody can do anything. So if they tried to locate the phone, all it would do was lead them to the Laurel Inn, because thats where I left it.
In your room.
Room two-oh-four.
You remember the number. Im impressed, Keller. Its almost as impressive as your trick with the presidents. Who was our fourteenth president, do you happen to remember?
Franklin Pierce.
Thats my boy. Now for the bonus round, what color stamp was he on?
Blue.
Blue, Franklin Pierce, and room two-oh-four. Thats some memory, but
But so what? Dot, its possible that they bought that phone the same way I bought this one, and never made a call with it before Hairy Ears handed it to me.
She was right on it. But if not, she said, you could press a button and get a list of the last eight or ten numbers called.
Right.
And you might even be able to trace it, find out who bought it and when.
Its possible.
Same question, Keller. So what? I never stayed at the Laurel Inn, and maybe the maids there arent in the same league with your average Dutch housewife, but do you really think the phones going to be there after all this time?
It might be.
Seriously?
They gave me a room with a king-size bed, he said.
Which is nice, I suppose, but since you were never going to sleep in it
And when I left the phone, I didnt want anybody using it. So I lifted up the mattress and stuck the thing all the way in the middle of the bed.
Can you imagine the way the cops must have tossed that room?
After a high-profile political assassination? Yes, I think I can.
All they had to do was take the mattress completely off the bed.
They might have done that.
But maybe not?
Maybe not.
Assuming its still there, would it even work? Wouldnt the battery be dead by now?
Most likely.
But I suppose they sell batteries.
Even in the middle of Iowa, he said.
The Laurel Inn. You wouldnt happen to remember their phone number, do you? No, of course not. They never put it on a stamp.
He went over to the window and looked out at the city while she used the phone and spoke first to an information operator, then to the reservations person at the Laurel Inn. She hung up and said, Well, theres a woman whos convinced Im completely out of my mind.
But it worked.
We have to be on
the second floor, because my husband cant bear to have footsteps overhead. And I dont want traffic noise, and Im sensitive to light, and we both need to be near the stairs, but not right on top of the stairs, and I looked at a diagram on the Web and you know what room would suit us perfectly?
It sounds nuts, he agreed, but when you were talking to the clerk, you sounded perfectly reasonable.
Weve got two-oh-four for three nights starting tomorrow. Whats the matter?
Oh, I dont know. That seems like a long time to share a room.
One night would be a long time for the two of us to share a room, Keller. Youre not going to be spending even one night at the Laurel Inn, and neither am I. The only reason to book us in there is so that we can get the key. You didnt happen to keep your key all these months, did you? Along with that phone number?
No, and it wouldnt be good anyway. They use key cards and they reset the system every time they turn the room over.
You have to pity all the guys who spent years learning to pick locks, and woke up one morning in an electronic world. They must feel like linotype operators in the age of computerized type-setting, with these sophisticated skills that turned out to be completely useless. Why are you looking at me like that?