Hotline to Murder (34 page)

“Well, maybe we can park a few blocks away
and walk to it.”

“If he’s there, he’ll see us. It’s still
daylight.”

True. But Tony was running out of ideas.

“Can we rent a car?” Shahla asked.

“There isn’t time. By the time we drove to a
rental agency, did the paperwork, drove back…”

“Okay, what
are
we going to do? Call
the cops?”

“The question is, what does Nathan do when
he spots a police car? Stab Tina, figuring he’s going to be taken
up to heaven even if he isn’t at the exact right spot at
midnight?”

“Yeah, too risky. He’s unpredictable. What
else can we do?”

What, indeed? He certainly wasn’t going to let
Shahla meet Nathan alone. They exited from the park and started
driving in the direction of the rendezvous, still discussing the
issue. Soon they were going slowly through a residential
neighborhood. A couple of hundred feet ahead of them a man came out
of his house and walked toward a pickup truck parked in the
driveway.

“Change cars with that man,” Shahla said
suddenly.

“You’re kidding.”

“I’m not. Stop, Tony.”

“He’s….” Tony hesitated.

“He’s what? Black? African-American. So
what? You’re white and I’m mixed and we get along. It’s all one
world, remember?”

He couldn’t do it. He drove past the
driveway. Then he slammed on his brakes. He shoved the gearshift
into reverse and backed up, stopping in front of the driveway. He
saw the man, poised to climb into his truck, looking at him
curiously. Probably thought he needed directions.

Tony got out of the car and walked around
the front of it. How did one start? “Hi,” he said to the man. That
was inadequate. “Uh, I was wondering if you’d like to change cars
for a few hours.”

The man looked past him to the Porsche. If
it had been an old VW beetle, the answer would have been obvious.
But he looked interested.

“What’s the deal; is it hot?” he asked.

“No, no. I’ve got the registration inside.
I’ll show you.”

“That’s okay,” the man said, as Tony took a
step back toward his car. “But I mean, are you on the level?”

“Yeah.” He owed the man a fuller
explanation. “We’re trying to find a guy, but if he sees my car,
he’ll bolt.”

“I see.” The man smiled. “I’ve always wanted
to drive a Porsche. I’m leaving for work. I won’t be back until
morning. And I generally sleep until noon.”

“That’s okay. We can change back tomorrow
afternoon. Do you know how to drive a stick?”

“This is a stick.” The man indicated the
truck. “If you want to do it, I’m okay with it.”

Shahla was getting out of the Porsche.
“Bring the phone and the map book,” Tony told her. “And our
sweatshirts.” He walked up to the man and said, “I’m Tony.”

“Richard.”

They shook hands. Shahla came up the
driveway.

“This is Shahla, my, uh…friend.”

They exchanged pleasantries. Tony and the
man exchanged keys. And phone numbers. The man reached into the
truck and pulled out a metal box.

“Tools,” he said.

He glanced at the bed of the pickup. It
contained a coiled rope, a white tarpaulin and some other
things.

“Nothing there I can’t live without for one
night,” he said. “Okay. It’s all yours.”

He strode down the driveway and got into the
Porsche. Tony watched apprehensively as he started it and drove
away, waving as he went. He accelerated slowly, shifted smoothly,
and seemed to be a good driver. Tony and Shahla climbed into the
truck. It was somewhat messy inside, but appeared to be drivable.
It was quite new. It had a remote for locking and unlocking the
doors.

“You need to find a better way to introduce
me,” Shahla said as he backed down the driveway. “‘My, uh…friend’
doesn’t cut it.”

“Sorry. I was going to introduce you as my
sister, but then I thought there was no reason to lie.”

“Just ‘friend’ is fine. It’s the hesitation
that hurts. We are friends, aren’t we? We’ll still be friends when
this is all over, won’t we?”

“Of course.” Of course. Tony concentrated on
getting to the intersection Nathan had named. Shahla watched the
map and gave him directions. They approached from the south. Nathan
had said the southeast corner. Tony stopped the truck a hundred
yards from the corner. Nathan’s car wasn’t there. They were on a
residential street with some vacant lots. The corner lot was
vacant. Traffic was light. Nobody was outside.

Tony said, “I know you haven’t driven a
stick-shift before, but you’re going to have to drive this from
here to the corner. You can do it in first gear. I’ll talk you
through it.”

“Where are you going to be?”

“On the floor in front of your seat. In
fact, let’s trade places right now.”

They managed the switch with some
jostling.

“We need a plan that protects your safety,”
Tony said. He was getting more and more apprehensive as the meeting
time approached. “I will hide when Nathan comes into view. When he
parks, drive up until you’re behind him, but not too close. We want
to be able to pull out fast if we have to. Leave the engine running
and the door open when you get out. I hope to hell we’re right in
thinking that he doesn’t have a gun.”

“Tina only mentioned a knife.”

“All right, but stay behind his car. Under
no circumstances are you to get in the car. Do you understand that?
If he starts to get out of the car, you immediately get back in the
truck.”

“But we’ve got to get Tina out.”

“Tell him that Tina has to get out before
you get in. But as soon as Tina is out, you yell for me, and I’ll
get out of the truck. Then both of you hightail it to the
truck.”

“What if he comes at you with his
knife?”

Tony had been rummaging in the glove
compartment of the truck. He pulled out a box cutter. “I’ll use
this. It’s what the terrorists used on 9/11.”

“It won’t do any good against a knife.”

“Let’s see what else we’ve got.” There were
some items behind the seats. Tony found a large flashlight and a
crowbar, among other things. “I’ll use the crowbar as a weapon.
Maybe I should get out of the truck when you do.”

“But seeing you will be like seeing the
police for him. He might kill Tina before you can do anything.”

There was no safe way to do this. The
discussion continued. Tony showed Shahla how to use the clutch to
shift into first gear and neutral. That’s all she would have to be
able to do, like the terrorists who had to be able to fly a plane
but not land it. They were talking, and when the car came up behind
them, Tony almost didn’t hear it, even though the truck windows
were wide open.

Shahla glanced in the rearview mirror and
said, “It’s him.”

Tony ducked, hopefully before Nathan could
see him through the rear window of the truck, and hunched down on
the floor in front of the passenger seat. The position was painful
to his knee. He heard the car drive slowly past them.

“Tina is in the front seat,” Shahla said,
sounding relieved, but without moving her lips. “She looks okay. I
think Nathan saw me. He’s stopping. Now he’s parked at the
corner.”

“All right, drive up behind him.” Tony’s
heart was hammering. He wished he could play a more active part in
this. He was afraid for both Shahla and Tina.

Shahla started the engine all right, but
when she shifted into first gear and released the clutch the truck
stalled.

“A little more gas, and then release the
clutch very slowly.”

She tried again. This time the engine roared
as the truck crept forward. Then suddenly it lurched ahead.

“Foot off the gas,” Tony yelled over the
noise of the engine. “Depress the clutch and coast.”

Shahla got the truck under control and
coasted slowly to a stop. She put it in neutral and set the parking
brake. She made a move to open the door.

“Wait,” Tony said, softly. “What’s he
doing?”

“Nothing,” Shahla whispered, speaking like a
ventriloquist. Just sitting in the car.”

“Open the door, but don’t get out yet.”

Shahla did that. After a few seconds, she
carefully stepped down to the pavement, moved around the open door,
and was out of Tony’s sight. He gripped the crowbar hard with one
hand and put his other hand on the handle of the passenger door,
ready to open it and jump out of the truck. He strained his ears,
trying to hear over the idling of the truck engine.

Tony heard engine noise from the other car.
It was starting up. Did Nathan have Shahla? In a panic, he raised
his head and looked through the windshield. No, Shahla was standing
right in front of the truck. Something had spooked Nathan, and he
had taken off.

Tony scrambled over to the driver’s seat and
sat down. Shahla ran around to the passenger side and jumped in.
Tony slammed the gearshift into first gear and took off after the
silver car. It had immediately turned the corner and was heading
back toward La Cienega.

“Call the Bonita Beach Police,” Tony said.
“They can coordinate the chase. We’ve got to try to keep him in
sight and give the police an opportunity to stop him.”

“What about Tina?”

“We’ll have to take the chance. As long as
he’s driving, he won’t hurt her—unless he cracks up. And we won’t
get too close to him”

Shahla got the Bonita Beach station on the
line. She gave reports on Nathan, which were passed on to other
units. “He’s heading north on La Cienega…he’s turned left…he’s
turned left again…he’s disappeared.”

Nathan had lost them again, through a series
of risky but clever left turns. When he was sure Nathan was long
gone, Tony parked the truck, despondent. He and Shahla sat slumped
in their seats, not speaking. A police car rolled by a few minutes
later, but aimlessly, without direction.

CHAPTER 38

“He knows you’re with me,” Shahla finally
said. “I’m sure he won’t speak to me again.”

“It’s time for the faithful to gather,” Tony
said. The sun had set. “Let’s go back to the park. That’s where
we’ll find Nathan.” He said it with more confidence than he felt.
Even if that was the gathering place, had they scared Nathan so
much that he wouldn’t show up?

“It’s all we can do.” Shahla was really in
the dumps.

They took the exit from La Cienega that led
to the park. As they drove toward the entrance, they saw a police
car parked across the road, completely blocking it. Two uniformed
officers, one male and one female, were leaning against the car,
shining flashlights at Tony’s truck to make sure he stopped. He
did.

“Don’t get out,” Tony said to Shahla. He
didn’t want them making any moves that might look suspicious to the
police.

The female officer came to Tony’s window and
said, “The park is closed.”

Tony said, “I’m Tony and this is Shahla.
We’re the ones who spotted the kidnapper a little while ago. He’s
with the group that believes they’re going to ascend into heaven
tonight. We think they might come here.”

“That’s why we’re here,” the officer said.
“We cleared everybody out at sunset. That’s when it closes, anyway.
There’s nobody in the park. If anybody shows up, they have to go
through us.”

“When we were here this afternoon, we found
a couple of gates leading from the ridge into residential areas.
Somebody must have keys to those gates.”

“We have units stationed at all the gates.”
The officer spoke with finality.

“Have you found this Reverend Hodgkins? He’s
the leader of the church group.”

“We know who he is. We’re on the lookout for
him.”

The fact that they hadn’t found him wasn’t
comforting. In fact, Tony felt uncomfortable about the whole
situation, but he had run out of possibilities. If the parishioners
couldn’t come here, where would they go? And more important, what
would Nathan do with Tina?

After more conversation, during which the
officer tried to convince Tony and Shahla that the police had the
situation completely under control and there was nothing the pair
could do to help, Tony turned the truck around and headed back
toward La Cienega.

“Their uniforms look different than those of
the Bonita Beach Police,” Shahla said.

And LAPD, which Tony had initially assumed
they were. The uniforms were tan, not blue. “They must be sheriff’s
deputies,” Tony said. “Which means that the park isn’t within the
city limits of Los Angeles.”

“Police are police. If there is a way to
screw it up, they’ll do it.”

“We won’t stop looking. If we can spot some
of the church people, we might be able to find out what they’re
going to do. And they may lead us to Nathan.”

It was unsatisfactory, but it was their only
hope. Tony followed a route that went around the large park.
Occasionally, a patrol car went by them. He didn’t spend much time
in the residential area north of the park because he felt that was
fruitless. They did investigate some open spaces on the other
sides. Sometimes they had to get out of the truck and walk over the
mostly bare ground, which was populated with the ubiquitous
grasshoppers pumping oil. This took valuable time and didn’t
produce any results.

Periodically, they called the Bonita Beach
Police Station and asked whether Nathan had been spotted. The
answer was always negative. They asked the officer on duty to call
them with any new developments. By 11:00 they were sitting in the
parked truck, waiting for the phone to ring, having run out of
ideas. The gloom inside the cab of the truck was so thick that Tony
was sure he could spread it on bread.

Then Tony’s cell phone did ring. Shahla
grabbed it before Tony could move and said hello. She handed it to
Tony. “It’s Detective Croyden. He wants to speak to you.”

Croyden? He had the day off. “Hello.”

“Schmidt, this is Croyden.”

“I didn’t think you were working today.”