'Sounds ideal,' said Kathleen, listening intently while the
woman gave more detailed instructions on how to find the
Lehman place.
Avedissian paid and gave the waitress a large tip for her
help. 'You're English aren't you?' she said as they went out
the door. Avedissian wished that she hadn't.
They found the Lehman house without much trouble and
Avedissian was pleased to find that it was well back from the
road. The house itself was a wooden building, three storeys
high and painted white, although it had been some time
since the last painting and large areas were bare where the
surface had flaked off. An old woman they took to be Mrs
Lehman came out to meet them and Avedissian explained
that they wanted a room for a couple of days to break their
journey. They hated staying in the city.
'I feel the same myself,' said Mrs Lehman in a strong
German accent. 'All that noise and fuss.'
They were shown to a bright, airy room on the first floor and were pleased with it. Avedissian paid in advance and
brought in what little they had from the car. It consisted
solely of what Kathleen had been able to grab with one hand
when they left the motel in such a hurry, but they managed to disguise the fact from Mrs Lehman. Kathleen chatted to
her downstairs while Avedissian pretended to carry up their
'luggage'.
‘
The boy doesn't say much,' said Mrs Lehman, noting that
he seemed immune to all her attempts to make a fuss of him.
'He's very shy,' lied Kathleen. There was probably no need
to be evasive but it had become a state of mind.
'We should be safe here,' said Avedissian when they were
alone. Kathleen agreed as they looked out of the window to
the waving fields of corn. It seemed unlikely that either
NORAID
or Innes could find them here. 'When will you go
into the city?' she asked.
'I'll check on the bus situation with the old woman then go
as soon as I can. If we can get it all done today we can lie low
here for a couple of days then make for Chicago and a flight
home.'
'Wherever that is,' said Kathleen ruefully.
Avedissian put his hands on her shoulders and said softly,
'We'll find somewhere and we'll be together. All right?'
Kathleen nodded and said, 'Go ask Mrs Lehman.'
'You have just missed one,’ said the old woman when
Avedissian asked about buses into the city. 'Next one is not for
two hours. It stops at the end of the road.'
Avedissian thanked her and returned upstairs.
'Do you know what I'd like to do?' said Kathleen when
Avedissian told her of the delay. 'Go for a walk. I feel as if I've
been in prison for the last week.'
'We'll all go,’ said Avedissian.
They walked along the dirt road leading from the house to a
local farm, with the sun on their backs and a soft breeze drifting
through the corn. The child, who had continued to cling to
Kathleen at all times up till now, relaxed his grip on her hand
for the first time and skipped a few paces ahead of them.
Kathleen looked at Avedissian and smiled. 'I think he's getting
over it,’ she said.
‘
I’ll get him some toys when I'm in the city this afternoon,’
said Avedissian.
'What's going to happen to him in the long run?' asked
Kathleen.
'It all depends on where he came from,’ replied Avedissian.
'Where could he have come from?'
'My guess must be some kind of home or orphanage. I can't
see any parents being duped into letting their child be used for
something like this, can you?'
'I can't see any home or orphanage doing it either,’ replied
Kathleen.
'Sometimes the situation with children in care is a bureau
cratic mess,’ said Avedissian. The kids get bundled around from one branch of the social services to the next. If, as I
suspect, the boy has no living relatives, he would be a real
problem for them because of his handicap. Being a deaf-mute
would not make him a good bet for adoption.'
'So you think that Bryant exploited some mix-up in the
system?' asked Kathleen.
'Or created it,’ said Avedissian bitterly.
'If it does turn out that he has no relations . . ,’ said
Kathleen uncertainly.
Avedissian could see what was coming. 'Y-e-s?' he said
with a smile.
'Do you think he could possibly
...?'
'Why not?' said Avedissian. 'We're all in the same boat.
Maybe we should stick together.’
Kathleen took Avedissian's arm and hugged it. Avedissian
checked his watch and said, 'We'll have to start back.’
The bus was ten minutes late but Avedissian had been able to
watch it coming for the last five minutes because of the dust
cloud it had created in the distance. He climbed aboard and
paid the driver, who asked him if he was staying at the Lehman
place. Avedissian said that he was and the driver proceeded to
tell him what a fine woman Rosa Lehman was and how she
had two fine boys who had gone East to pursue careers in the
professions. Lawyers, he thought, or maybe one of them was a doctor. He always did get mixed up between the Lehman boys and the Miller boys down in Twin Forks.
'Rosa's boys are both lawyers,’ prompted one of the other
three passengers on the bus. 'It's Johnny Miller who became
the doctor.'
'Thank you, Martha,’ said the driver without turning his
head. 'You staying long?' he asked Avedissian.
'A couple of days.’
'You're English, aren't you?'
'Yes.’
'Don't get too many Englishmen in these parts,’ said the
driver. It had been a cue for Avedissian to say what he was
doing there but Avedissian just looked out of the window
and, to his relief, the driver did not pursue the matter.
The journey took forty minutes and Avedissian stepped
out in the centre of Des Moines in the early afternoon. He
asked the driver about a return bus and was given details of
when and where he could pick one up. 'Have a nice day,’ said
the driver.
'You too,’ said Avedissian.
He found the main branch of the bank he was looking for
without much difficulty, for all the banks seemed to be
clustered together in the heart of the city, and walked in through the impressively tall doors. It was cool inside the main banking hall, thanks to air-conditioning. It was just a
question of approaching the correct window for his purpose.
There seemed to be more than twenty and all were manned.
Seeing that he appeared indecisive, an armed guard
approached Avedissian and asked if he could be of assistance.
The words were polite but the face was stone.
'I want to open an account,’ said Avedissian.
'Number fourteen, at the end,’ said the guard, pointing
with his finger.
Thank you.'
'Welcome.'
As he walked across the floor to window fourteen
Avedissian wondered if he were walking on real marble or
whether it was just a very good imitation. The support
columns in the hall appeared to be made of the same,
endowing the place with an aura of Greek grandeur. A
nation in search of a heritage, he thought, as he smiled at the
lady in the window.
'How may I help you?'
‘
I’d like to open an account.'
'Checking?'
'No, deposit.'
The woman took a form from the collection to her left and
started writing. 'How much would you like to deposit, sir?'
'What's the minimum?'
'A dollar.’
'A dollar,’ said Avedissian.
The woman looked up briefly at him before exercising a
professional control over her features and carrying on with
the paperwork.
Avedissian said, 'Am I right in thinking that all details
relating to this account will be kept confidential?'
'Yes sir
...
your dollar is safe with us.’
Avedissian thought the teller was being impudent until he
saw that she was pointing to the bank's logo. 'Do you have a
branch in London?' he asked.
'London, England?'
'Yes.’
'I'll have to check.’
The woman went to confer with a colleague sitting at a
computer terminal. Avedissian saw the colleague pick up a
blue-covered book and flick through the pages before
nodding and pointing to an entry.
'Yes sir, we do,’ said the teller.
'Is it possible to have an account transferred between here
and England?'
‘
I’ll have to ask again.’ She asked. 'Yes, sir, it's possible.
When the time comes you just fill in the appropriate form
and we will transfer the account.’
'I'd like to fill it in now,’ said Avedissian.
'Now, sir? You want to transfer an account of one dollar?'
'I want to fill in the form just now. I don't want the account
transferred till Friday. I'm expecting a large sum of money.’
The teller brought the appropriate form and Avedissian
completed it. He handed it back saying, ‘Is there anything else
I have to do?'
'No, sir, that's everything.’ The teller handed Avedissian
confirmation of his one dollar deposit and the all-important
account number that he had come to get. 'Have a nice day.’
Avedissian stepped out into the sunshine and felt that
things were going his way. He paused at a news-stand and bought a paper before going to a nearby cafe and ordering
coffee and doughnuts.
The story on page three destroyed his sense of well-being.
His spine tingled as he looked at the photograph of the motel
chalet where a man had been murdered. Police were looking
for an English couple who had made their getaway in a
stolen car. The description and licence number of the car
were given. The worst news was that a gas station cashier had
reported seeing an Englishman driving a car similar to the
description a few hours after the murder. He had been
heading north on the freeway.
Avedissian cursed his luck.
NORAID,
Innes, the police, they
all knew now that he had headed north on leaving Kansas
City. Avedissian read the story again and found some
reassurance in the fact that there was no mention of the
child. The slob at the motel had taken so little interest in them
when they arrived that he had completely overlooked the
fact that Kathleen had not been alone in the background.
That made all the difference between a couple and a family.
There was no description of either him or Kathleen in the
story for the same reason, thought Avedissian.
The fact that the story was on page three also helped. Not
everyone would see it. In fact a murder at a seedy motel in
Kansas City might not have made the papers at all if it had not
been for the fact of the car bomb explosion at the Plaza Hotel
and the apparent murder of several other people. Police
believed that the two events might be linked. The car bomb
story itself had made page one. An Englishman had died and
two Americans, and an unidentified man had been found
murdered in one of the rooms. No theories as to reason or
motive were offered.