“And if the target happens to pick up his phone?”
“Dead or hissing line.”
“Bugs like that must not be too easy to track down.”
“On the contrary. All you need is an R.F. detector. R.F. — radio frequency.”
“Which you’ve got.”
“Which I’ve got.”
“Can you deactivate I.T.s without removing them?”
“Sure. Is that what you want?”
“For now.”
“Why?”
“It’s a tricky situation.” I explained it to him, in detail. When I was done, his thin lips had a sour, downward pull.
“So what we’re talking about here,” he said, “is one of the same felonies the wiseguy pulled. Illegal trespass.”
“Technically, yes. Morally, no. You have a problem with that?”
“Not if it doesn’t put my ass in a sling. I got mouths to feed.”
“It won’t,” I said. “If Nedra Merchant is alive and well, she’ll thank us for this and authorize you to pull the bugs. Pay you extra for it, too, probably.”
“Suppose she’s not alive and well?”
“Then it’s a moot point. Her only relative is an elderly aunt in Texas and the aunt’s not likely to complain about illegal trespass in a good cause even if she finds out about it. Which she won’t.”
Agonistes sighed. “Let’s get it done.”
He opened up the back of the van and removed a tool kit and his R.F. detector, an instrument about the size and outward appearance of a small black leather suitcase. The woman up the street glanced our way as we crossed to Nedra Merchant’s house, but she wasn’t curious enough or suspicious enough to come down and ask questions. We moved and acted casually, as if we belonged there.
When we were through the gate, Agonistes said, “No talking once we’re inside. Nearest phone first. Kitchen? Living room?”
“Kitchen and family room.”
“Kitchen, then.”
I keyed us in. On the drainboard in the kitchen, Agonistes opened the R.F. detector to reveal a radarlike screen, meters, a set of headphones. He did some fiddling with the equipment, put the headphones on, did some more fiddling. Then he picked up the detector and approached the wall phone, and as soon as he did that the screen and meter needles began to dance. I figured that he was also hearing some kind of tone through the earphones, one that coordinated with the visual register on the screen. The louder the tone, the closer the bug.
There was one behind the plate for the phone jack; he found it in thirty seconds flat, showed it to me when he had the plate off. It looked innocent enough, about the size and shape of a square sugar cube. He did something to deactivate it, replaced the wall plate, and we moved on to the family room.
He found an I.T. in there, too, inside the phone itself. And another in the wall thermostat in the downstairs hallway, halfway between Nedra Merchant’s bedroom and office; that bug evidently drew its power from the wires serving the thermostat. There were two bugs in the bedroom — Cahill making certain he heard everything that went on in there. One was hidden in the extension phone’s base unit. The other had been mounted inside the wall separating the bedroom from her private bath; it was behind the light switch, dangling from a wire down inside the studs.
The last bug was in her office, again inside the telephone. Agonistes swept the storage room, the spare bedroom, the balconies, the garage, without finding any more. The whole operation took slightly more than an hour and a half.
He closed up his equipment and we went out and I closed up the house. I asked him then, “Were all the bugs fully operational?”
“Yep. Your wiseguy knew what he was doing. Not the best electronics, but a professional job of setting up. Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s done some bug work for cash, here and there.”
We went across the street to the van. The fact that the I.T.s still worked, I was thinking, explained how Cahill had found out Nedra was missing. Runyon was the type to walk around the house talking to himself; or to sit in front of his shrine and hold a conversation with Nedra’s photograph. Cahill was no mental giant, but he could put two and two together. The only problem was, he’d factored in Runyon spending so much time alone in Nedra’s house and come up with the wrong equation.
I said, “Now we go to my client’s place. Don’t mention what we found here. As far as the Runyons are concerned, you’ve never even heard of Nedra Merchant.”
“Why? The illegal trespass?”
“Yeah. If there are bugs at the Runyon house, we’re all going down to the Hall of Justice to make a complaint against the wiseguy. You included, as the bug expert. I didn’t tell my client and her son about the bugs here, because they might let something slip to the authorities. Then we’d be compromised and maybe the case against the wiseguy would be too.”
Agonistes rolled his eyes. “First an illegal trespass, then a trip to the cop house. You got any more surprises for me?”
“No.”
“Better not have. And I’d better not be hung up at the Hall all evening. I promised to take Jean to the movies.”
“You won’t be.”
“How about you?” Agonistes asked. He was inside the van by this time, putting his equipment away in specially built and cushioned compartments. “You and your lady got plans for tonight?”
“No,” I said. “No plans.”
“Don’t tell me you and Kerry sit home like old married folks on Saturday nights? Relationships get stale that way, you know—”
“The hell with that, George,” I said too sharply.
“...What’d I say?”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“You are still with Kerry?”
“Sure I am. Why do you ask that?”
“No reason. I just wondered.”
“Did I ask you if you’re still with Jean?”
“Hey, I’m sorry if I touched a raw nerve—”
“You didn’t touch any goddamn nerve. Hurry up in there, will you? The sooner we get this operation finished, the sooner we can both go home.”
“Right,” Agonistes said. “Right.”
But the look he gave me was wise and seasoned with pity.
Victor Runyon was up and around when we arrived at his house. Dressed in a pair of slacks and an old sweater. He didn’t seem quite as zombielike today, but he was not any more communicative. He came along docilely enough when I took his arm and prodded him outside with his wife and son to meet Agonistes. He wouldn’t look at anybody but me, though; and his gaze kept sliding off mine as if it were greased. When I told him about the bugs that were probably infesting his home he didn’t react, didn’t have anything to say. It was as if he’d lost the capacity for shock or anger. As if his obsessive love for Nedra Merchant had grown so enormous inside him it had destroyed the roots of all normal emotion.
Agonistes went inside with Matt to start the sweep. I gestured to Kay Runyon to go along, too, because I wanted to talk to her husband alone.
I said to Runyon, “If Agonistes finds listening devices inside — and he will — your wife is going to make a formal complaint against Eddie Cahill. Right away, this afternoon. Matt’s a witness; he’s going along too.”
“Did you tell them to do that?”
“I didn’t tell them to do anything. It’s their decision.”
“And you all think I should go too.”
“Felony assault is a bigger crime than illegal trespass and eavesdropping. You press charges for that and it’ll ensure Cahill is arrested, tried, convicted, and sent back to prison where he belongs.”
Runyon stared out at the empty street. “You don’t need me.”
“I don’t, no, but your family does.”
“No,” he said. “They’d be better off without me.”
“If that’s what you think, you’re a bigger damn fool than I thought. They need you, man. In the worst way.”