“So did I. How the hell did she get out there?”
“Later. Cilla and Hudson are being held captive in a house on North Garrison street here in Olympia, and there’s about to be trouble of some sort. Can you get your people on it right away?”
“What’s the address?” Wally gave him the address of the blue house. “How many are they?”
“Two I know of, a man and a woman. Loni says there’s a third, another man, but he’s not there now. Hudson has been drugged and is in a room upstairs. They think Cilla is Loni. Or they did. How fast can you make it?”
“Hold on.”
Wally leaned against the side of the booth. Three times. It had to be an SOS.
Krestinski was back in less than a minute. “Thirty minutes. Can you meet them there?”
“Yes.”
“Pilton Bowditch is the agent in charge. Now tell me what in hell’s going on. Sammy Gardner’s on it, but they weren’t to leave Mass. And what’s Hudson and Cilla doing out there anyway?”
“Your job.”
“What? I told Hudson we’d handle it!”
“Have you?”
“Damn it, Wally!...Alright, you’ve made your point. Tell me what’s happened.”
“Hudson decided to check out the Sturgis funeral.”
“I told him...”
“Do you want to hear this?”
“Go ahead.” Wally could almost hear the FBI man grinding his teeth.
“He didn’t return or call so Cilla and I went after him. A woman named Dora Fender picked up the Sturgis ashes and flew out here with them. Hudson followed. We followed him.”
“Are they armed? The people in that house?”
“Unknown. Who are they?”
“Part of the organization I assume. Describe them.”
“I’ve only seen the woman close to. She’s white, forty, five foot four, medium build, hazel eyes, brown hair with a little gray, a mole on the left side of her neck, an oval face with a small mouth. Mean anything to you?”
“Not yet. That all?”
“Yes. I’m going back to the house.”
He hung up and went back to the car.
“Did you get him?”
“Yes.” He started the automobile.
“Are we going back there?”
“We are.” The tires squealed as he put the car in a hard U turn.
“Can’t the FBI handle it?”
“They haven’t so far. Tell me how this Dora came into the picture. She wasn’t assigned by Mr. Krestinski.”
“I never met Mr. Krestinski. Sammy Gardner...stayed with me. Until Dora replaced him. But how could that have happened? She’s not FBI, is she?”
“No.” Carver edged to the side of the road as a vehicle with blinking red lights went past. He could just glimpse the word `Thurston’ on its side. “When you were with your father - you did see him now and then?”
“Oh yes. Before...the troubles, he and Andre were the men in my life.”
“Did the three of you do things together?”
“Well, no. I wanted us to, but they didn’t really get along with each other. I think Daddy tried, he got Andre into clubs and stuff.”
Carter pulled over to the curb. “There’s the house.” He put the car in gear and turned back into the street.
“What’s wrong?”
“No lights.” He parked several houses down. “Stay. FBI people are meeting us here.” He was out the door before Loni could protest. As he walked toward the darkened blue house, a car came slowly down the street. He stopped. The car pulled up next to him, and its headlights went out.
“Wallace Carver?”
“Yes. Are you Bowditch?”
“Pilton Bowditch. That the house?”
“Yes. When I left there were lights on both upstairs and down.”
“Okay. Leave it here, Dan.” The two FBI men, dressed in windbreakers, slacks and tennis shoes, climbed out quietly. No ceiling light came on. Dan went around to the back of the house. Bowditch mounted the front stairs with Carver behind him. The agent knocked. Then again. There were no sounds from within. Carver took the doorknob in his hand. The door swung open. A minute later they knew there was no one there.
Chapter 26
E. Wallace Carver sat thinking. Loni was stretched out on a sofa at angles to his chair. The two FBI men were waiting for lab people and equipment; a preliminary search of the house had revealed nothing. Krestinski took the news without comment, but then asked to speak with Carver.
“I want you two out of it.”
“Who’s going to be in it?”
“Wally, this is a job for professionals, not an…Pilton Bowditch is very capable; he’ll have all our people out there alerted.”
“Performance to date has not inspired confidence.”
“Sammy Gardner was the agent assigned to Loni. He’s missing and may be dead. These people don’t fool around. You and Loni are to...”
Carver had hung up in mid-sentence. He studied the telephone book, then lifted the phone and dialed. Loni watched him curiously. “Have you had any calls to the area around Garrison Street this evening?...I see.” He hung up.
“Who did you call?”
“That vehicle with blinking red lights that passed us on the way over had the name `Thurston’ on the side. Olympia’s in Thurston County. Thurston Ambulance has no record of a visit to this area tonight or any night this week.”
“You think Dora and the others were in it?”
“Hudson was reported to be unconscious. It would be the easiest way to move someone in that state.”
“But where? How do we find them?”
“That is the question, isn’t it.” He found Bowditch in the kitchen and told him his suspicion. The FBI man lifted the phone and gave instructions.
“I’ve put out the word. Why don’t you and the girl take off?”
“We shall. We’ll be at the Westwater. Call us when you hear anything.”
It was seven AM by Carver’s watch. His phone had not rung. He lifted the receiver and dialed Krestinski’s number in Boston. They kept him on hold long enough to start his fingers drumming on the bedside table. Finally he was through.
“You going to hang up on me again?”
“Was I right?”
“They were in that ambulance. Thurston Ambulance checked after your call. One of theirs is missing. The driver’s gone too. The Olympia police have been on the lookout, and the State Police on the highways. We’ll find them. You and Loni get on back here on the first...”
“We can’t get a plane until afternoon. Will you call Bowditch and have him let me look around that house on our way?”
“Why? What do you expect to accomplish that trained investigators can’t?”
“Find the message.”
“You think there’s a message there for you?”
“If there was any way for Cilla to leave one she would have. And if she did it’s not going to be a sheet of paper with instructions on how to find her tacked to the front door.”
Silence, then, “I suppose it can’t hurt. But I want your word you’ll be out of Olympia today.”
“We’ll be on a plane by nightfall.”
Bowditch wasn’t pleased, but Loni and Carver were allowed in. Wally went first to the half bath downstairs, then to the full bath upstairs. Loni found him sitting on the toilet fully clothed.
“Oh! I’m sorry!”
“You had the second bedroom.”
“That’s right.”
Wally led the way there. The room had one double bed, with blue and green bedspread, a night table which held a lamp, a half glass of water and a small box of facial tissue, a bureau painted the same blue as the night stand with empty drawers, on top a small electric alarm clock/radio - the clock had the correct time, the radio thumped rock music when he turned it on - a folded facecloth and a copy of Cosmopolitan, and a dressing table with assorted cosmetics on top. The floor was carpeted and clear of objects. There was an empty wastebasket next to the dressing table. Carver sat on the bed and considered the scene.