Speaking in Tongues Page 8

  "Nope," said his partner, who resembled him to an eerie degree. He stepped into the school proper and disappeared.

  "What we're concerned about is this car. A man seemed to be following her."

  "A car. Following her." The young man was skeptical.

  Bett took over. "Around the school yard. This past week."

  Tate: "We were wondering if anybody might've reported it."

  The man's face eased into that put-upon look security guards are very good at. Maybe they're resentful that they're not full-fledged cops and could carry guns. And use them.

  "Are the police involved?" the man asked.

  "Somewhat."

  "Hm." Trying to figure that one out.

  "What happens if somebody sees something unusual? Is there any procedure for that?"

  "The Bust-er Book," the guard said.

  Bett asked, "The . . . uh?"

  "Bust-er. He's a dog. I mean, a cartoon dog. But it's like 'Bust' as in get busted. Arrested. Then a dash, then e-r. If the kids see something suspicious they come tell us and we write it down in the Bust-er Book and then there's a record of it for the police. If anything, you know, happens."

  Tate recalled what Amy'd said. "It was on Tuesday. Out in the parking lot by the sports field. Could you take a look?"

  "Oh, we can't let you see it," the guard said.

  "I'm sorry?"

  "Parents don't have, you know, access to it. Only the administration and police. That's the rule."

  "That's it right there?"

  The guard turned around and glanced at the blue binder with the words "Bust-er" on the spine and a cartoon effigy of a dog wearing a Sherlock Holmes deerstalker hat. "Yes sir."

  "If you don't mind . . . See, our daughter's missing. As I was saying. Could you take a look?"

  "Just have the police give us a call."

  "Well, she's not officially a missing person."

  "I don't have any leeway, sir. You understand." The guard's lean face crinkled. His still eyes looked Tate up and down and his muscular hand caressed his ebony billy club. He was everything Tate hated about northern Virginia. Snide and sullen, this young man would see nothing wrong with a tap on the wife's chin or a belt on his kids' butts to keep the family in line. He was master of the house; everyone did as he commanded. And never ask his opinion about the Mideastern and Asian immigrants settling in Fairfax because he'll tell you in no uncertain terms.

  Tate looked at Bett. Her eyebrows were raised as if she were asking: Why was Tate hesitating? After all, he was the silver-tongued devil. He could talk anybody into anything. ("Resolved: The Watergate break-in was justifiable as a means to a valid end." Lifelong Democrat, grandson of a lifelong Democrat, Tate had leapt at the chance to take the pro side of the debate and argue that irreverent position--for the pure joy of going up against overwhelming odds. He'd won, to the Judge's shock and lasting amusement.) "Officer," Tate began, thinking of the rhetorical tricks in his arsenal, the logic, the skills at persuasion. Ratiocination. He paused, then walked to the door and motioned the guard to follow.

  The lean man walked slowly enough to let Tate know that nobody on earth was going to make him do a single thing he didn't want to do.

  Tate, standing in the doorway, looked out over the school yard. "What do you see there?"

  The guard hesitated uncertainly. He'd be thinking, What kinda question's that? I see trees, I see cars, I see fences, I see clouds.

  Tate waited just the right amount of time and said, "I see a lot of young people."

  "Um." Well, what the hell else're you gonna see on a school yard?

  "And those young people rely on us adults for everything. They rely on us for food, for shelter, for schooling, and you know what else?"

  Video games, running shoes, Legos? What's this clown up to?

  "They rely on us for their safety. That's what you're doing here, right? It's the reason they hired a big, strong guy like you. A man who's got balls, who's not afraid to mix it up with somebody."

  "I dunno. I guess."

  "Well, my daughter's relying on me for her safety. She needs me to find out where she is. Maybe she's in trouble, maybe she isn't. Hey, let's take an example: You see some tough big kids talking to a little kid. Maybe they're just buddies, fooling around. Or maybe they're trying to sell him some pot or steal his lunch money. You'd go and find out, right?"

  "I would. Sure."

  "That's all I'm doing with my daughter. Trying to find out if she's okay. And going through that book would sure be a big help."

  The guard nodded.

  "Well?" Tate asked expectantly.

  "Rules is rules. Can't be done. Have a state trooper or a county officer stop by. I'll be happy to help."

  Tate sighed. He glanced at Bett, who said icily, "Let's go, Tate. Nothing more to be accomplished here."

  As they walked toward the car, the guard called, "Sir?"

  Tate turned.

  "That was a good try, though. Kids and safety and everything. I almost bought it." He picked up a magazine on customized pickup trucks and sat down.

  Tate and Bett continued to the car then climbed in and drove out of the lot.

  Neither of them could contain the laughter for long. They both roared. Finally Bett gasped and said, "That was the biggest load of hogwash I ever heard. 'It's the reason they hired a big, strong guy like you.' You sounded like you were trying to pick him up."

  Wiping tears from his eyes, Tate controlled his laughing. "That was some pretty good double-teaming."

  Bett reached under her blouse and pulled out the twenty or thirty sheets of notebook paper she'd ripped from the Bust-er Book while Tate had distracted the guard with his absurd argument. "I figured I better leave the notebook itself." She muttered, "The Bust-er Book? The Bust-er Book? Do people really take that stuff seriously?"

  Tate drove about three blocks and pulled over to the curb.

  "Okay," she said, "Tuesday . . . Tuesday." Flipping through the pages. "If the storm trooper back there's the one who keeps the book he's got handwriting like a sissy. Okay, Tuesday . . ." She nodded then read: " 'Two students reported a gray car, no school parking permit, parked on Sideburn Road. Single driver. Drove off without picking up student.' "

  "A gray car. Not much to go on. Anything else?"

  "Not then. But Amy said Megan'd been thinking she'd been followed for a while." Bett flipped back through the pages. Her perfect eyebrow rose in a delicate arc. "Listen. A week ago. 'M. McCall (Green Team)'--that's her class section at school--'reported gray car appeared to be following her. Security guard Gibson took report. Did not personally witness incident. Checked but no car seen. Subject did not know tag or make of vehicle.' " Bett looked at her ex-husband. "Why didn't she tell me about it, Tate? Why?"

  Tate shrugged. He asked, "Any description of the driver?"

  "None, no."

  "What kind of car did her boyfriend drive?"

  "White . . . I think a Toyota."

  "He could've borrowed one to follow her," Tate mused.

  "Could have, sure."

  More questions than answers.

  Tate stared at the turbulent clouds overhead. The sun tried to break through but a line of thick gray rolled over the sky heading eastward. "We'll come back and talk to Eckhard later," he said. "Let's go to Leesburg."

  Chapter Ten

  Joshua LeFevre glanced down at the odometer. He'd driven another twenty miles along I-66 in his battered old Toyota since the last time he'd checked. Which put him about seventy miles from Fairfax.

  Mr. Tibbs, the unflappable police detective within him, had finally figured out where Megan and her therapist lover were going: to the doctor's mountain place. It was now chic for professionals to have vacation homes in the Blue Ridge or in West Virginia, where you could buy a whole mountaintop for a song.

  The rain had stopped and he cranked the sunroof open, listening to the wind hissing through the Yakima bike rack on the roof.

  It was early afternoo
n when he broke through the Shenandoahs and saw the hazy Blue Ridge in front of him. The rolling hills were not evocative gunmetal today, the literature major in him thought, but were tinted with the green frost of spring growth. Recalling that he and Megan had talked about a bike tour along Skyline Drive, which crested the ridge, later in the spring.

  Without the rain LeFevre could see more clearly now and he realized that only the doctor was visible in the car. Where was Megan? Taking a nap? Wait . . . Was her head resting in his lap?

  He was considering this appalling thought, distracted and angry, when the Mercedes got away from him.

  Never would have happened to Sidney Poitier.

  Damn . . .

  The Merce had pulled out to pass a semi and he'd followed. But as soon as the big gray car had cleared the cab of the truck the doctor had steered hard to the right and pulled onto the exit ramp as the truck driver laid on his air horn and braked.

  LeFevre's Toyota was caught in the left lane and he couldn't swerve back in time to make the exit.

  His head swiveled and he saw the roof of the Mercedes sink below the level of the highway as it slowed on the ramp.

  LeFevre slammed his fists on the wheel. Tantrums were definitely not Poitier's style but he couldn't help it. He thought about making an illegal U over the median, but he was a black kid with knobby dreads driving through the crucible of the Confederacy; the fewer laws he broke, the better.

  The next exit was a mile down the highway and by the time he'd followed the Mobius strip of ramps and returned to the exit the Mercedes had taken, there was no sign of the big car--only an intersection of three different country roads, any one of which they might have taken.

  And now that he thought about it, the doctor might just have stopped for gas and gotten back onto the interstate, continuing west.

  He closed his eyes in frustration and pressed back hard into the headrest. Metal snapped.

  What the hell'm I doing here?

  The stuff love makes you do, he thought.

  Hate it, hate it, hate it . . .

  LeFevre pulled into the gas station, filled up at the self-service island then walked up to the skinny, sullen attendant with long hair sprouting from under a Valvoline giveaway cap, which was as greasy as his brown strands.

  "How you doing?" Sidney Poitier asked very politely.

  "Okay yourself?" the man muttered.

  "Not bad. Not bad."

  The man stared at LeFevre's hair, which was not exactly modeled on Mr. Poitier's, circa 1967, but was much closer to a rap star's.

  "Helpya?"

  It occurred to LeFevre that even Officer Tibbs, in suit, tie and polished oxfords, wouldn't get a lot of cooperation from a guy like this by asking which way a seventy-thousand-dollar automobile had just gone.

  At least, not without some incentive.

  LeFevre opened his wallet and extracted five twenties. Looked down at them.

  So did the attendant. "That's cash."

  "Yes, it is."

  "You charged your gas. I seen you."

  "I did."

  "Well, whatsitfor?" The grimy hair swung as he nodded at the money.

  "It's for you," LeFevre said in his most carefully crafted queen's English.

  "Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Why's it for me?" The man seemed to sneer.

  "I have a little problem."

  The stubbly face asked, Who cares?

  "I was driving down sixty-six and this Mercedes cut me off, ran me off the road. Nearly killed me." (This had happened to Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night. More or less.) "Did it on purpose. The driver, I mean."

  "Don't say." The man yawned.

  "Front end's all screwed up now. And see what kind of bodywork I'll need?"

  Thank goodness, LeFevre thought. He'd never fixed the damage after he'd scraped the side of the car on a barricade when he'd dropped his mother off at Neiman Marcus in Tysons Corner last month.

  The attendant looked at the car without a splinter of interest.

  "So you want me to lookit the front end?"

  "No, I want the license number of that Mercedes. He came by here five, ten minutes ago. I was hoping he stopped here for gas."

  This had seemed like a good way to break the ice--asking for the license number. It made things official--as if the police were going to get involved. LeFevre believed this trick was definitely something that Sidney Poitier would do.

  "Why'd he run you off the road?" the man asked abruptly.

  Which brought LeFevre up cold.

  "Well, I don't know." LeFevre shrugged. Then he asked, "You know which car I mean?" He remained respectful but asked this firmly. He'd decided not to be too polite. Sidney Poitier had glared at Rod Steiger quite a bit.

  "Maybe."

  "So he stopped here for gas."

  "Nope." The scrawny guy looked at the money. Then he shook his head; his slick grin gave LeFevre an unpleasant glimpse of bad teeth. "Fuck. Why're you bullshittin' me? You don't want that tag number."

  "Um, I--"

  "What you want is to find out where that sumvabitch lives. Am I right?"

  "Well . . ."

  "An' I'll tell you why you want that."

  "Why?"

  " 'Cause he was drivin' his big old Mercedes and he thunk t'himself, Why, here's a black man--only he was thinking the N-word--driving a little shit Jap car and I can cut him off 'cause he don't mean shit to me and he don't got the balls to complain to nobody 'bout it." A faint laugh. "And you don't want no tag number for State Farm Insurance or the po-leece. Fuck. You wanna find him and you wanna beat the shiny crap outta him."

  So, end of story. Well, it was a nice try. LeFevre was about to put the money away and return to his car--before the man called some real-life Rod Steigers--when the attendant shook his head and said, "God bless you."

  "I'm sorry?"

  "That frosts me, what he done. Truly does."

  "I'm sorry?" LeFevre repeated.

  "I mean, I got friends're black. Couple of 'em. And we have a good time together and one of 'em's wife cooks for me and my girlfriend nearly every week."

  "Well, is that right?"

  "Fuck, yeah, that's right." The twenties were suddenly in the man's stained fingers. "I say, more power to you. Find him and wail on him all you want. I know that sumvabitch."

  "The man in the Mercedes?"

  "Yeah."

  "Dr. Hanson, right?"

  "I don't know his name. But I seen him off and on for a spell. He comes and goes. Never stops here--probably thinks my gas ain't good enough--but I seen him. Pisses me off royal, people like him. Moving everybody down the mountain."

  "What do you mean, 'moving down the mountain'?" Sidney Poitier asked politely, smiling now and giving the man plenty of thinking room.

  "See, what happened was, when folk settled here they moved to the top of the Ridge. Naturally, where else? That's the best part. But they couldn't keep the land, most of 'em. Money troubles, you know. Taxes. So they kept selling to the government for the park or to rich folks wanted a weekend place, and families kept moving down the mountain. Now, most everybody's in the valley--most of the honest folk, I mean. Pretty soon there won't be no mountains left 'cept for the rich pricks and the government. 'S what my dad says. Makes sense to me."

  "Where's his place?"

  The skinny young man nodded toward one narrow road.

  "That's the way he goes but I don't know where exactly his house is. Only place I know of up there's the hospital. Been for sale for years. He probably bought it and's gonna put a big fancy house on the land."

  "What hospital?"

  "Loony bin. Closed a while ago."

  "How far is it?"

  "Five miles, give'r take. At the end of Palmer Road yonder." He pointed. "Now, you ain't going to kill him, are you? I'd have some problems with that."

  "No. I really do just want to talk."

  "Uh-huh. Uh-huh." The man squinted then offered his bad-tooth grin again. "You know, you remind me of
that actor."

  "I do?"

  "Yeah. He's a good one. Don't exactly look like him but you sorta hold yourself the same. What's his name? What's his name?"

  LeFevre, grinning himself, answered his question.

  The man blinked and shook his head. "Who the hell's Sidney Poitier?"

  LeFevre said, "Maybe he was before your time."

  "What's that guy's name? I can picture him . . . Kicked the shit out of some ninjas in this movie with Sean Connery. Wait! Snipes . . . Wesley Snipes. That's it. That man can act."

  LeFevre walked to the edge of the tarmac. The smell of gasoline mixed with the scent of spring growth and clayish earth. Palmer Road vanished into a dark shaft of pine and hemlock, winding up into the mountains.

  The young attendant stuffed a strand of slick hair up under his hat. "You stay away from that hospital. I wouldn't go there for any money. Hear stories about it. People sometimes get attacked. By wild dogs or something."

  Or something?

  "Kids find bloody bones sometimes. Probably deer or boar but maybe not."

  LeFevre's anger was turning to concern. Megan, what've you gotten yourself into? "I just follow that road?"

  "Right. Five miles, I'd guess. Keeps to the high ground. Then circles back on itself like a snake."

  "A snake," LeFevre said, absently staring into the murky forest. Thinking of the quote from Dante's Divine Comedy: Halfway through life's journey I came to myself in a dark wood, where the straight way was lost.

  Recalling the story too: the author's guided tour of hell.

  "Listen," the attendant said, startling him, "you stop on your way back, okay? Let me know what happens."

  LeFevre nodded and shook the man's oily hand. He climbed into his car and sped along Palmer Road. In an instant, civilization vanished behind him and the world became black bark, shadows and the waving arms of tattered boughs.

  The things we do for love, LeFevre thought. The things we do for love.

  *

  Aaron Matthews pulled the Mercedes into a grove of trees beside the asphalt and climbed out, looking back over Palmer Road.

  No sign of the white car.

  He was sure he'd tricked the boyfriend just fine when he'd sped off the highway beside the truck. The kid was probably in West Virginia by now and even if he managed to figure out which exit they'd taken and backtracked he'd have no way of knowing which way Matthews had gone into the maze of back roads here. Although Matthews had been coming to the deserted hospital for the past year, ever since he'd brought his son here, he'd made a point of never stopping for gas or food at the service station or grocery store near the exit ramp off I-66. He was sure the local hicks knew nothing about him.