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“At the time, it seemed like a splendid idea,” Peter said.
“That was before he answered the door,” Wells said.
“Surprise! Surprise!” Peter said.
The two men laughed.
“You should have seen his face,” Wells said.
“How long have you been here, in Philadelphia, I mean?” Louise asked.
“Since late this afternoon,” Wells said. “I just missed you at WCBL.”
The telephone rang.
“I wonder who that can be?” Louise said. “Oh, God! My mother?”
“For your sake, Peter, I hope not,” Wells said.
“Jesus!” Wohl said, as Louise went to the telephone.
“Hello?” Louise said to the telephone. Then her face stiffened. “How did you get this number? Who is this?”
Then she offered the telephone to Wohl.
“Lieutenant DelRaye for you, Inspector Wohl,” she said, just a little nastily.
As Wohl got up and crossed the room, Wells asked, “DelRaye? Is that the cop you had trouble with?”
“Yes, indeed,” Louise said.
“This is Peter Wohl,” Wohl said to the telephone. Then he listened, asked a few cryptic questions, then finally said, “Thank you, Lieutenant. If anything else comes up, I’ll either be at this number or at home.”
He hung up.
“‘I’ll either be at this number or at home,’“ Louise parroted. “What did you do, Peter, thumbtack my number, my unlisted number, to the bulletin board?”
“I do
n’t even know your number,” Peter said, just a little sharply. “He must have gotten it from Jason Washington.”
“What did he want?” Louise asked quickly. She had seen her father’s eyebrows raise in surprise to learn that Peter didn’t know her number.
“They found Jerome Nelson’s car,” Wohl said. “Actually, a New Jersey state trooper major found it as he was driving here for Dutch’s wake. In the middle of New Jersey, on a dirt road off U.S. Three Twenty-two.”
“What does that mean?” Wells asked.
“One of Nelson’s cars, a Jaguar, was missing from the garage downstairs,” Peter said. “It’s possible that the doer took it.”
“The ‘doer’?” Wells asked.
“Whoever chopped him up,” Wohl said.
“I love your delicate choice of language,” Louise said. “Really, Peter!”
“Does finding the car mean anything?” Wells asked.
“Only, so far, to reinforce the theory that the doer took it. As opposed to an ordinary, run-of-the-mill car thief,” Wohl said. “The New Jersey State Police sent their mobile crime lab to where they found the car, and, in the morning, they’ll search the area. With a little luck, they may turn up something.”
