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"I may be through at ten, ten-thirty, and I may not be through until five or six."
"Matt, it would be kinder, if you'd rather break this off, for you to come out and say so."
"There is nothing I would rather do than come out there right now," Matt said. "Don't be silly."
"You mean that, or you're being polite?"
"Of course, I mean it."
"Will you call me, please, when you know something?"
"As soon as I find out."
"I bought steaks yesterday," Evelyn said. "I thought you'd like a steak."
Then she hung up.
You bought steaks, and then you went home and started calling me, apparently every half hour. Jesus!
Why the hell didn't you take the out she gave you?
He put the handset in its cradle, and turned away from the table. The phone rang again.
Jesus, now what does she want?
"Hello."
"I just wanted to make sure you were out of bed," Peter Wohl said. "O'Mara should be there any minute."
"He's here now. We were just about to leave."
"No suggestion that either one of you is unreliable," Wohl said. " But things happen, and I didn't want the Secret Service standing around 30^th Street feeling unloved."
"You want me to kiss him when he gets off the train?"
"That would be nice," Wohl said, and hung up.
Matt hung up again and looked at O'Mara.
"That was the boss. He wanted to be sure I was out of bed."
****
There are those that feel that Philadelphia's 30^th Street Station is one of the world's most attractive railroad stations. It was built before World War II when the Pennsylvania Railroad was growing richer by the day, and the airplane was regarded as a novelty, not a threat for passenger business. And even after the airplane had killed the long-distance railroad passenger business in other areas, along the New York-Washington corridor, going by train remained quicker and more convenient.
There were a lot of people going in and out of the doors at the west exit of 30^th Street Station when Tom O'Mara pulled up in a NO STANDING ZONE.
"If a white hat tries to run you off," Matt said. "Tell him you're waiting for Chief Coughlin."
"Chief Coughlin?" O'Mara asked.
"Everybody's afraid of Chief Coughlin," Matt said as he opened the door and got out.
He had almost reached the doors to the main waiting room when a voice called out, "Detective Payne?"
He turned and saw a Highway Patrol sergeant walking up to him. He was a good-looking young Irishman, and Matt now recalled seeing him with Pekach, but he couldn't come up with a name.
"Jerry O'Dowd," the sergeant said, putting out his hand. "I work for Captain Pekach."
