But he was nervous about ringing the bell again. She was an uptight character, that was for damn sure. Who knows how she might react, even though he was being real polite, just returning her mug? Even though he’d gotten rid of the chaplain for her? He bounced the mug up and down on his knee and tried to balance out between how cold he was and how offended she might get.
* * *
fu/lfuny filtfl*( 331
s/
]il6 taxi drove on, through Gresham, through Kelso, through Sandy. Route 26 picked up a name, Mount Hood Highway. The grade steepened. The old V-8 dug deep and rumbled upward.
“Who is it?” Harper asked.
“The key is in Poulton’s report from Spokane.”
“It is?”
He nodded. “Big and obvious. But it took me some time to spot it.”
“The UPS thing? We went through all of that.”
He shook his head. “No, before that. The Hertz thing. The rental car.”
A
Jfty/Me&t came back up the basement stairs with a screwdriver in her hand. It was the third-largest she had, about eight inches long, with a blade fine enough to slip between the can and the lid, but broad enough to make an effective lever.
“I think this is the best one,” she said. “You know, for the purpose.”
The visitor looked at it from a distance. “I’m sure it’s fine. As long as you’re comfortable with it. You’ll be using it, not me.”
Scimeca nodded.
“I think it’s good,” she said.
“So where’s your bathroom?”
“Upstairs.”
“Want to show me?”
up ”
Sure.
“Bring the paint,” the visitor said. “And the screwdriver.”
Scimeca went back to the kitchen and picked up the can.
“Do we need the stirring stick too?” she called.
The visitor hesitated. New procedure, needs a. new technique.
“Yes, bring the stirring stick.”
The stick was about twelve inches long, and Scimeca clasped it together with the screwdriver in her left hand. Picked up the can by the handle with her right.
“This way,” she said.
She led the way out of the kitchen and up the stairs. Across the upstairs hallway and into her bedroom. Across the bedroom and into the bathroom.
“This is it,” she said.
332
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