I drove down to the gate, unlocked it, drove out, locked it behind me. The morning had been muggy. The afternoon was colder. I drove a black van with big gold crosses on the side. I tried to look pious and preoccupied. The second day of a brand-new year. I tried to hurry, but every time I looked at the speedometer, I was back down to thirty miles an hour. It seemed fast enough.
I found a big gas station near Ukiah. I got change from the office and placed the call to the memorized number.
It rang three times and a hushed voice, male, said, “Hello.”
‘~Was someone… was someone at this number trying to reach Travis McGee?”
“I can try to find out for you.”
‘If you find out they were, I can be reached at this number.” I read it off the pay phone.
“If they were trying to reach you, they’ll call back.”
I had parked the van next to the phone booth. I
The Green Ripper sat where I could hear me ring. At four o’clock the man came out from the station. “Are you okay?”
“I’m waiting for a call.”
“All this time?”
‘Y’m waiting for a call.”
He looked me over carefully. ‘Lou sure you’re all right?”
‘Em fine. I’m fine.”
After that he would come out of me building about every fifteen minutes and stare over at me.
At 6:10 P.M. the phone rang. I moved quickly and shut myself in the booth.
“Hello?”
“McGee?”
“Yes. Are you Max or Take?”
‘~either. But I know what went on.”
“Can you prove that?”
‘If you can mink of a way, maybe I can.”
‘Y was with a friend. He stayed outside. We used a code.”
“Hold on. I saw that in here somewhere. Here it is. The word hat. To mean a weapon. Bring your hat.”
“Okay. I mink somebody better get here. I think Hey better get here fast. I keep kind of slipping off, in a funny way.”
‘~Where are you?”
“Near Ukiah, near an off ramp, near a Shell station. Ukiah, California.”
‘because you call, we should come?”
“I hope you’re recording this, pal. Because I don’t feel like going over it if you don’t believe it. Brother Titus is dead. And Brother Persival and ten more of them. They’re in a warehouse up in the hills. The warehouse is full of weapons, ammo, incendiaries, plastique, grenades, rockets. They were terrorists who trained all over the world and they ”
“Hold it! Can you see a motel anywhere near you?”
I looked around. “Talmadge Lodge.”
“You have cash?”
“Enough.”
“Go there and check in. And wait.”
‘I’ll use the name of Thomas McGraw. How long will I have to wait?”
“I’d guess until six tomorrow morning. Or seven. I want to get the two you met back in on this thing. They’re… pretty far away.”
There were nine of them, in three nondescript cars, and they did not want to waste any time sitting around chatting. They seemed to be under intense strain. I was in the lead car with Jake at the wheel, pointing out the way. Max leaned over from the back seat. “Why the hell did you come out here?”
“Why not?”
“People like you can screw everything up.”
“So why didn’t you get out here first?”
The Green Ripper
‘It was way down the list. We’d have gotten around to it. We’re understaffed. Jesus C hrist, McGee, each one of us is doing the work of three men. The government solution to a problem is throw money at it. So what do you do when you can’t really mention the problem?”
“Why the big rush? Everything is still there.”
Jake said, “We’ve gotten to too many places right after the moving men have cleaned it out.”
I thought I had missed one turn, but I hadn’t. I unlocked the gate, swung it open, and got back in. The three cars went barreling up the narrow steep road, sliding on the greasy turns. All the structures were there. The silence was there. I pointed out the building.
I unlocked the door for them and stepped back out of the way and let them go in. I went back and leaned on a car. In five minutes two of them came out, looking a little green. Max was one of them. After they breathed in some fresh air they went back in. Ten minutes later Max came out, another man following him with a notebook.