‘I suppose he could have checked it first,’ I said.
‘You can’t do that above ground because the doors don’t open except from inside the tunnels,’ Marino said.
‘Maybe he was down in the tunnel and saw from the inside that the door was bolted,’ I argued, because I sensed where this was leading and did not like it.
‘Of course that’s possible,’ Wesley reasonably said. ‘But Transit cops go down into the tunnels a lot. They’re all over the platforms and the stations, and none of them remembers seeing Gault. I believe he travels down there by computer until it suits his purposes to make an appearance,’
‘What is Lucy’s role?’ I asked.
To manipulate,’ Marino said.
‘I’m not a computer person,’ Wesley added. ‘But as best I can understand, she has worked it so when he logs on to this computerized map, he’s really seeing one she is altering.’
‘Altering for what purpose?’
‘We’re hoping to come up with a way of trapping him like a rat in a maze.’
‘I thought HRT had been deployed.’
‘We are going to try whatever it takes.’
‘Well then, let me suggest you consider one other plan,’ I said. ‘Gault goes to Houston Professional Pharmacy when he wants money.’
They looked at me as if I were crazy.
‘That’s where his mother has been wiring money to Temple’s sister, Jayne-‘
‘Wait a minute,’ Marino interrupted.
But I went on, ‘I tried to call earlier to tell you. I know that Temple has been intercepting the money because Mrs. Gault wired money after Jayne was already dead. And someone signed for it. This person knew the test question.’
‘Hold on,’ Marino said. ‘Hold on one damn minute. Are you telling me that son of a bitch murdered his own sister?’
‘Yes,’ I answered. ‘She was his twin,’
‘Jesus. No one told me.’ He looked accusingly at Wesley.
‘You just got here two minutes before Kay got arrested,’ Wesley said to him.
‘I didn’t get arrested,’ I said. ‘Her middle name actually is Jayne, with a y,’ I added, and then I filled them in.
‘This changes everything,’ Wesley said, and he called New York.
It was almost eleven when he got off the phone. He stood and picked up his briefcase and his bag and a portable radio that was on his desk. Marino rose from his chair, too.
‘Unit three to unit seventeen,’ Wesley spoke into the radio.
‘Seventeen.’
‘We’re heading your way.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ I said to Wesley.
He looked at me. I was not on the original passenger list.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’
19
We discussed the plan in the air as our pilot flew toward Manhattan. The Bureau’s New York field office would assign an undercover agent to the pharmacy at Houston and Second Avenue, while a pair of agents from Atlanta would be dispatched to Live Oaks Plantation. This was happening even as we talked into our voice-activated microphones.
If Mrs. Gault maintained the usual schedule, money was due to be wired again tomorrow. Since Gault had no way of knowing his parents had been told their daughter was dead, he would assume the money would arrive as usual.
‘What he’s not going to do is just take a taxi to the pharmacy.’ Wesley’s voice filled my headset as I looked out at plains of darkness.
‘Naw,’ Marino said. ‘I doubt it. He knows everybody but the queen of England is out looking for him.’
‘We want him to go underground.’
‘It seems riskier down there,’ I said, thinking of Davila. ‘No lights. And the third rails and the trains.’
1 know,’ said Wesley. ‘But he has the mentality of a terrorist. He doesn’t care who he kills. We can’t have a shoot-out in Manhattan in the middle of the day.’
I understood his point.
‘So how do you make certain he travels through the tunnels to get to the pharmacy?’ I asked.
‘We turn up the heat without scaring him off.’
‘How?’
‘Apparently, there’s a March Against Crime parade tomorrow.’
‘That’s appropriate,’ I said ironically. ‘It’s through the Bowery?’
‘Yes. The route can easily be changed to go along Houston and Second Avenue.’