We began to eat in the kind of silence I found mildly unsettling. “What made you decide to become a paramedic?” I asked.
I had caught Brant with his mouth full. He smiled, embarrassed, signaling the delay while he tucked half the food in his cheek. “I had a couple of friends in the fire department so I took a six-month course. Bandages and driving. I think Tom was hoping I’d join the sheriff’s department, but I couldn’t see myself doing that. I enjoy what I do. You know, it’s always something.”
I nodded, still eating. “Is the job what you expected?”
“Sure. Only more fun,” he said.
I might have asked him more, but I could see him glance at his watch. He wolfed down the last of his sandwich and crumpled his paper napkin. He pushed back from the table, picking up his half-empty bowl and his plate. He stood at the sink and drank a few mouthfuls of soup before he rinsed his bowl and set it in the dishwasher.
Selma gestured. “I’ll get that.”
“I got it,” he said as he added his sandwich plate. I heard his spoon chink in the silverware container just before he snapped the dishwasher shut. He gave his mother’s cheek a quick buss. “Will you be here a while?”
“I’ve got a meeting at the church. What about you?”
“I think I’ll drive on down to Independence and see Sherry”
“Will you be back tonight?”
“I wouldn’t count on it,” he said.
“You drive carefully.”
“Twenty-five whole miles. I think I can handle it.” He snagged the four remaining cookies from the plate, placing one in his mouth with a grin. “Better make more cookies. This was a short batch,” he said. “See you later.”
Selma left the house after lunch so I didn’t have the chance to broach the subject that was beginning to tug at me-a quick trip to Santa Teresa to pick up my car. I’d had the rental for over three weeks and the cost was mounting daily. I’d never imagined an extended stay in Nota Lake so my current wardrobe was limited. I longed to sleep in my own bed even for one night. The issue of the female sheriff’s investigator I could dig into once I got home. Anything else of interest here could wait ’til I got back to Nota Lake.
Meanwhile, it was time to have a chat with the Nota Lake Police Department. Given the new lead, I couldn’t see how last night’s incident could be tied to my investigation, but I thought I should do the smart thing and report it anyway. I left a note for Selma, shrugged on my leather jacket, took my shoulder bag, and headed off.
The Nota Lake Police Department was housed in a plain one-story building with a stucco exterior, a granite entryway, and two wide granite steps. The windows and the plate glass door were framed in aluminum. An arrow under a stick figure in a wheelchair indicated an accessible entrance somewhere to the left. The bushes along the front had been trimmed to window height and from the flagpole both the American and the State of California flags were snapping in the breeze. Six radio antennae had been erected on the roof like a series of upright fishing poles. As with the Nota Lake Fire Department, located next door, this was generic architecture, a strictly functional facility. No tax dollars had been needlessly squandered here.
The interior was consistent with its no-frills decor, strongly reminiscent of the sheriff’s headquarters two doors down: a lowered ceiling of fluorescent panels and acoustical tile, metal file cabinets, woodgrained laminate counters. On the desks, I could see the backs of the two computer monitors and attendant CPUs from which countless electrical cords sprouted like airborne roots.
The desk officer was M. Corbet, a fellow in his forties with a smooth round face, thinning hair, and a tendency to wheeze. “Thiss iss asthma in case you’re thinking I’m contagious,” he said. “Cold air gets to me and this dry heat doesn’t help. Excuse me a second.” He had a small inhaler that he placed in his lips, sucking deeply of the mist that would open up his bronchi. He set the inhaler aside with a shake of his head. “Thiss-iss the damndest thing. Never had a problem in my life until a couple years back. Turns out I’m allergic to house dust, animal hair, pollen, and mold. What’s a fella supposed to do? Quit breathing altogether is the only cure I know.”
“That’s a tough one,” I said.
“Doctor tells me it’s more and more people developing allergies. Says he has this one patient reacts to inside air. Synthetics, chemicals, microbes coming through the heating vents. Poor woman has to tote around an oxygen trolley everywhere she goes. Passes out and falls down the minute she encounters any alien pathogens. Thankfully, I’m not yet as bad off as her, though the chief had to take me off active duty and put me on desk. Anyway, that’s my story. Now what can I help you with?”
I gave him my business card, hoping to establish my credibility before I launched into a description of the events involving the driver of the panel truck. Officer Corbet was polite, but I could tell just by looking at him that the issue of someone in a ski mask staring at me real hard wasn’t going to qualify as a major case for the Crimes Against Persons unit, which probably consisted solely of him. Lungs awhistle, he took my report, printing the particulars in block letters on the proper form. He placed his hands on the counter, tapping with his fingers as if he was playing a little tune. “I do know someone with a truck like that.”
“You do?” I said, surprised.
“Yes ma’am. Sounds like Ercell Riccardi. He lives right around the corner about three doors down. Keeps his truck parked in the drive. I’m surprised you didn’t see it on your way over here.”
“I didn’t come from that direction. I turned right off of Main.”
“Well, you might want to have a look. Ercell leaves it sit out any time it’s not in use.”
“With keys in the ignition?”
“Yes ma’am. It’s not like Nota Lake is the auto-theft capital of the world. I think he started doing it maybe five, six years back. We had us a rash of break-ins, bunch of kids busting into cars, smashing windows, taking tape decks, going joyriding. Ercell got tired of replacing the stereo so he ‘give up and give in’ is how he puts it. Last time his truck was broke into he didn’t even bother to file a claim. Said it was driving his rates up and to hell with the whole thing. Now he leaves the truck open, keys in the ignition, and a note on the dash saying, ‘Please put back in the drive when you’re done.
“So people take his truck any time they like?”
“Doesn’t happen that often. Occasionally, somebody borrys it, but they always put it back. It’s a point of honor with folks and Ercell’s a lot happier.”
The telephone began to ring and Officer Corbet straightened up. “Anyway, if you think the truck was Ercell’s, just give us a call and we’ll talk to him. It’s not something he’d do, but anybody could have hopped in his vehicle and followed you.”
“I’ll take a look.”
Out on the street again, I shoved my hands in my jacket pockets and headed for the corner. As soon as I turned onto Lone Star, I saw the black panel truck. I approached it with caution, wondering if there were any way I could link this truck to the one I’d seen. I circled the vehicle, leaning close to the headlights. Impossible in daylight to see if the beams were askew. I moved around to the rear and ran a finger across the license plate, scrutinizing the surface where I could see faint traces of adhesive. I stood up and turned to study the house itself. A man was stationed at the window, looking out at me. He stared, scowling. I reversed my steps and returned to my parking spot.
When I reached the rental car, Macon Newquist was waiting, his black-and-white vehicle parked behind mine at the curb. He glanced up at me, catching my eye with a smile. “Hi. How are you? I figured this was your car. How’s it going?”
I smiled. “Fine. For a minute, I thought you were giving me a ticket.”
“Don’t worry about that. In this town we tend to reserve tickets for people passing through.” He crossed his arms and leaned a hip against the side of the rental. “I hope this doesn’t seem out of line, but Phyllis mentioned that business about the gun show. I guess she passed along her opinion about the gal Tom was talking to.