The Evening News (38 page)

“
This afternoon
,”
Cooper said, "your mate, Bert Fisher, phoned some car
dealers for me. What came out was that some of the colors people say they
saw aren't available for those models. For instance, the insurance
geezer, he said he saw a yellow Ford Tempo, but there's no such color
made. Same goes for a blue Plymouth Reliant. Someone else described a
green motor, yet not one of those three makes comes in green
.”

Owens said thoughtfully, "You may be on to something. It's possible, of
course, that one car could have been in an accident and repainted, but
not likely three
.”

"Something else about that
,”
Jaeger put in, "is that when auto body shops
repaint cars, they mostly do it in manufacturer's colors. Unless somebody
asks for an offbeat shade
.”

"Which wouldn't be likely
,”
Iris contributed, "remembering what Teddy
said just now about the people we're looking for being savvy. They'd want
to be inconspicuous, not the other way
.”

"All of which I agree with, folks
,”
Cooper said, "and it leads to the
thought that the mob we're looking for did the spray jobs themselves, not
giving much thought to current colors, perhaps riot even knowing about
them
.”

Partridge said doubtfully, "That's moving pretty far into supposition
country
.”

It was Rita who asked, "But is it? Let me remind you of what Teddy
pointed out earlier. That the people we're talking about practically ran
a fleet of vehicles-at least three cars, one truck and maybe two, a
Nissan passenger van for the kidnap . . . Anyway, five we know of. Now
,
it makes sense that they'd want to keep them together in one place, which
would have to be sizable. So isn't it likely it would be somewhere big
enough to include a paint shop
?
”

"An operating headquarters is what you mean
,”
Jaeger said. He turned to
Teddy; an increasing respect had replaced the older man's skepticism of
the morning
.”
Isn't that what you're talking about? Where you're leading
us
?
”

"Yep
.”

Cooper beamed
.”
Sure am
.”

Their meal--eventually to include eight courses-had continued. Now before
the group was saut6ed lobster with ginger
and scallions. They reached for portions thoughtfully, concentrating on what had just been said
.”
An operating center
,”
Rita mused
.”
Maybe for the people involved, whoever
they are, as well as vehicles. We know from the old lady's description
there were either four or five men at the kidnap scene. There could be
others offstage. Wouldn't it make sense for everything to ic together
?
”

"Including the hostages
,”
Jaeger added
.”
If we assume all that
,”
Partridge said, "and okay, let's do it for the
moment, obviously the next question is where
?
”

"We don't know, of course
,”
Cooper said, "but some hard thinking might
suggest the kind of place it could be; also, maybe, how far it was--or
is-from Larchmont
.”

With amusement, Iris queried, "Hard thinking you've already done
?
”

"Well
,”
Cooper said, "since you ask
"Quit showing off, Teddy
,”
Partridge said sharply
.”
Get to the point
.”

Cooper responded, unperturbed, "I tried to think the way a snatcher would
plan. So I asked the question: After the snatch, when I'd grabbed what I
wanted, what would I want next
?
”

"How's this for an answer
?
”

Rita said
.”
To be safe from pursuit; therefore
go like hell and get under cover quickly
.”

Cooper smacked his palms together
.”
Bleedin' right! And where better to be
under cover than at that HQ hangout
?
”

Owens asked, "Am I reading you right? You're suggesting the HQ wasn't far
away
?
”

"Here's how I see it
,”
Cooper said
.”
First off, it needs to be well clear
of Larchmont; staying anywhere in the area would be too risky. But, second
,
it shouldn't be too far. The snatchers would know that in the shortest
time, maybe minutes, there'd be an alarm and police crawling all over the
place. Therefore they'd have calculated how much time they'd got
.”

Rita asked, "If you're still inside their minds, how much time
?
”

"Guessing, I'd say half an hour. Even that long would be a bit iffy, but
they'd have to chance it to get far enough away
.”

Owens said slowly, "Translating that
in
to miles
remembering
the
area . . . I'd
say
twenty-five
.”

"Just what I figured
.”

Cooper produced a folded New York area map and
opened it. On the map, taking Larchmont as the center, he had drawn a
crayon circle. He prodded within the circle with a finger
.”
Twenty-five-mile radius. I reckon the headquarters is somewhere inside
here
.”

At 8:40 P.m. on Friday evening, while the CBA News group was still dining at Shun Lee West, a buzzer sounded in the mid
Manhattan apartment of the Peruvian diplomat,
Jose
Antonio Salaverry. It signaled a visitor
.
The apartment, on Forty-eighth Street near Park Avenue, was part of a
twenty-floor complex. Although a doorman was stationed on the main floor
,
visitors used an outside intercom system to announce their arrival, then
were admitted directly by the building's tenants
.
Salaverry had been edgy since his meeting with Miguel that morning at
United Nations headquarters and was anxious to hear that the
Medellin/Sendero Luminoso group was safely out of the country. Their
departure, he thought, would end his own association with the frightening
matter that had filled his mind since yesterday
.
He and his banker friend, Helga Efferen, had been drinking vodka-tonics
in front of a fireplace for more than an hour, neither of them feeling
inclined to go to the kitchen to prepare food or to telephone and order
it sent in. While the liquor had relaxed them physically, it had removed
none of their anxiety
.
They were an oddly matched pair-
Salaverry, small and weasely; Helga, whom
the single word "ample
”
best described. She was big-boned, abundantly
fleshed, with cornucopian breasts, and a natural blonde. Nature, however
,
had stopped
short of making her beautiful; there was a harshness to her face and an acidic manner that repelled some men, though not Salaverry. From their first meeting in the bank he had been drawn to Helga, perhaps seeing in her a reflection of himself and sensing, too, her hidden but strong sexuality
.
If so, he had been right on both counts. They shared the same points of
view, which were based mainly on pragmatism, selfishness and avarice. As
to sex, during their frequent fornicating an aroused Helga became a
frenzied whale to
Jose
Antonio's Jonah, surrounding and almost swallowing
him. He loved it. Helga was also given to crying out loudly, sometimes
screaming, at her climax, which made him feel macho and-in every
way-bigger than he was
.
A rare exception to this erogenous enjoyment had occurred earlier that
evening. They had begun copulating, hoping to erase, even temporarily
,
their great worry. But it didn't happen and after a while they both
realized that they didn't have their hearts in the enterprise and gave
up
.
The mental empathy, though, remained intact and was typified by their
attitude to the Sloane family kidnapping
.
Both were aware that they possessed important knowledge about a
sensational crime which dominated the news and whose victims and
perpetrators were being sought by almost every law enforcement agency in
the country. Worse, they had aided and abetted the financing of the
kidnap gang
.
However, it was not the safety of the kidnap victims that troubled Jos
e
Antonio and Helga. It was their own. Salaverry knew that if his
involvement were exposed, not even his diplomatic immunity would save him
from exceedingly unpleasant consequences, including expulsion from the
UN and the United States, the extinction of his career and, more than
probably, the vengeance of Sendero Luminoso back in Peru. Helga, with no
diplomatic protection, could be sent to prison for criminally withholding
information and also, perhaps, for accepting bribes to channel funds
secretly in the bank she worked for
.
Those thoughts were running through her mind when the buzzer sounded and
her paramour jumped up, hurrying to the
wall-mounted intercom connected with the main floor entrance. Pressing a button, he queried, "Yes
?
”

A voice, made metallic by the system, announced, "This is Plato
.”

With relief, Salaverry informed Helga, "It's him
.”

Then into the
intercom, "Come up, please
.”

He pressed a button which would release an
entrance lock downstairs.

Seventeen floors below, the man who had been speaking with Salaverry
entered the apartment building through a heavy plate-glass door. He was
of average build, thin-faced and swarthy, with deep-set, brooding eyes
and glossy dark hair. His age could have been anywhere from thirty-eight
to fifty-five. He wore a trench coat, unbuttoned at the front, over an
unremarkable brown suit. He had come in wearing lightweight gloves and
despite the building's warmth did not remove them
.
A uniformed doorman who had seen the man arrive and use the intercom
waved him to an elevator. Three other people already waiting in the lobby
entered the elevator too. The man in the trench coat ignored them. After
pressing a button for the eighteenth floor, he stood expressionless
,
looking straight ahead. By the time the elevator reached his floor, the
other occupants had left
.
He followed an arrow to the apartment he sought, carefully noting there
were three other apartments on the floor and an emergency stairway to the
right. He did not expect to use the information, but memorizing escape
routes was a habit, At the apartment doorway he pressed a button and
heard a soft chime inside. Almost at once the door opened
.
The man asked, "Mr. Salaverry
?
”

His voice was soft, with a Latin accent
.”
Yes, yes. Come in. Let me take your coat
?
”

"No. I will not be staying
.”

The visitor looked swiftly around. Seeing
Helga, he inquired, "This woman is the banker
?
”

It seemed an ungracious way of putting it, but Salaverry answered, "Yes
,
Miss Efferen. And your name
?
”

"Plato will do
.”