Chương 3
Apparently she expected recognition.
He had none to give her.
"Should that mean something to me?"
Evelyn stared at him.
Then she laughed.
It was brief and tired and surprisingly genuine.
"No."
"Good."
"Actually, that's probably the nicest thing that's happened to me all week."
Warren hurried over before Gideon could ask what she meant.
"The police are coming."
Gideon set down the rib.
"How long?"
"They said an officer's nearby."
Gideon closed his eyes for half a second.
Maisie.
He took out his phone.
Three notifications waited on the screen.
One was from his shop foreman.
One advertised fifteen percent off work boots.
The third was from Maisie's piano teacher, sent eight minutes earlier.
Running five minutes late tonight.
Sorry!
Gideon looked toward the ceiling.
Sometimes the universe provided exactly five minutes of mercy and expected gratitude.
"Problem?" Evelyn asked.
"My daughter."
Her face changed immediately.
"Is she okay?"
"She's nine."
"I meant—"
"I know."
He typed a message to Maisie's teacher saying he might be several minutes late and asking her not to let Maisie wait outside.
Then he called his neighbor, June Calder, who answered on the fourth ring.
"Gideon, if this is about your garbage cans, I already moved them."
"It's not."
"Then I'm less interested."
"I need a favor."
June sighed theatrically.
"What did you break?"
"Nothing."
"That pause sounded guilty."
"I'm at Carver's."
"On purpose?"
"June."
"What?"
"Could you pick up Maisie if I'm late?"
The humor vanished from her voice.
"What happened?"
"Nothing serious."
Evelyn looked at the overturned water glass, Warren speaking to customers, and the front windows through which Briggs had disappeared.
Gideon turned slightly away from her.
"I got delayed."
"Are you bleeding?"
"No."
"Is somebody else bleeding?"
"No."
"Police involved?"
Gideon rubbed his forehead.
There was a silence.
Then June said, "I'll get Maisie."
"Thanks."
"You owe me."
"I already owe you."
"Correct."
She hung up.
Gideon slipped the phone into his pocket.
Evelyn was watching him.
"What?"
"You didn't tell her what happened."
"Didn't seem useful."
"Most people would."
"Most people don't have June."
Warren approached again.
"Officer's here."
Gideon looked toward the entrance.
A patrol officer came through the door, followed by another.
Outside, red and blue lights moved silently across the parked cars.
Briggs's truck was gone.
The first officer surveyed the room, then looked toward Warren.
"Who called?"
"I did."
The officer nodded.
"All right."
He took out a small notebook.
"Let's start with what happened."
Gideon looked at the clock.
7:06.
Across from him, Evelyn Mercer folded her arms.
"You really are worried about that piano lesson."
"My daughter has been practicing the same twelve bars of 'Für Elise' for three weeks."
"And?"
"If I miss tonight, she'll play them for me when we get home."
Evelyn's mouth twitched.
"That bad?"
"She's enthusiastic."
The officer glanced between them.
"Mr. Ror?"
Gideon stood.
"Yeah."
"Can I speak with you?"
"Sure."
He glanced once more at the clock.
The officer noticed.
"We'll be as quick as we can."
Gideon followed him toward an empty table near the bar.
Behind him, Evelyn's phone began vibrating on her table.
She ignored it.
It stopped.
Then it started again.
This time she picked it up.
Gideon couldn't hear what the caller said.
He saw only the change in her face.
The remaining warmth vanished.
"How did you find me?" she asked.
A pause followed.
"No, Daniel."
Another pause.
"I said I needed one evening."
She turned away from the room.
"No."
Her shoulders stiffened.
"Do not send anyone here."
The officer asked Gideon for his full name.
Gideon answered, but his attention caught on the final words Evelyn spoke before ending the call.
"If the board hears about this before I get back, we have a much bigger problem than Briggs Harland."
Then she lowered the phone and looked directly at Gideon.
For the first time that evening, she appeared frightened by something that had nothing to do with the man who had taken her keys.
Gideon watched Evelyn slide the phone into her bag with the careful motion of someone trying not to let her hands reveal more than her face already had.
The officer across from him followed his glance.
"You know her?"
"Met her about ten minutes ago."
The officer looked toward the overturned table.
"Eventful ten minutes."
"More than I ordered."
The officer almost smiled, then returned to his notebook.
"Walk me through the physical contact."
Gideon did.
He kept it plain.
Briggs shoved him first.
Briggs swung.
Gideon redirected him.
Briggs charged again.
Gideon put him down and caught his jacket before his head hit the table.
The officer asked twice whether Gideon had struck him.
"No."
"Choked him?"
"No."
"Threatened him?"
"I told him not to touch me again."
"Anything else?"
"I told him to return the keys."
The officer nodded toward Gideon's hands.
"You military?"
Gideon looked at him.
"What makes you ask?"
"Most mechanics don't describe a takedown as redirecting momentum."
"Maybe you know the wrong mechanics."
That did make the officer smile.
"Fair enough."
The second officer was speaking with Warren and two witnesses near the hostess stand.
Evelyn sat alone at a clean table now, her untouched meal abandoned behind her.
She had opened her phone again.
This time she wasn't answering calls.
She was reading.
Whatever she saw made her press her lips together.
The first officer closed his notebook.
"We'll need contact information."
Gideon gave it.
"You have any objection to us viewing whatever video the restaurant has?"
"No."
"Good."
The officer hesitated.
"Mr. Harland's known to us."
Gideon's eyes lifted.
"In what sense?"
"In the sense that I'm not going to discuss someone else's history with you."
"That kind of known."
The officer tucked the notebook away.
"That kind."
Gideon glanced toward Evelyn.
"Is she safe leaving?"
"That's a question for her."
"It becomes a question for everybody if he's waiting outside."
"We've got a unit checking the area."
May you like
Gideon nodded.
That was enough for now.
