Hotline to Murder (31 page)

“Another? You mean Joy…?”

“Maybe it works something like the Muslim
suicide bombers. They get seventy-seven virgins in heaven, give or
take a few. Maybe Nathan has to collect his own.”

“You mean, if he kills them, he gets to have
them in heaven? Tony, that’s horrible.”

“I know. We have to keep him away from you
until tonight.”

“What happens at midnight when…nothing
happens?”

“Hopefully, that will expose the Reverend
Hodgkins as a fraud. But it would also help if Nathan has already
been arrested. I wish we knew where this place was. But the good
reverend is too clever to put it on the Internet. I suppose that
the only ones who know it are those who have been faithfully
attending the church services and giving willingly of their
material possessions.”

“Should we tell Detective Croyden what we
know?”

“Unfortunately, it’s mostly speculation. But
we need to tell him something.” Tony tried to think. “We don’t have
any reason to believe that Nathan has a gun or even knows how to
use one. But if he did, he could shoot through my windows unless we
kept the drapes closed all day. And we don’t want to feel like
animals in a zoo. I suspect we’re better off somewhere else.”

Shahla looked out the window again at the
pool she had run around to evade the kidnapper and said. “Let’s get
out of here.”

“Okay. We’ll first go to the Hotline office
and find out Nathan’s address. I’m sure that Croyden already has
it, but I want it for myself.”

CHAPTER 35

Tony had Shahla wait in the fenced-in patio
behind his townhouse while he went through the wooden gate to the
carport and carefully scanned it for anybody who shouldn’t be
there. In fact, he saw nobody at all, although it was possible that
someone might be hiding behind one of the other cars.

He quickly opened the passenger-side door of
the Boxter and signaled Shahla to come out. She came, somewhat
apprehensively, and once she had done her own look around, she
scooted to the car, climbed in, and slammed the door.

Tony got into the driver’s seat and started
the engine. He was thankful for the purr that promised power,
waiting to be called upon, that hopefully would keep them out of
trouble today.

He compulsively checked out the other cars
through his windows and mirrors during the short trip to the
Hotline. He noticed that Shahla also kept swiveling her head. The
usual mix of large and small vehicles filled Pacific Coast Highway,
which was a grand name for a street like any other street, with
traffic lights and congestion. Nobody looked suspicious, however;
nobody seemed to have any particular interest in them.

Tony pulled into the parking lot of the
shopping center where the Hotline building was located. He drove
around to the back of the line of shops. The overflow parking
spaces were located here. Here was where Joy had been snatched, and
the park just behind the lot was where she had been murdered. Few
cars were parked here at this time of the morning. Most were parked
in front.

“We can keep an eye on the car from the
window of the Hotline office,” Tony said. The window in the
listening room overlooked the back parking area. Since Nathan had
worked night shifts with Tony, he knew what kind of car Tony
drove.

It would be easy to spot somebody loitering,
since there were few cars and fewer people in sight. They went
through the back door of the Hotline building. Shahla went toward
the elevator, but Tony started up the stairs.

“If you’re a cross-country runner, you
should be able to handle a couple of flights of stairs,” he
said.

He started taking them two at a time. A shot
of pain through his knee reminded him that he shouldn’t be doing
anything this strenuous. Shahla flashed past him before he came to
the first landing, and by the time he reached the third floor, she
was standing there with her hands on her hips, not even breathing
hard.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

At least she didn’t say it derisively. And because
Tony had been forced to slow down to one step at a time, he wasn’t
panting as they walked to the Hotline office. The door was
unlocked. As they passed through the doorway into the first room,
Tony could see Patty, the administrative assistant, working at a
computer in the administration area. He rarely saw her since he
worked on the phones at night, when she was going to school.

There was a girl in the listening room on the phone.
Tony looked a question at Shahla.

“That’s Tina Rodriguez,” Shahla said. “She
was in my training class. She’s in college.”

Shahla found a copy of the roster of
listeners. Tony copied down Nathan’s address, his home telephone
number, and his cell phone number. He had a Los Angeles address,
which could be just about anywhere, but from the zip code, Tony
figured that it wasn’t too far from the Church of the Risen Lord.
His years of driving in Southern California on business had given
him a good feel for the area.

Tony and Shahla walked into the office where
Patty was working. She looked up and did a double take. “Shahla,”
she exclaimed. “Are you all right? Detective Croyden called me at
home yesterday and said that you were missing and did I know where
you were. I was worried sick about you. Then this morning I read in
the paper that you had escaped from a kidnapper.” She got up and
gave Shahla a big hug.

“I’m fine,” Shahla said. “And Tony’s my
bodyguard.”

In her relief, Patty gave Tony a hug, too.
He had no objection.

“We have reason to believe that Nathan may
be mixed up in this,” Tony said. “I’m going to call Detective
Croyden.”

“Nathan?” Patty looked surprised. “I don’t
know him very well because he usually works nights. But he always
seemed kind of quiet and shy. I guess you never know about
people.”

Tony knew the number at the Bonita Beach
Police Station by heart. When he was connected to the desk officer,
he asked for Detective Croyden. The officer informed him that
Detective Croyden would not be in today.

“All day?” Tony asked in disbelief. He
couldn’t imagine Croyden not working.

“He will be back tomorrow. Can anybody else
help you?”

“How about Lieutenant Stone?”

“She will be in at three.”

“I’ll call back.” He hung up. “Damn. There’s
no point in trying to tell the story to somebody who doesn’t know
what’s going on.”

“There may be another person working on the
case,” Shahla pointed out.

“Yeah, but I don’t know that person, and
they don’t know me. Why should they believe anything I have to
say?”

Tony stomped out of that room and into the
listening room where Tina was writing a call report. When she saw
Shahla, who had followed him in, she reacted much the same way that
Patty had.

“Shahla.” Tina stood up and gave Shahla a
hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Don’t I get one too?” Tony asked.

Tina gave him a who-is-this-guy look.

Shahla laughed. “Tina, this is Tony. Tony,
this is Tina.”

Tina was a cute brunette, dressed in jeans
and a Stanford sweatshirt with red lettering on a white background.
At first glance she looked something like Shahla.

Tina offered her hand saying, “I’ve heard
about you.”

Tony took it and said, “Nothing good, I
hope.”

Tina shook her head. “Nothing.” She turned
to Shahla. “Look at all the hang ups I’ve gotten this morning.” She
pointed to the board where hang ups were recorded. “I can
understand the masturbators hanging up on guys, but why are they
hanging up on me? I’ve got a sexy, feminine voice.”

The girls weren’t supposed to like getting
those calls. Tony asked, “Did you hear anything in the background
before the hang ups?”

Tina shook her head. “Maybe a little
breathing. Then a click.” She looked at her watch. “Ten o’clock.
I’ve got to get to class.” She picked up a book she had been
reading, said goodbye to them, and walked out the door.

But, presumably, her class wasn’t at
Stanford University, almost 400 miles away. She probably attended a
local community college and hoped to transfer to Stanford.

Tony went over to the desk by the window and
looked out at the parking lot. He saw his car sitting undisturbed.
He loved that car. He could stand and gaze at it for hours. Shahla
joined him at the window.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

“Maybe I should go pay Nathan a call.”

“We. Whither thou goest I will go. You’re my
bodyguard, remember?”

Tina had just come out of the back door of the
building and was headed toward her car, which was parked not too
far from Tony’s. Another car came cruising down one of the aisles
toward her.

Shahla caught her breath and said, “That
looks like the kidnapper’s car.”

It was a silver compact. A Chevy, Tony could
see from the logo—the bloated parallelogram of Chevrolet. Probably
a Cavalier. The door opened when it came alongside Tina and a man
jumped out and grabbed her. Exactly how Shahla had described her
ordeal.

Tony didn’t wait to see any more. He ran out of the
listening room. He paused at the door to the administrative office
and yelled at Patty, “Call 911. A man is trying to kidnap Tina.
Silver Chevy Cavalier.”

Before she could say anything, he ran past the
closing outer door into the hall. Shahla had preceded him and was
already at the top of the stairs.

“Wait for me,” he yelled. But she didn’t wait. By
the time he had reached the top of the stairs, she was already out
of sight, going down the second level between the floors. Tony
couldn’t go as fast as Shahla—that had already been proven—and he
had to be careful of his knee. He prayed she wouldn’t get herself
into trouble. But he also prayed that Tina could fight off the
attacker.

He finally reached the first floor after a
one-step-at-a-time descent that felt like a slow-motion football
replay. He ran to the back door of the building, still favoring his
knee. He hoped it would hold up. When he burst through the doorway
to the outside world, a quick scan revealed Shahla with her hands
to her face, and the silver car disappearing around the end of the
last shop in the center. He didn’t see Tina.

Tony trotted toward his car while trying to pull the
key out of his pocket. When he had it in his hand he clicked the
remote, unlocking his door. He opened it and tumbled into the
driver’s seat, not very gracefully. His motions became more fluid
as he started the engine and rammed it into first gear. He roared
forward and made a quick ninety-degree right turn toward the end of
the building.

Shahla ran in front of the car, waving her arms. Her
face looked strange. He jammed on the brakes and stopped. Damn it,
she was holding him up. She came forward and felt her way around
the car, almost like a blind person. She couldn’t seem to open the
passenger-side door. Tony was tempted to drive off without her, but
she would never forgive him for leaving her behind. And there
wasn’t time to argue. He reached over and opened the door for her.
She stumbled into the car. He started fast and the acceleration
slammed the door shut.

As he swerved around the corner of the building, he
saw people in front of him, walking to their cars. Double damn. He
slowed down—he didn’t want to kill anybody—and weaved his way among
them, fast enough to draw stares.

He drove clear of the pedestrians and saw the silver
car make a right turn onto the public street and accelerate
rapidly. A few seconds later, he made the turn with the Porsche in
second gear and roared after the other car without shifting, as the
tachometer needle climbed toward the red line.

The traffic light at an intersection ahead turned
yellow. Tony backed off on the gas pedal and said, “He’s got to
stop.”

The silver car slowed slightly and swerved into the
left-turn lane, but instead of stopping, it entered the
intersection well after the light had become red. A car starting up
from the left barely braked in time as the Chevy fishtailed through
the turn and disappeared in the direction of Pacific Coast
Highway.

Tony was first in line at the light, but that was
small consolation for losing the kidnapper’s car. He swore
silently, thinking that if Shahla hadn’t held him up, he would have
caught the other car and at least been able to get the license
plate number.

“Seat belts,” he commanded.

Shahla fumbled a few seconds before she got hers
fastened. She was coughing for some reason. And sneezing.

Tony concentrated on the light. “He’ll turn north on
PCH.” He handed his cell phone to Shahla, saying, “Call the police
station and tell the desk officer that. You can use redial.”

“I can’t see.”

Tony looked at her. Her eyes were full of tears. Was
this a reaction to Tina’s kidnapping? He hoped she would hold up.
He took the phone back and placed the call. Then he handed it back
to her.

She was still sneezing. She was barely able to talk
on the phone for a few seconds. Then her sneezing stopped and her
voice became clearer.

While she talked, Tony turned on his emergency
flashers, edged forward, and revved the engine. He also
hand-signaled the cars coming the other way. There was no left-turn
arrow at this intersection, and he hoped that if he showed enough
urgency, the oncoming cars would let him make the turn in front of
them.

When the light turned green, he started forward,
ready to stop fast if it didn’t work. However, the cars at the
front of the two lanes of traffic heading in his direction
hesitated just long enough for him to complete the turn
He upshifted and headed toward PCH as Shahla spoke excitedly into
the phone. “We’re trying to follow the kidnapper’s car. We think
he’s going to turn north on Pacific Coast Highway…It’s a silver
compact. A…” She hesitated.