Chapter 46

It was going on 7:00, and beginning to get dark outside, when the phone rang. The home line, as I'd expected.

"Mr. Heyward?" inquired an urbane voice when I picked up. Very little accent, I was surprised to note.

"I'm sorry, I think you have the wrong number, my name isn't Heyward," I said. I knew I was only stalling, but let him think I was a bit dim.

"Ah?" said the voice. "Your wife says otherwise. Then again, the manner in which I framed the question to her might encourage her to say thus."

Jesus Christ. What had he done?

He was still talking:

"If you are not Jack Heyward it is ... unfortunate. However, the misfortune will not be mine alone. I have great interest in the welfare of the wife and child of Jack Heyward. I have none in that of the wife and child of Jackson Carstairs, and fear they may meet with ... misadventure. Does this alter your response?"

The voice was dead cold; I couldn't keep on being coy.

"All right," I said, "let's say I am Jack Heyward—"

"Yes, let us say that," came that frigid voice. "You see how easily two men of intelligence may resolve such minor questions when they reason together?"

I didn't say anything.

"And while we are saying that you are Jack Heyward, let us also say that, as Jack Heyward, you have a certain ... talent of which I wish to avail myself. Now: you know who I am."

He paused as if awaiting an answer. I wasn't sure how to react. "I—" I started hesitantly.

"Please, do not be disingenuous." The voice was even colder, and brisk. "You knew my identity quite well when you compromised my Charleston operation and obliged me to alter my plans. You know it now as well, do you not?"

"Yes," I said. He was calling the shots.

"Then you also know I am not to be trifled with. You have inconvenienced me considerably, now on two occasions. It annoys me to suffer inconvenience. And in the circumstances I do not think you will wish to annoy me further."

"What do you want?" I asked in a subdued tone.

"I require a demonstration of your unique skill," he said.

"And after that?"

His tone became suddenly expansive. "Why, that is all," he said smoothly. "After you have completed the small task I have for you—small, that is, to one of your ability—then you and your family will be released to resume your lives as you choose."

Did he really expect me to believe that? Could he think I was so terrified by his having Lee and Johnnie that I'd grasp at so palpably feeble a straw?

"Well... ," I equivocated.

"One task, perhaps two or three hours, then freedom," he said persuasively. "A low price to pay. And of course the alternative..." He let his voice trail off.