“Positive.”
Rankin looked around the room. “What about the file cabinet? Couldn’t you have put it in the file cabinet?” I shook my head. “How about checking it, just to humor me?” I unlocked the file cabinet and yanked open the balky top drawer, then each of the lower drawers. It was not in the filing cabinet, as I’d known all along.
I went back to the desk drawer. “Look,” I said, removing a printout of an e-mail message that had been sent to me six hours before. “My secretary printed this out and handed it to me along with the packet from Sinclair. I put both things in the drawer.”
“Maybe you put the e-mail in the drawer and the envelope in your briefcase,” Rankin suggested. “You know, if you were upset, maybe you got the e-mail and the envelope mixed up.”
I shook my head emphatically. “My briefcase is still in the truck. I never even brought it in this afternoon. I’m telling you, somebody’s come in and taken it.”
“You’re sure the drawer was locked? And you’re sure the office door was locked?”
“Give me a break,” I snapped. “I was mortified when I saw those pictures. If I could have bricked up the doorway and welded the damn drawer shut, I would have. Yes, I’m sure they were both locked.”
He leaned down and inspected the edges of the drawer. “Doesn’t look like it’s been forced,” he said.
“So who else has keys?”
Before I could answer, the phone rang. The display announced the caller as Peggy. “My secretary,” I said, lifting the handset by reflex.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re there,” she said. “A Dr. Raymond Sinclair’s on the line for you. Something to do with funding for a research project he says he’s sponsoring. This is the third time he’s called this afternoon. He says it’s urgent he speak with you today.”
“Dr.Sinclair?” Given Ray Sinclair’s apparent scorn of advanced degrees, I could only assume the “Dr.”
was designed to carry weight with Peggy. I looked to Rankin for guidance. He raised his left hand to his head—his thumb at his ear, his pinkie near his lips—as if the hand were a telephone. He nodded, spinning his right forefinger in a rolling, forward motion that meantgo. “Oh, yes,” I said to Peggy. “I do need to speak with Dr. Sinclair. Please put him through right away.” I heard the line click. “Ray, are you there?”
“Hello, Bill,” he said. “How the hell are you?”
I caught Rankin’s eye and pointed toward the speakerphone button on the phone, raising my eyebrows in a question. He shook his head emphatically, so instead I angled the handset slightly away from my ear. The agent leaned close, his ear practically touching mine.
“How am I? How do you think I am, Ray? I’m a little off balance. I had an unpleasant surprise this afternoon.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that. I thought you’d thank me.”
“Thank you? Why?”
“For sending you mementos of that swell evening we had in Las Vegas. You looked like you were having quite a time while I was out of the room.”
“How did you get those pictures, Ray?”
“A sweet young thing gave them to me. I believe her name is Marian. Marian, Madame Librarian.” He chuckled at the joke.
“And what do you plan to do with them?”
“Do with them? I don’t plan to do anything with them, Bill.” Rankin flashed a thumbs-down sign, which I took to mean he was unhappy to hear that. “I just thought you’d appreciate taking a walk down memory lane. A walk down lap-dance lane. Oh, but you don’t mind if I share them with our friends at The Library, do you? Those would be a nice addition to their Web site.”
“You must be joking,” I said. “Those pictures on the Web?”
“What, you don’t like that idea, Bill? You don’t want your colleagues and students and family to see what a great time you were having?”
“You know I don’t want those circulating on the Internet—or anyplace else. You know that would be very painful to me.”
“So here’s what’s very painful to me,” he shot back, the phony cheerfulness gone from his voice. “You said you’d provide me with bodies, and you haven’t. You thought you had me by the balls, and you got greedy. But who’s got the tighter grip, Bill? Tell me, how does it feel?”
“It feels like you’ve got me,” I admitted.
“Damn right I’ve got you.”
“So what do you want, Ray?”
“I want two bodies by Tuesday,” he said. “On ice, in Newark.”
“Tuesday? That’s not much time,” I protested. “What if I can’t get them to you that fast?”
“Did I mention there’s video, too? You know what I think, Bill? I think you’re gonna be the next big hit on YouTube if I don’t get those bodies Tuesday. By the way, Bill, how’s your cardiovascular health?
Any history of heart attacks in your family?”