“I wouldn’t know,” Gregor said. “I’ve barely had time to eat.”
“If they’d heard that, they would have packed twice as much,” Tibor said. “So, you are all right? Bennis is all right? We listened last night to the story about the murder. It was on the eleven o’clock news.”
“As far as I can tell, it was on the eleven o’clock news in Timbuktu,” Gregor said. “Okay, can you do me a favor? I need to get in touch with Russ Donahue. I would have called Donna, but she’s got class this time of day, hasn’t she?”
“She has class, yes, until four-thirty. Why didn’t you call Russ at his office?”
“I didn’t have the number. You can give him my number, if you want, except that I’m not entirely sure where I’m going to be. I need to get hold of something, called a Regional Crime Report. I’m not sure if they had them for the year I’m looking for.”
“What year is that?”
“1969. In 1969, I was with the Bureau. I wasn’t even in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. But if there isn’t actually a Regional Crime Report, there might be something similar, some reporting mechanism that came before it, I don’t know. Russ would know, though, or if he didn’t he’d know how to find out. What I need to do is to get in touch with him and tell him exactly what I’m looking for. Except that I can’t get in touch with anybody, because cell phones don’t work up here. So.”
“So,” Tibor said. “I will get in touch with Russ, and tell him what you want. A Regional Crime Report.”
“For this county, wherever I am,” Gregor said. “Hollman, Pennsylvania. He’ll have to look it up. I’m sorry. I didn’t think to get the information.”
“It’s not to worry about. We’ll think of something.”
“Now, write this down.” Gregor did not doubt that Tibor would write it down, but he did doubt that Tibor would ever again be able to find the piece of paper he’d written it down on. “I need a complete crime survey report for the months of June, July, August, and September 1969. Wait. Make it May and October, too. If Russ asks what I’m looking for, tell him you don’t know, because I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what you’re looking for?”
“Not specifically, no,” Gregor said. “I just—it’s a matter of proportion, that’s all. There has to be something else. Something else then and something else now.”
“Krekor? What are you talking about?”
“Never mind. It might make you feel better to know that I know who killed Michael Houseman.”
“This is the person who died yesterday at Elizabeth Toliver’s house?” Tibor said.
“No, this is the person who died in a park up here in 1969.”
“But, that is good, isn’t it? Isn’t it usually that if you find the person who has committed the one murder you find the person who has committed them all? You told me yourself—”
“Yes,” Gregor said. “I know. And you’re right. I just can’t make some things fit together, and the times are all off, and the opportunities are all skewed, and there are five million reporters up here gumming up the works and they give me a headache. And Bennis is here, and you know what that means.”
“Well, yes, Krekor, I do know, but most often I am discreet enough not to mention it.”
Gregor laughed. “Listen, get Russ, tell him what I need, ask him if he’d mind being sure to be in his house and at his phone at, say, around ten tonight. That way I can call him directly and we can talk. How is everything on Cavanaugh Street? How is the woman with the harpsichord?”
“Grace. She is very nice, Krekor, what would you expect ? She has played the harpsichord for me and for old George Tekemanian yesterday evening. It is a very beautiful instrument.”
“Good. If she plays it too loudly, I can always go and sleep on Bennis’s couch.”
“It’s been a very long time since you slept on Bennis’s couch, Krekor. What do you take us for? Lida has been saying—”
“Never mind what Lida has been saying,” Gregor said. “I’ll talk to her when I get back. I’ll talk to you later. Remember. Ask Russ to be at his phone at ten. By then, I should know where I’m spending the next few nights. Did I tell you we’d all been driven out of the Toliver house by reporters?”
“It was on the noon news, Krekor.”
“Right.”
Gregor put down the phone and stood up. Kyle Borden was sitting next to the counter, talking on the phone there. When Gregor came in, he looked up and waved.