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The Colorado Kid :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 55 из 81Cogan’s Wild Ridemight be in the files of Air Eagle, out of New York.”
“Or Air Eagle out of Montpelier, Vermont—” Vince said.
“Or Just Ducky Jets out of Washington, D.C.,” Dave said.
“And if Cogan paid cash,” Vince added, “there are quite likely no records at all.”
“But surely there are all sorts of agencies—”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dave said. “More than you could shake a stick at, beginning with the FAA and ending with the IRS. Wouldn’t be surprised if the damn FFA wasn’t in there somewhere. But in cash deals, paperwork gets thin. Remember Helen Hafner?”
Of course she did. Their waitress at the Grey Gull. The one whose son had recently fallen out of his treehouse and broken his arm.She gets all of it, Vince had said of the money he meant to put in Helen Hafner’s pocket,and what Uncle Sam don’t know don’t bother him. To which Dave had added,It’s the way America does business.
Stephanie supposed it was, but it was an extremely troublesome way of doing business in a case like this one.
“So you don’t know,” she said. “You tried your best, but you just don’t know.”
Vince looked first surprised, then amused. “As to tryin my best, Stephanie, I don’t think a person ever knows that for sure; in fact, I think most of us are condemned—damned, even! — to thinking we could have done just a little smidge better, even when we win through to whatever it was we were tryin to get. But you’re wrong—Ido know. He chartered a jet out of Stapleton. That’s what happened.”
“But you said—”
He leaned even further forward over his clasped hands, his eyes fixed on hers. “Listen carefully and take instruction, dearheart. It’s long years since I read Sherlock Holmes, so I can’t say this exactly, but at one point the great detective tells Dr. Watson somethin like this: ‘When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left—no matter how improbable — must be the answer.’ Now we know that the Colorado Kid was in his Denver office buildin until tenfifteen or tentwenty on that Wednesday morning. And we can be pretty sure he was in Jan’s Wharfside at fivethirty. Hold up your fingers like you did before, Stephanie.”
She did as he asked, left forefinger for the Kid in Colorado, right forefinger for James Cogan in Maine. Vince unlocked his hands and touched her right forefinger briefly with one of his own, age meeting youth in midair.
“But don’t call this finger fivethirty,” he said.
“Or Air Eagle out of Montpelier, Vermont—” Vince said.
“Or Just Ducky Jets out of Washington, D.C.,” Dave said.
“And if Cogan paid cash,” Vince added, “there are quite likely no records at all.”
“But surely there are all sorts of agencies—”
“Yes, ma’am,” Dave said. “More than you could shake a stick at, beginning with the FAA and ending with the IRS. Wouldn’t be surprised if the damn FFA wasn’t in there somewhere. But in cash deals, paperwork gets thin. Remember Helen Hafner?”
Of course she did. Their waitress at the Grey Gull. The one whose son had recently fallen out of his treehouse and broken his arm.She gets all of it, Vince had said of the money he meant to put in Helen Hafner’s pocket,and what Uncle Sam don’t know don’t bother him. To which Dave had added,It’s the way America does business.
Stephanie supposed it was, but it was an extremely troublesome way of doing business in a case like this one.
“So you don’t know,” she said. “You tried your best, but you just don’t know.”
Vince looked first surprised, then amused. “As to tryin my best, Stephanie, I don’t think a person ever knows that for sure; in fact, I think most of us are condemned—damned, even! — to thinking we could have done just a little smidge better, even when we win through to whatever it was we were tryin to get. But you’re wrong—Ido know. He chartered a jet out of Stapleton. That’s what happened.”
“But you said—”
He leaned even further forward over his clasped hands, his eyes fixed on hers. “Listen carefully and take instruction, dearheart. It’s long years since I read Sherlock Holmes, so I can’t say this exactly, but at one point the great detective tells Dr. Watson somethin like this: ‘When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left—no matter how improbable — must be the answer.’ Now we know that the Colorado Kid was in his Denver office buildin until tenfifteen or tentwenty on that Wednesday morning. And we can be pretty sure he was in Jan’s Wharfside at fivethirty. Hold up your fingers like you did before, Stephanie.”
She did as he asked, left forefinger for the Kid in Colorado, right forefinger for James Cogan in Maine. Vince unlocked his hands and touched her right forefinger briefly with one of his own, age meeting youth in midair.
“But don’t call this finger fivethirty,” he said.