Page 121 of Whistle

As Harry got off the bench, he used his Nokia cell to call Janice and tell her he’d be late getting home this evening.

Standing next to their bed, using the extension that sat on the bedside table, Janice said that was a shame, because she had a surprise for him. A surprise? What kind of surprise? he wanted to know. His thoughts immediately leaned toward matters of an intimate nature. With all the stress he’d been under these last few weeks, he knew he hadn’t exactly been the most attentive partner, and maybe Janice had something in the works to get him back on track.

But then she offered one hint. It was a surprise for both him and Dylan. Well, so much forthattheory.

“I might be home after he’s gone to bed,” he said.

“Then we can do it tomorrow. What are you working on, anyway?”

He almost told her he was going to be on a “stakeout” but didn’t want to sound like he thought he was in an episode ofNYPD Blue. But he wanted to tell her something, and she was about the only one hecouldtell. And even then, he wasn’t about to get into specifics. Not that he actually had any.

“There’s this guy I’m keeping my eye on.”

“Oh?” Janice said, intrigued. It wasn’t very often, in a town like Lucknow, that Harry had to conduct a surveillance. “Can you say anything?”

“Not really. I haven’t got enough to get a wiretap or a search warrant. What I do have is so out there, I’d get laughed out of a judge’s chambers. But there’s something just wrong about this guy. So I’m gonna sit on his place tonight.”

“Be careful, will ya?”

“In this town?”

It was their private joke. A snippet of dialogue from early in the movieJaws. Chief Brody laughs off his wife’s concerns as he heads to work. Amity was like Lucknow, a place where nothing big happened.

Of course, this was before the shark showed up.

Harry wondered what kind of shark was in his future.

“I’ll be home when I get home,” he said.

“I’ll save you some dinner.”

“I might grab something. Gotta go.”

Janice placed the cordless receiver back in its cradle and hung up the phone and looked at the large gift-wrapped package resting on the bed.

Inside the box, something stirred, as though it had been listening.

The alley behind Main Street was lined with Dumpsters and garbage cans and bundled cardboard. The odd rat scurried by. Cats wandered, hunting for them. There were service doors to all the businesses, and where there was enough room, merchants’ vehicles hugged the walls so others could pass.

Among them was Nabler’s white van.

Harry was keeping an eye on it, but not from behind the wheel of his cruiser. It would have attracted unwanted attention. Instead, he was a few businesses away from Nabler’s, perched atop a stack of old cinder blocks around the corner of a Dumpster. If Nabler emergedfrom the back of his shop, Harry would hear either the door opening and closing or the engine of his van turning over when he keyed the ignition.

Harry was counting on the fact that if Nabler left his shop, he wouldn’t come out the front door. Once theclosedsign was on, the door locked, he’d leave by the back door because his vehicle was here. If he came out at all.

If he did drive off, Harry would run flat-out to his car, parked across the street, and trail Nabler before he was out of sight.

And where did Harry think he might go? What would be the point of following him?

Harry had no idea.

He sat on the cement blocks and waited. And waited. Did this guy ever go out for groceries? Hit the drive-through for a Big Mac and fries? Go to the lumber store for more shelving?

And damned if Harry hadn’t forgotten to pick himself up a sandwich before embarking on this mission. By half-past six, his stomach was growling so loudly he was worried he’d give away his hiding spot. He had his phone, but what was he supposed to do? Order a pizza to the alley?

He heard a door open.

Harry poked his head out around the edge of the Dumpster. Someone was coming out the back of a business a couple of doors beyond the train store. Len’s Bakery, he thought. An woman in her sixties appeared, hunting in her purse for the keys to a silver Kia Sportage. She started up the car and began slowly making her way up the alley to Harry’s position. Not wanting to alarm her, he moved back and crouched down next to the Dumpster until the little car had rolled past. The woman had her eyes focused straight ahead, hands gripping the wheel at ten and two, and did not notice him.

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