Page 25 of The Woodcarver's Model
“I know that now. The woman there said you’d checked out, but some guy named Mitch would be able to put me in touch with you. I asked if she had this guy’s number and she said yes, but wouldn’t give it to me for privacy reasons. When I told her she’d already given me his name, so how hard would it be to share his number, she hung up on me. Do you know how hard it is to track down someone with just a first name?”
“I can only imagine.”
“It turns out it’s not very hard. There are only about a hundred phones on that rock you’re on, so I was able to track the guy down in a few minutes.”
“Estelle, you are a genius.”
“So, you want to let this genius know why she’s getting visits from the RCMP?” she pressed.
“What?”
“They’re hunting for you, Robert. What the hell are you doing out there?”
“Nothing they should be interested in. Are you sure this is on the up and up?” he asked.
“As up as it can get. They’d already interviewed that piano-playing couch-surfing friend of yours.”
“Karen? Crap, I’d better give her a call. Thanks.”
“No problem. Just make sure you get that article in to Cedric,” she warned. “I’m seeing him next week and I want it to be worth my while.”
Rob hung up.
Mitch looked concerned. “Is everything okay? You look worried.”
“It was just my agent. Look, do you mind if I make a long-distance call?”
“Mi teléfono es su teléfono.”
Rob dialled Karen’s cell number.
She answered, “Karen Salter.”
“Hey, Karen, it’s me.”
“Where the fuck are you calling from?”
“The other side of the world, kiddo.” Then Rob lowered his voice. “Tell me, did you get any strange visitors asking about me?”
“You mean those fake cops? Don’t worry about them. I already reported them.”
Rob frowned. “To who?”
“The real cops.”
“Who? Like the Metros?”
“Yeah,” she scoffed. “At least they have uniforms. Not like these guys.”
“Didn’t they show you ID?” Rob asked, concerned.
“How many times have you seen police ID? Never, I bet, so how do you know if it’s real or a couple of scammers are flashing you something they ran up on Photoshop?”
Rob took a moment to process what she’d said. “Okay, what I’m really curious about is why they wanted to see me.”
“Something about a guy being killed in Somalia.”
“They told you that?”
