فصل 54

CHAPTER 54

FBI credentials get a snappier response the farther west you go. Starling’s ID, which might have raised one bored eyebrow on a Washington functionary, got the undivided attention of Stacy Hubka’s boss at the Franklin Insurance Agency in Belvedere, Ohio. He relieved Stacy Hubka at the counter and the telephones himself, and offered Starling the privacy of his cubicle for the interview.

Stacy Hubka had a round, downy face and stood five-four in heels. She wore her hair in frosted wings and used a Cher Bono move to brush them back from her face. She looked Starling up and down whenever Starling wasn’t facing her.

“Stacy—may I call you Stacy?”

“Sure.”

“I’d like you to tell me, Stacy, how you think this might have happened to Fredrica Bimmel—where this man might have spotted Fredrica.” “Freaked me out. Get your skin peeled off, is that a bummer? Did you see her? They said she was just like rags, like somebody let the air out of—” “Stacy, did she ever mention anybody from Chicago or Calumet City?” Calumet City. The clock above Stacy Hubka’s head worried Starling. If the Hostage Rescue Team makes it in forty minutes, they’re just ten minutes from touchdown. Did they have a hard address? Tend to your business.

“Chicago?” Stacy said. “No, we marched at Chicago one time in the Thanksgiving parade.” “When?”

“Eighth grade, that would be what?—nine years ago. The band just went there and back on the bus.” “What did you think last spring when she first disappeared?” “I just didn’t know.”

“Remember where you were when you first found it out? When you got the news? What did you think then?” “That first night she was gone, Skip and me went to the show and then we went to Mr. Toad’s for a drink and Pam and them, Pam Malavesi, came in and said Fredrica had disappeared, and Skip goes, Houdini couldn’t make Fredrica disappear. And then he’s got to tell everybody who Houdini was, he’s always showing off how much he knows, and we just sort of blew it off. I thought she was just mad at her dad. Did you see her house? Is that the pits? I mean, wherever she is, I know she’s embarrassed you saw it. Wouldn’t you run away?” “Did you think maybe she’d run away with somebody, did anybody pop into your mind—even if it was wrong?” “Skip said maybe she’d found her a chubby-chaser. But no, she never had anybody like that. She had one boyfriend, but that’s like ancient history. He was in the band in the tenth grade, I say ‘boyfriend’ but they just talked and giggled like a couple of girls and did homework. He was a big sissy though, wore one of these little Greek fisherman’s caps? Skip thought he was a, you know, a queer. She got kidded about going out with a queer. Him and his sister got killed in a car wreck though, and she never got anybody else.” “What did you think when she didn’t come back?”

“Pam thought maybe it was some Moonies got her, I didn’t know, I was scared every time I thought about it. I wouldn’t any more go out at night without Skip, I told him, I said uh-uh, buddy, when the sun goes down, we go out.” “Did you ever hear her mention anybody named Jame Gumb? Or John Grant?” “Ummmm … no.”

“Do you think she could have had a friend you didn’t know about? Were there gaps in time, days when you didn’t see her?” “No. She had a guy, I’d of known, believe me. She never had a guy.” “Do you think it might be just possible, let’s say, she could have had a friend and didn’t say anything about it?” “Why wouldn’t she?”

“Scared she’d get kidded, maybe?”

“Kidded by us? What are you saying, because of the other time? The sissy kid in high school?” Stacy reddened. “No. No way we would hurt her. I just mentioned that together. She didn’t … everybody was like, kind to her after he died.” “Did you work with Fredrica, Stacy?”

“Me and her and Pam Malavesi and Jaronda Askew all worked down at the Bargain Center summers in high school. Then Pam and me went to Richards’ to see could we get on, it’s real nice clothes, and they hired me and then Pam, so Pam says to Fredrica come on they need another girl and she came, but Mrs. Burdine—the merchandising manager?—she goes, ‘Well, Fredrica, we need somebody that, you know, people can relate to, that they come in and say I want to look like her, and you can give them advice how they look in this and stuff. And if you get yourself together and lose your weight I want you to come right back here and see me,’ she says. ‘But right now, if you want to take over some of our alterations I’ll try you at that, I’ll put in a word with Mrs. Lippman.’ Mrs. Burdine talked in this sweety voice but she turned out to be a bitch really, but I didn’t know it right at first.” “So Fredrica did alterations for Richards’, the store where you worked?” “It hurt her feelings, but sure. Old Mrs. Lippman did everybody’s alterations. She had the business and she had more than she could do, and Fredrica worked for her. She did them for old Mrs. Lippman. Mrs. Lippman sewed for everybody, made dresses. After Mrs. Lippman retired, her kid or whatever didn’t want to do it and Fredrica got it all and just kept sewing for everybody. That’s all she did. She’d meet me and Pam, we’d go to Pam’s house on lunch and watch ‘The Young and the Restless’ and she’d bring something and be working in her lap the whole time.” “Did Fredrica ever work at the store, taking measurements? Did she meet customers or the wholesale people?” “Sometimes, not much. I didn’t work every day.”

“Did Mrs. Burdine work every day, would she know?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Did Fredrica ever mention sewing for a company called Mr. Hide in Chicago or Calumet City, maybe lining leather goods?” “I don’t know, Mrs. Lippman might have.”

“Did you ever see the Mr. Hide brand? Did Richards’ ever carry it, or one of the boutiques?” “No.”

“Do you know where Mrs. Lippman is? I’d like to talk to her.” “She died. She went to Florida to retire and she died down there, Fredrica said. I never did know her, me and Skip just picked up Fredrica over there sometimes when she had a bunch of clothes. You might could talk to her family or something. I’ll write it down for you.” This was extremely tedious, when what Starling wanted was news from Calumet City. Forty minutes was up. The Hostage Rescue Team ought to be on the ground. She shifted so she didn’t have to look at the clock, and pressed on.

“Stacy, where did Fredrica buy clothes, where did she get those oversize Juno workout clothes, the sweats?” “She made just about everything. I expect she got the sweats at Richards’, you know, when everybody started wearing them real big, so they came down over tights like that? A lots of places carried them then. She got a discount at Richards’ because she sewed for them.” “Did she ever shop at an oversize store?”

“We went in every place to look, you know how you do. We’d go in Personality Plus and she’d look for ideas, you know, flattering patterns for big sizes.” “Did anybody ever come up and bug you around an oversize store, or did Fredrica ever feel somebody had his eye on her?” Stacy looked at the ceiling for a second and shook her head.

“Stacy, did transvestites ever come into Richards’, or men buying large dresses, did you ever run into that?” “No. Me and Skip saw some at a bar in Columbus one time.” “Was Fredrica with you?”

“Not hardly. We’d gone, like, for the weekend.”

“Would you write down the oversize places you went with Fredrica, do you think you could remember all of them?” “Just here, or here and Columbus?”

“Here and Columbus. And Richards’ too, I want to talk to Mrs. Burdine.” “Okay. Is it a pretty good job, being a FBI agent?”

“I think it is.”

“You get to travel around and stuff? I mean places better than this.” “Sometimes you do.”

“Got to look good every day, right?”

“Well, yeah. You have to try to look businesslike.”

“How do you get into that, being a FBI agent?”

“You have to go to college first, Stacy.”

“That’s tough to pay for.”

“Yeah, it is. Sometimes there are grants and fellowships that help out, though. Would you like me to send you some stuff?” “Yeah. I was just thinking, Fredrica was so happy for me when I got this job. She really got her rocks off—she never had a real office job—she thought this was getting somewhere. This—cardboard files and Barry Manilow on the speakers all day—she thought it was hot shit. What did she know, big dummy.” Tears stood in Stacy Hubka’s eyes. She opened them wide and held her head back to keep from having to do her eyes over.

“How about my list now?”

“I better do it at my desk, I got my word processor and I need my phone book and stuff.” She went out with her head back, navigating by the ceiling.

It was the telephone that was tantalizing Starling. The moment Stacy Hubka was out of the cubicle, Starling called Washington collect to get the news.