فصل 04 - بخش 06

4

The next morning, after coffee, a brisk three-mile walk, breakfast at a nearby café, and a hot shower, Holly called the Dayton Police Department and asked for Traffic Division. Following a refreshingly brief interval on hold, an Officer Linden came on the line and asked how he could help her. Holly found this delightful. A polite policeman always brightened her day. Although to be fair, most of them were in the Midwest.

She identified herself, said she was interested in a white Econoline van that had been left in a public parking lot on Northwoods Boulevard in April, and asked if DPD regularly checked the city’s honor lots.

‘Sure,’ Officer Linden said, ‘but not to enforce the six-hour limit. They’re cops, not meter maids.’

‘I understand,’ Holly said, ‘but they must keep an eye out for possible dump-offs, don’t they?’

Linden laughed. ‘Your company must do a lot of repos and retrievals.’

‘Along with bail-jumpers, they’re our bread and butter.’

‘Then you know how it works. We’re especially interested in expensive cars that have been hanging around those lots for awhile, both in town and in long-term parking at the airport. Your Denalis, your Escalades, your Jags and Beemers. You say this van you’re interested in had New York plates?’

‘Correct.’

‘A van like that probably wouldn’t have drawn much attention the first day – people from New York do come to Dayton, strange as it may seem – but if it was still there on the second day? Probably.’

Which still would have been a full day before the Maitlands arrived. ‘Thank you, Officer.’

‘I could check the impound yard, if you want.’

‘That won’t be necessary. The van next showed up a thousand miles south of here.’

‘What’s your interest in it, if you don’t mind me asking?’

‘Not at all,’ Holly said. This was a police officer, after all. ‘It was used to abduct a child who was subsequently murdered.’