The Other Lady Vanishes (Burning Cove #2)(61)

“Maybe. But if there isn’t one or if it’s out of order, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if Conrad is still in San Francisco. I need to know, Jake.”

“All right,” Jake said. “Got to admit, I’m pretty damn curious myself.”

He turned off the highway onto a side road and pulled into the closed gas station. A faded sign on the wall pointed to a telephone booth around the corner of the garage.

Jake brought the car to a halt but he left the lights on and the motor running.

“We need to hurry,” he said. “The fog is getting bad fast. Bring the flashlight.”

Adelaide already had the glove box open. Jake’s gun was no longer inside. He was wearing it in a shoulder holster. She grabbed the flashlight and got out of the car. Jake climbed out from behind the wheel and joined her. He took the flashlight and switched it on.

They walked around the corner of the building. The flashlight picked out the darkened phone booth a few feet away from the entrance of the closed garage.

Jake opened the door of the booth and aimed the beam at the front of the telephone so that she could see the dial. She took the little notebook out of her purse and found the number.

Jake handed her some coins. She dropped them into the slot and dialed the operator.

“Long distance, please,” she said.

“One moment. I’ll connect you,” the operator said.

There was something reassuring about the very professional, very efficient, very competent female voice on the other end of the line. It was the voice of the modern era, Adelaide thought, the voice that was associated with the latest developments in communications technology. She liked the fact that it was a woman’s voice.

The operator asked for some additional coins. Adelaide fumbled them into the slot.

She was vaguely aware of the distant rumble of a car engine. Headlights glared in the fog. The vehicle turned off the highway and onto the farm road that went past the gas station. Jake turned to watch the car motor slowly down the side road, but he seemed to relax when the vehicle did not pause.

“Just some farmer trying to get home before the conditions get worse,” he said.

The wait for the long-distance operator to establish the connection seemed an eternity but Adelaide knew that it was probably no more than a minute and a half or two minutes. Finally the phone rang on the other end of the line. Once. Twice. Three times. At last someone picked up.

“Douglass 4981.”

The voice on the other end was that of a middle-aged woman. The housekeeper, Adelaide thought.

“Long-distance calling for Mr. Massey,” the operator said.

“Mr. Massey isn’t home,” the housekeeper said. “He’s away on business. May I take a message?”

“Yes, I’ll leave a message,” Adelaide said quickly.

“Go ahead,” the operator said.

“It’s very important that I get in touch with Mr. Massey,” Adelaide said to the housekeeper. “Would you please tell me where he is?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know,” the housekeeper said. “He got a long-distance phone call from a woman the day before yesterday. He had me pack his suitcase and then he left. He said something about a business emergency. If you’ll give me your name—”

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Adelaide said. “I’ve decided not to leave a message.”

She hung up quickly.

“I take it you were right?” Jake said. “The number belongs to Conrad Massey?”

“Yes. The housekeeper said he’s away on business. She doesn’t know when he’ll be back. She said he left the day before yesterday, immediately after receiving a long-distance call.”

“And yesterday afternoon he turned up in Burning Cove,” Jake said. “I think we can assume that the phone call he got was from Thelma Leggett. She probably offered to sell him information about your current whereabouts.”

“Maybe he’s the one who murdered her.”

“I’m not so sure,” Jake said. “We’ve got plenty of suspects to go around at the moment. Let’s get back on the road. We need to place another long-distance call but it can wait until we find an auto court.”

“What other call do you want to make?”

“The Rushbrook Sanitarium. It will be interesting to find out if Gill is also away on a business trip.”

“Why don’t we call right now? The secretary will have gone home for the day but one of the night orderlies might answer.”

“If we don’t get back on the road now, we’ll be spending the night in the car,” Jake said.

He wrapped a strong, sure hand around her arm and eased her out of the phone booth.

“The auto court is only a couple of miles from here,” Adelaide said.

The low rumble of a slow-moving car made her glance toward the farm road. The beams of the headlights shot through the fog. The vehicle was coming from the rural area beyond the gas station, heading toward the highway.

“I think that’s the same car that pulled off the road a few minutes ago,” Jake said.

“The driver must have realized he took a wrong turn in the fog.”

“Maybe.”

Jake switched off the flashlight. The fogbound night enveloped them like a dark, incoming tide.