"That...that man called today," William Atherton's secretary told Alex. It was clear from her tone of voice that she hadn't enjoyed taking Mel Ott's call. "I told him exactly what you asked me to. He didn't like it, but he said he'd be here in the morning."
Alex had stopped by the Atherton and Son Investment Services office to check if Mel Ott had actually taken the next step in his attempt to blackmail William Atherton. It was the step that would, Alex hoped, lead to Ott's arrest and incarceration.
"Good," Alex said. "If he shows up, we'll get him."
"I certainly hope so," Atherton's secretary said. "The sooner that man is in jail, the better I'll like it. He gives me the creeps." She seemed to realize something. "My goodness! You'll be arresting him right here, won't you? Will...will Mr. Atherton and I be in any danger?"
"As a matter of fact, I was just going to discuss that with you," Alex said. "I believe I've come up with a way of handling this that won't expose either you or Mr. Atherton to danger. I plan to have a female detective fill in for you when Ott's here."
The gray-haired woman looked somewhat relieved. "Shall I call Mr. Atherton and tell him to be here tomorrow morning?" she asked. "He did leave a number where I can reach him."
Alex shook his head. "You don't have to call him. He's already in his office." Seeing the puzzled look on the secretary's face, he smiled. "Look, I'll go into his office and tell him we're doing a run-through of what will happen tomorrow. You come in, as if you're Mr. Ott, all right?"
"How...how did Mr. Atherton get here without my seeing him?" the extremely confused secretary asked. "I-I've been here all day and..."
Alex, grinning, held up his hand to silence her. "I'm going into his office now," he said. "Give me a couple of minutes to explain what we're doing to Mr. Atherton, then you come in."
"All...all right," she said.
Alex walked into Atherton's empty office, went around behind Atherton's desk, and sank into the huge, lush executive chair that sat there. Then he turned the chair around so the high back was to the door. Only the top of his head showed above the chair. He'd noticed the other day that he and Atherton had the same hair color, and combed their hair pretty much the same, too. And he figured Ott wasn't sharp enough to notice the difference anyhow.
A few moments later, the door opened. "Mr. Atherton!" the secretary said. "I had no idea you were here. Why didn't you tell me?" She paused. "Where did that detective go?"
Alex turned around in the chair to face the shocked secretary. "He's right here," he said.
"It...it was you!" she said. "Then Mr. Atherton isn't here?"
Alex nodded. "I don't want to put any civilians in danger if I don't have to. If I fooled you," he said, "I should be able to fool Ott, don't you think?"
"Well, yes," the secretary said. "But...what if you have to talk? You don't sound anything like Mr. Atherton."
Alex smiled. "Our lab technician will be by later today to take care of that," he explained.
"Oh!" the secretary said.
"What time did you tell Ott to be here tomorrow?" Alex asked.
"Eight-thirty, just as you told me," the secretary said.
"My people and I will be here at seven to get things ready," Alex told her.
"I'll come in early to let you in," the secretary said.
"Thanks," Alex said.
He left Atherton's office and drove back to headquarters. He'd just gotten settled behind his desk when Tim Jackman walked into his office.
"How's the investigation into that assault on the woman who lives over on Jenkins going?" Alex asked the young detective.
Tim shrugged. "A deputy sheriff found a car matching the description we got from Len in some woods outside of town," he said. "No prints on it, though. Owner reported it stolen a couple hours before the assault occurred. I got the state police lab to go over it for us. I just talked to them, and they haven't found anything so far."
"To be honest with you, Tim, I'm not surprised," Alex said. "If it was just a random house-break, we'll have to wait until the bad guys hit again."
"I don't know," Tim said. "I'm not sure that's what it was."
Alex didn't, either, but he didn't tell Tim that. He wanted to see how his newest detective thought. "Why not?" he asked.
"Well," Tim said, looking a bit uncertain, "I checked our reports back three weeks. I didn't find a single report where the M.O. was the same."
"That's good as far as it goes," Alex said. "But what if the other times these guys have hit, nobody's been home?"
"I thought about that, too," Tim replied. "But burglars usually want to get in and out as quickly as possible. And most of them case the places they're going to hit pretty carefully so they don't run into their victims." He anticipated what Alex was going to say next. "I know kids sometimes hit places randomly, but these guys weren't kids. They were adults, and the guy outside was a lookout. They even had a signal set up."
"If you're right," Alex said, "Why that house? Is there some reason Mrs. Norris might be a target?"
"I haven't figured that out, yet," Tim said. "Her husband was involved in a DUI crash a while back, and screwed up a lady's life pretty badly. It could be it was somebody looking for revenge."
"But Mrs. Norris is getting a divorce, isn't she? She kicked her husband out, right?" Alex said.
Tim smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, that's true," he said. "It was just an idea. I'm going to go out and talk to Marion again, see if she has any ideas."
