Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Three

Osborne, chief of the homicide section of the Chicago Police Department, had a gray, angular face like a stone fox.The National Tattler is now everywhere in the police station.There is a copy on the team leader's desk. He didn't invite Crawford and Graham to sit down. "You don't have any working relationship with Lounds in Chicago?" "No, he's going to Washington," said Crawford. "He's got an airline reservation. I'm sure you've checked." "Yes, I got it. He left the office at about 1:30 yesterday afternoon. He was kidnapped in the garage downstairs, it should be around 2:10."

"Is there anything left in the garage?" "His car keys were kicked under the car. There was no attendant in the garage - they used to have a wireless controlled door but it scratched the parked car a few times so they took it apart. No one saw it at the time The situation. I'm afraid this will be the climax of what will be repeated on the news today. We are checking his car." "Is there anything we can do to help?" "You'll see when I get the results. You haven't said anything, Graham. You've said a lot in the papers." "I haven't heard much from you either."

"Are you out of breath, Captain?" Crawford said. "Me? Why should I be mad? We did a stalking call for you and got a fucking newspaper reporter and you didn't charge him anything. You made a deal with him and put him here This popular tabloid did so hard. Now other newspapers treat him like their own baby. "Well now, we've got our own Tooth Fairy killings in Chicago, which is pretty cool. Got a 'Tooth Fairy in Chicago' story, man. Watch it before midnight Six accidental family shootings, drunk trying to sneak in, wife hears, bang, gun goes off. 'The Tooth Fairy' might like Chicago, maybe decides to hang around and have a good time."

"We can do this," said Crawford, "you fool, startle the director and the federal prosecutors, bring out all the old and bad cases, yours and ours ...or we sit down and figure out how to catch that bastard. I did this case, and it's disgraceful to get to this point, I know. But have you ever had a case like this in Chicago? I don't want to be with you Fight, Captain. We want to get him so we can go home. What do you want to do?" Osborne shifted the contents of his desk, a pen holder, a picture of a fox-faced kid in a band uniform.He leaned back in his chair, pursed his lips, and let out a little breath.

"Now I want some coffee. Would you like some?" "I want some," Crawford said. "Me too," Graham said. Osborne gave them paper cups.He gestured to the chair beside him for them to sit down. "The Tooth Fairy must have had a van or a pickup truck to move Lounds around in that wheelchair," Graham said. Osborne nodded. “The plate Lounds saw was stolen from a TV repair truck in Oak Park. He stole a commercial vehicle plate, so he must have had a truck or van. Got to the TV repair truck so we don't get caught right away. Great job, guy. One thing we know for sure - he changed the license plate around 8:30 yesterday morning. The TV repair guy did his first job yesterday morning. One thing was filling the car with gas, which he paid with a credit card. The gas station attendant copied the correct license plate number on the slip, so the plate theft must have happened after that."

"Did anyone see any trucks or vans?" Crawford said. "No, the Tattler security didn't see anything. He saw so little of the scene that he could be a wrestling referee. The fire department was the first to contact the Tattler, and they called Just to make sure of the fire. We're scrutinizing the night shift around the Tattler building and the area around where the TV repairman was working on Tuesday. We'd like someone to see him change his license plate." "I want to see that chair," Graham said. "In our lab, I'll call them for you." Osborne paused. "Lounds is a guy, you have to admit it despite his small size. He can remember the tail number of the car license plate and 'spit' the number when he was burned like that. You listen to Lounds The recording of Ozzy in the hospital?"

Graham nodded. "I didn't mean to bring up the tape, I wanted to see if we heard the same thing. What do you think he said?" Graham repeated in mechanical tones: "The Tooth Fairy. Graham set me up. He knew beforehand. Graham set me up. The spy put his hands on me in the picture , like on a fucking pet." Osborne could not tell how Graham felt about the passage.He asked a question in another way. "He meant the picture of you and him in the Tattler?" "should be." "Why would he have such an idea?" "Lounds and I had some altercations."

"And you look friendly in the photo. Is that the logic that the 'tooth fairy' always kills pets first?" "Yes." This "stone fox" thought quite quickly.thought Graham. "It really shouldn't be, you didn't send anyone to protect him." Graham said nothing. "Lounds was supposed to be with us when the Tooth Fairy saw the Tattler," Crawford said. "Does anything he says have any other effect on you, can anything on us?" Graham's mind was elsewhere, and he had to mentally repeat Osborne's question before answering. "We know from what Lounds said that the Tooth Fairy did it to him after seeing the Tattler, don't we?"

"right." "If you start with the question of the Tattler being the cause of his attack, you consider the very short period of time without him setting the trap. The paper went off the printing presses on Monday night, and he stole license plates in Chicago on a Tuesday. Sometime, probably in the morning, and he got Lounds on Tuesday afternoon. Does any of this do you any good?" "That means he saw the paper early, or he wasn't far from here," Crawford said. "He either saw the paper in Chicago, or somewhere else on Monday night. Don't forget Yes, he's been waiting to see his personal ad in this issue."

"Either he's already here, or he's within driving distance of here," Graham said. "He controlled Lounds with an old, big wheelchair that was too fast for a wheelchair to get on a plane - it couldn't even be folded. He didn't come here on a plane, and he didn't steal one van, stealing license plates, wandering around looking for an old wheelchair, he must have had an old one before—the new one would never work for what he was doing.” Graham stood up, fiddling with the wire of the Drikon blinds Rope, eyes fixed on the brick wall opposite the ventilation shaft. "He already had that wheelchair, or he always knew where it was."

Osborne wanted to ask a question, but Crawford's expression told him to wait. Graham began to tie knots in the rope, his hands shaking. "He always knew where it was..." Crawford reminded him. "Well," said Graham, "you can see how the idea came out of the wheelchair. It was after he saw and thought about the wheelchair, and he was thinking about how to deal with the crooks. Frey It must have been a sight to see Dee in a wheelchair and on fire in the street." "You think he was there to watch?" "Maybe. He must have seen it before he did it, when he was deciding what to do." Osborne looked at Crawford.Crawford is serious.Osborne knew that Crawford was listening seriously, that Crawford was following Graham's train of thought. "If he had had the wheelchair before, or if he'd always known where it was ... we could look up nursing homes, VA hospitals," Osborne said. "It held Freddie really well," Graham said. "And for a long time. He was missing for fifteen hours and twenty-five minutes, or so," said Osborne. "If he just wanted to get revenge on Freddie, he could do it in the garage," Graham said. "He could have set fire to his car. He wanted to talk to Freddie, or he wanted to play him for a while." "He was either in the back of his van or he was taken somewhere else," Crawford said. "For such a long time, I think I went to other places." "It must be a safe place. If he had tied him up, he wouldn't have attracted much attention in the nursing home," Osborne said. "But he's got a lot of cleaning to do, even in loud places," Crawford said. If he's got chairs, he's found a van, and he's got a safe place to take labor. Go Ertz and get on him. Doesn't this look like a... home?" Osborne's phone rang, and he barked gruffly inside: "What's the matter? No, I don't want to talk to the Tattler. . . . Well, better not be bullshit. Put her in. . . . Captain Osborne, I'm... what time? Who answered the phone first—the switchboard? Please get her out of the switchboard. Tell me what he said again. I'll have a police officer be there in five minutes." Osborne looked at the telephone thoughtfully after he hung up. "Lounds' secretary got a call five minutes ago," he said, "and she swears it was Lounds' voice. He said something she didn't understand. What 'the power of the red dragon,' it was her feel what he said."

---

Notes: