Matt said. “You don’t want me to come by Chief Wohl’s house?”
“I don’t see any reason for you to come out there,” Wohl said.
Am I being told I don’t belong there, or is he giving me time off?
“Yes, sir,” Matt said. “Thank you for lunch, Mr. Larkin.”
“Thanks for the ride, Matt,” Mr. Larkin said.
The only place there was room in Matt’s apartment for a desk was in his bedroom, and even there he had to look long and hard for a desk small enough to fit. He’d finally found an unpainted “student’s desk” in Sears Roebuck that fit, but wasn’t quite sturdy enough for the standard IBM electric typewriter he had inherited from his father’s office. Every time the carriage slammed back and forth for a new line, the desk shifted with a painful squeak.
Tom O’Mara made himself comfortable on Matt’s bed, first by sitting on it, and then, when he became bored with that, by lying down on it and watching television with the sound turned off, so as not to disturb Matt’s mental labor.
It took him the better part of an hour to translate first Amy’s really incredibly bad handwriting, and then to reorganize what she had written, and then finally to incorporate what Wohl and Larkin had brought up in their meeting. Finally, he was satisfied that he had come up with what Wohl and Larkin wanted. He typed one more copy, pulled it from the typewriter, and handed it to O’Mara.
This individual is almost certainly:
Mentally unbalanced, believing that he has a special relationship with God. He may believe that God speaks to him directly.
IMPORTANTLY: He would not make a public announcement of this relationship.
Highly intelligent.
Well educated, most likely a college graduate, but almost certainly has some college education.
Well spoken, possessed of a good vocabulary.
An expert typist, with access to a current model IBM typewriter (one with a “type ball”).
This individual is probably:
A male Caucasian.
Twenty-five to forty years old.
Asexual (that is, he’s unmarried, and has no wife, or homo- or hetero- sexual partner or sex life).
“A loner” (that is, has very few, or no friends).
Living alone.
Neat and orderly, possibly to an excessive degree, and dresses conservatively.
Of ordinary, or slightly less than ordinary, physical appearance. A chess player, not a football player.
Self-assured, possibly to an excessive degree. (That is, tends to become annoyed, even angry, with anyone who disagrees with him.)
An Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, (less likely, a Roman Catholic) but not an active member of any church group.
Works in an office.
A nondrinker.
Either a nonsmoker or a chain cigarette smoker.
This individual is possibly:
An engineer, either civil or electronic, or an accountant, or someone who works with figures.
A veteran, possibly discharged for medical (including psychological) reasons. Possibly a former junior officer.
Someone who has come to the attention of the authorities as the result of a complaint he has made when he has felt he has been wronged. (For example, complaining about neighbor’s loud party, or loud radio, damage to his lawn, et cetera, by neighborhood children.)
As O’Mara read it, Matt glanced up at the silent TV mounted on a hospital-room shelf over the door. O’Mara had been watching an old cops-and-robbers movie.
I wonder how he can tell the good guys from the bad guys? They all look like 1930s-era gangsters.
“Your sister was able to come up with all this just from that nutty note that screwball wrote?” O’Mara asked, visibly awed.
“My sister is a genius. It runs in the family.”
“Shit!” O’Mara said.
After a pause, Matt thought, while he decided I was not serious.
“Well, I’d better run this out to the brass,” O’Mara said, and finally pushed himself upright and got off the bed.
At the head of the stairs, O’Mara stopped. “How do I get out?” Matt recalled that O’Mara had parked Wohl’s car in front of the building. Despite the NO PARKING signs, no white hat was going to ticket what was obviously the unmarked car of a senior white shirt. He had unlocked the plate-glass door to the lobby with his key, and then locked it again after them. It would now be necessary to repeat the process to let O’Mara out.
“I’ll let you out,” Matt said, and went down the stairs ahead of him.
Matt went into the kitchen and took a bottle of beer from the refrigerator and went into the living room, slumped in his chair and picked up a copy of Playboy. He looked at his answering machine. The red, You Have Messages light was flashing.
I really don’t want to hear my messages. But on the