Silence.
Hank wasn’t very fond of me asking that question, which I did, over the years, a lot.
“Shit. You and Ally haven’t stolen candy from Walgreen’s again, have you?”
“We didn’t steal it! We were just buying a bunch and didn’t know what we could carry so we started putting it in our pockets early to see how much we could pack in.”
“They have bags at Walgreen’s, you know.”
“Those plastic bags clog the landfills and choke the environment.”
Or something.
“Jesus, a politically-correct Indy. God save us.”
“Smartass,” I said on a smile.
“What did you wanna talk about?”
Big breath.
“How would I go about finding a missing person?”
Hank became all business, I couldn’t see him but I heard it, for sure.
“Who is it?”
“You don’t know him.” Well, Hank did know Rosie but only to buy coffee from when he came to Fortnum’s.
“How long have they been missing?”
I tried to calculate it. “About ten hours.”
“Sorry, Indy. Not missing yet.”
“What if they actually are?”
“Who is it?” he repeated.
“An employee of mine, he’s a steady guy.” That was a lie, Rosie was anything but steady. But Rosie never missed a chance to make coffee. He worked seven days a week and never complained. “He didn’t show up for work today, his name is Ambrose Coltrane.”
Best not use his alias, just in case Lee called in a favor.
“The same Ambrose Coltrane that Lee’s lookin’ for?”
Say what?
“Lee only knows him as Rosie!”
Hesitation.
“Lee has ways.”
Grr.
Everybody was always saying this. Lee had ways of getting into girls’ panties. Lee had ways of getting parts for his car when he didn’t have a job. Lee had ways of finding choice parking spots wherever he went. Lee had ways of getting out of being grounded on average one hour after the grounding (when Ally and I would usually have to do the whole week or month or whatever our transgression had bought).
Hank didn’t read my frustration.