said. "Butt heads, get the police commissioner and theU.S.attorney all stirred up, get all the assholes stirred up, yours and mine. Or we can settle down and try to catch the bastard. This was my operation and it went to shit, I know that. You ever have that happen right here inChicago? I don't want to fight you, Captain. We want to catch him and go home. What do you want?"
Osborne moved a couple of items on his desk, a penholder, a picture of a fox-faced child in band uniform. He leaned back in his chair, pursed his lips and blew out some air.
"Right now I want some coffee. You guys want some?"
"I'd like some," Crawford said.
"So would I," Graham said.
Osborne passed around the Styrofoam cups. He pointed to some chairs.
"The Tooth Fairy had to have a van or a panel truck to move Lounds around in that wheelchair," Graham said.
Osborne nodded. "The license plate Lounds saw was stolen off a TV repair truck inOak Park. He took a commercial plate, so he was getting it for a truck or a van. He replaced the plate on the TV truck with another stolen plate so it wouldn't be noticed so fast. Very sly, this boy. One thing we do know - he got the plate off the TV truck sometime after eight-thirty yesterday morning. The TV repair guy bought gas first thing yesterday and he used a credit card. The attendant copied the correct license number on the slip, so the plate was stolen after that."
"Nobody saw any kind of truck or van?" Crawford said.
"Nothing. The guard at the Tattler saw zip. He couldreferee wrestling he sees so little. The fire department responded first to the Tattler . They were just looking for fire. We're canvassing the overnight workers in the Tattler neighborhood and the neighborhoods where the TV guy worked Tuesday morning. We hope somebody saw him cop the plate."
"I'd like to see the chair again," Graham said.
"It's in our lab. I'll call them for you." Osborne paused. "Lounds was a ballsy little guy, you have to give him that. Remembering the license number and spitting it out, the shape he was in. You listened to what Lounds said at the hospital?"
Graham nodded.
"I don't mean to rub this in, but I want to know if we heard it the same way. What does it sound like to you?"
Graham quoted in a monotone "'Tooth Fairy. Graham set me up. The cunt knew it. Graham set 'me up. Cunt put his hand on me in the picture like a fucking pet."'
Osborne could not tell how Graham felt about it. He asked another question.
"He was talking about the picture of you and him in the Tattler ?"
"Had to be."
"Where would he get that idea?"
"Lounds and I had a few run-ins.
"But you looked friendly toward Lounds in the picture. The Tooth Fairy kills the pet first, is that it?"
"That's it." The stone fox was pretty fast, Graham thought.
"Too bad you didn't stake him out."
Graham said nothing.
"Lounds was supposed to be with us by the time the Tooth Fairy saw the Tattler ," Crawford said.
"Does what he said mean anything else to you, anything we can use?"
Graham came back from somewhere and had to repeat Osborne's question in his mind before he answered. "We know from what Lounds said that the Tooth Fairy saw the Tattler before he hit Lounds, right?"
"Right."
"If you start with the idea that the Tattler set him off, does it strike you that he set this up in a hell ofa hurry? The thing came off the press Monday night, he's inChicagostealing license plates sometime Tuesday, probably Tuesday morning, and he's on top of Lounds Tuesday afternoon. What does that say to you?"
"That he saw it early or he didn't have far to come," Crawford said. "Either he saw it here inChicagoor he saw it someplace else Monday night. Bear in mind, he'd be watching for it to get the personal column."
"Either he was already here, or he came from driving distance," Graham said. "He was on top of Lounds too fast with a big old wheelchair you couldn't carry on a plane - it doesn't even fold. And he didn't fly here, steal a van, steal plates for it, and go around looking for an antique wheelchair to use. He had to have an old wheelchair - a new one wouldn't work for what he did." Graham was up, fiddling with the cord on the venetian blinds, staring at