Читаем Even the Wicked полностью

"How the mighty have fallen," I said. "But I don't want to go there.

I just want to find out if somebody else did."

"Ah," she said. "Detective work?"

"I'm afraid so."

"And if he went there you have to chase after him?"

"I think he went and came back." I handed her a slip of paper.

"Probably flew out there on either of these dates, and returned on either of these."

"From New York to Omaha, and—"

"From Philadelphia."

"From Philadelphia," she said. "I was just going to guess who flies nonstop from New York to Omaha, and I know America West used to, and I don't know if they still do, but it doesn't matter if he flew from Philadelphia. But who flies Philly to Omaha nonstop?" She flexed her fingers, frowned, tapped away at the keys. "Nobody," she announced.

"You can get there on USAir via Pittsburgh or you can fly Midwest Express through Milwaukee. Or United if you don't mind changing at O'Hare. Or any airline, just about, but those are the logical ones. I don't suppose you know which airline he used?"

"No."

"And his name?"

"Arnold Wishniak."

"Well, if we find him," she said, "we'll know it's him, won't we?

Because how many Arnold Wishniaks could be going from Philadelphia to Omaha?"

"I'd say one at the most. I don't think he would have used his real name."

"I don't blame him."

"But he may have kept the initials."

"Well, let's see." She tapped away at the keys, periodically rolling her eyes while she waited for the machine to respond. "Every computer's faster than the last one," she said, "and they're never fast enough.

You get so you want it instantaneous. More than that, you want it to give you data before you can even think to ask for it."

"Same with people."

"Huh? Oh, right." She giggled. "At least computers keep improving. Do you see what I'm doing? I'm starting with USAir, and I'm asking if there's a Wishniak on Flight 1103 on the fifth, and there's not, and now I'll ask about Flight 179 the same day… No. Okay, the other date's the sixth, right? So we'll try 1103… Nothing, and now we'll try 179. Is that the right number, 179? It is, so we'll try it. Nope."

"I don't think he would have used his real name."

"I know, but I wanted to rule it out because with the name I could access the records. With just the initials I can't."

"Oh."

"Let me try Midwest Express," she said. She did, and United as well, and wound up shaking her head.

"There's another name you could try," I said. "He had a brother who anglicized the family name, and Arnold's borrowed the name in the past."

I told her the name and she repeated it and frowned. "Spell it?" I spelled it and she hit keys. "It's a familiar name to me," she mused.

"Where did I hear it recently?"

"No idea," I said. "Of course there's the ballplayer, Dave Winfield."

She shook her head. "Since the strike," she said, "I don't pay any attention. Flight 1103, on the fifth. No luck there. Flight 179, also on the fifth…"

Nothing on any of the flights in question.

"There's still a good chance he used the initials," I said. "But you can't access it that way. Suppose you just pull up the passenger manifests for each of those flights. Can you do that?"

"I can't."

"Who can?"

"Some computer genius, probably. Or somebody at the airline who's got the access codes." She frowned. "This is important, huh?"

"Kind of."

She picked up a phone, flipped through a Rolodex, dialed a number. She said, "Hi, this is Phyllis at JMC. Who's this? Judy? Judy, I've got this very good customer of mine who happens to be a detective.

He's on this case that involves a noncustodial parent… Right, you hear about stuff like this all the time. I know, it's amazing. They don't pay child support and then they come and kidnap the kids."

She explained what I needed to know. "He wasn't on any of those flights under his own name," she said,

"but the detective thinks he may have kept the initials. No, I understand it's confidential, Judy. You would have to have a court order.

Right." She made a face, then forced a smile. "Look, could you do this much? Without telling me the name, could you see if there's a male passenger on one of those flights with the initials AW? Yes, Philadelphia to Omaha."

She covered the mouthpiece. "She's not supposed to do this," she said, "but she'll bend a little. My guess, she's divorced and not on the best of terms with her ex." She uncovered the mouthpiece. "Hi, Judy.

Rats. None at all, huh?"

"He probably paid cash," I said.

She was quick. "Judy," she said, "he probably made up a name, so he probably paid cash. If you could… uh-huh. Uh-huh. Right, I understand."

She covered the mouthpiece again. "She can't do it."

"Can't or won't?"

"Won't. It's against the rules, she'd get in trouble, blah blah blah."

TJ said, "Could you do it? If you had the access codes?"

"But I don't."

"But she does."

She considered, shrugged, and uncovered the mouthpiece. "Judy,"

she said, "last thing I want is for you to get in trouble. For curiosity, though, tell me something. Is that information there to be pulled up?

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