Detective

cruised by the driveway. I copied the address into my pocket notebook.
    “Now what?”
    “Go down to the next intersection and turn around.”
    The cabbie did so, pulling a beautiful U-turn just as the light changed.
    “Now what?”
    “Pull into the side and park.”
    We parked about a block past the driveway to the house, facing back the way we came.
    “Should I kill the motor?” the cabbie asked. “We gonna be long?”
    “I don’t think so,” I said.
    I was right. Less than ten minutes later the Caddy came out of the driveway and headed back the way it had come. We pulled out and followed along, keeping a block behind.
    Floridian #1 drove straight back to the corner where he’d picked Red up, and let him off again. Red still had the suitcase, but I would have bet you it didn’t have the same thing in it as when he’d started.
    The Cadillac pulled away from the curb and the cabbie started to follow, but I stopped him. The car wasn’t important any more. I had the license number. I could trace Floridian #1. I had the house number. I could trace Floridian #2. Red was the one I wanted now.
    Red lugged the suitcase half a block to where he’d parked his car. More coincidence. It was right in front of where I’d parked mine, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of hopping out and switching cars now. I stuck with the cab.
    Red got in his car, drove to the Essex Hotel, and pulled into their underground garage. He rolled down his window and flashed his hotel key at the attendant, who waved him. on.
    A large sign on the garage entrance said “REGISTERED GUESTS ONLY.” Even if it hadn’t, the taxi wasn’t going to pass muster.
    “What now, boss?” the cabbie said.
    “Back to where his car was parked,” I told him.
    “Why?” he asked. I just stared at him. “Right you are, boss,” he said.
    We turned around and headed back.
    The cabbie dropped me off right next to the space where Red’s car had been parked. Another car was now in the space.
    “That’s gonna make it harder, isn’t it?” the cabbie said, jerking his thumb at the car. I said nothing, but counted out the fare into his hand and laid a ten on top of it. I got out of the cab and stood on the sidewalk. The cabbie sat there watching me. He wanted to see how I looked for evidence. I looked at him and jerked my thumb down the street. Slowly, reluctantly, he drove away.
    As soon as he was out of sight, I got in my car and pulled out. I turned a few corners, just to make sure no one was following me. When I was sure the cabbie wasn’t lurking around somewhere trying to learn a little more about my investigative technique, and sure Floridian #1 wasn’t backtracking me with the thought of turning me into a eunuch, I stopped at a pay phone and made a few calls.

12.
    I D ON’T U SE E LECTRONIC S URVEILLANCE in the course of my business. In fact, I don’t even do surveillance in the course of my business. I don’t even follow wayward wives around to get evidence in divorce cases. Of course, I knew about electronic surveillance, and I even had a few catalogs of electronic surveillance equipment that the companies that make that sort of stuff would send me from time to time just because I was listed as a detective agency. But I’d never really looked at them, other than thumbing through them now and then on a slow day. So I was out of my depth when it came to buying that sort of equipment, and both I and the guy in the store knew it.
    “You want a what?” he asked in response to my request.
    “I want a tracking device. The sort of thing you attach to a car that tells you when the car is moving and where it’s going.”
    “You want a transmitter,” he told me.
    “Is that what I want?”
    “Yeah, that’s what you want. You want a transmitter and a homing unit. The homing unit emits a beep when the car moves and shows you the direction it’s heading.”
    “That sounds about right,” I said.
    “We have several units of that type,” he said. “Starting at $79.95 and going on up.”
    “Depending on what?”
    “Signal strength, for one thing. At $79.95, you can cover a five-mile radius. You wanna go higher than that, you’re dealing with a larger transmitter with a higher frequency, and of course the price goes up.”
    The unit I wanted went up all the way to $249.95. It had a fifty-mile radius and could pinpoint a car ten miles away within an area of about ten blocks. Following the signal vector, and turning right or left as