Rescue

out. Plus, most likely the authorities will give Eddie back to his parents or at best put him in a foster home.“
    “I still have to find him, first.“
    “Just be sure you’ve thought it through by then, okay?“
    Nancy said the last as gently as she’d taken my hand at dinner, and I rolled toward her with a long, slow kiss.
    “Hey“—a dreamy fringe around her voice—“remember, you’ve got an early flight.“
    “I’ll sleep on the plane.“

12

    I did. Sleep on the plane, that is.
    The flight to Washington , D.C. , boarded and departed Boston’s Logan Airport on time. Our flight attendant, a heavyset woman in her thirties, was sitting diagonally across from me and my seatmate, a bald guy in his fifties. I looked out the portside window, the harbor islands shimmering in the early morning sun. As a kid, I went on field trips via the ferry to George’s Island , the air ten degrees colder than in the city. We picnicked and played kickball, but more exciting was running through the ruins of the old fort there. The bat tlements guarded the entrance to one of the colonies’ best ports, tracks from the cannon still evident as ruts in the stone ramparts.
    The captain turned off the seat belt sign, and our flight attendant got up to get the beverage cart. After she went by our row, my seatmate tapped me on the forearm.
    Remember when ‘wide-bodies’ meant just the planes, not he stewardesses?“
    I gave him a long look. “Nice talking to you,“ I said, and closed my eyes.
    * * *

    In Washington’s National Airport, I got my two suitcases at the carousel, took off the luggage tags, and went up to the PURCHASE TICKETS HERE counter of another airline. The uniformed agent behind the computer smiled and asked if she could help.
    “Yes. My name’s John Francis. I need a flight to Miami, sometime this afternoon.“
    “One moment, please.“
    They had space on a flight leaving just after two. I thought that would give me enough time. “First-class, one way, please.“
    “Certainly, sir. Credit card?“
    “I’ll be paying cash. And could I have a couple of those luggage tags, too?“
    “Help yourself.“

    The Miami ticket for John Francis in my coat pocket, I took a cab into D.C., the driver finding a chain place I remembered being near DuPont Circle. The desk clerk was very accommodating, imprinting two keys on his computer for me. He seemed happy that he could book John Cuddy into a room that early in the morning. So was I.
    Upstairs, I unpacked one of the suitcases, the one with cooler weather clothes in it, hanging things up that needed to be hung and putting in drawers underwear, socks, and so forth. Then I took my other suitcase, still without a luggage tag, and brought it downstairs, leaving it and two dollars with the bell captain.
    Outside, I got another cab and told the driver to take me to the center of Georgetown. I paid him “by the zone,“ and after he dropped me off, I went hunting. Fifteen minutes later, I found what I was looking for, behind the cash register in a T-shirt shop.
    A stumpy kid whose eyes still appeared a little hungry, he wore a Hoyas basketball sweatshirt over grunge jeans. Before approaching him, I browsed until we were the only people in the store.
    “You go to Georgetown?“ I said.
    “Yeah. Help you with something?“
    “Maybe. How would you like to earn a hundred bucks?“
    The kid gave me a tainted look. “I don’t want any trouble.“
    “No trouble. And not even illegal. All I want you to do is keep going to a given hotel room over by DuPont Circle every evening and mess up the bedclothes.“
    “You what?“
    “Maybe run some water on the soap, and splash a little on the towels, too.“
    The kid regarded me differently. “You want me to make it look like you’re staying there.“
    “Right.“
    “When you’re not.“
    “Right again.“
    “For a hundred bucks.“
    “Now. Another hundred when I come back to you here and tell you to stop.“
    “When’ll that be?“
    “Not sure. Maybe a week, maybe less or more. But you get to keep the hundred, no matter what.“
    “And I get the other hundred, no matter what.“
    “Uh-huh.“
    “And it’s not illegal?“
    I held out the duplicate computer card the happy clerk had given me. “Not as long as you have my key.“
    The kid turned it around in his head, then nodded. “Let’s see the hundred.“
    I showed him two fifties. “What’s your name?“
    “Kevin.“
    “Pleased to meet you,