Seven Minutes to Noon

had enough time! Is it Andre Capa?”
    Neither Frannie nor Giometti responded to Alice’s outburst and she almost regretted it, but not really. She was afraid. They were keeping something from her.
    They traveled the length of Smith Street in silence, turning up Atlantic Avenue and heading toward the ocean, which now swelled into view; Alice was always surprised by any reminder that they lived on an island.
    “He’s been arrested,” Frannie finally said.
    “Arrested for what?” Alice asked. “Murder? Stalking? Bad manners? What ?”
    “Alice, please, calm down.” Frannie’s tone had lost any pretense of patience. “There’s a lot going on here. I’m telling you what you need to know.”
    “Which is?”
    “To answer your question, yes, Andre Capa was following you. We’ve run him through forensics in every possible way, and right now we’re waiting for the results. If it’s him, Alice, we’re hoping he’ll lead us to the crime scene.”
    “If it is him,” Alice asked, “are you thinking he might have Ivy?”
    “We don’t know.”
    “What about Julius Pollack? The crying I heard?”
    The car sped along Hicks Street now, all the way to Hamilton Avenue. They veered left under the shadowy highway overpass.
    “We’re waiting on a warrant, search and seizure, home and office. We can’t do anything until we get it.”
    “Why is it taking so long, Frannie? Do you think this Capa might somehow be involved with Metro? Could he be Julius’s partner?”
    “I’m telling you,” Frannie said, “we don’t know yet.”
    Giometti drove the car along the leafy shade of Clinton Street, past multimillion-dollar brownstones, into the heart of Carroll Gardens.
    “What this means for you, Alice, is that you don’t have to be so afraid.” Frannie found her old, warm smile. “Okay? We figured it would help you to have thisinformation. But please don’t spread it around. We don’t want any attention on this, not until we can figure it out.”
    Alice nodded. They pulled up to the school, where parents and babysitters were clustering around the entrance.
    “The main thing is for you to know we arrested your stalker. We know his name. We know where he lives. We don’t know why he was following you, but we’ve got him. You’re safe, Alice.”
    Alice wondered where Frannie got the confidence for the assertion of her safety. Frannie reached over to pop open the back door so Alice could exit onto the sidewalk, back into her life. Peter was just then coming down the stairs with his lunch box trailing from his hand. When he saw her, his face blossomed in smile.

Chapter 25
    A careful scan of the Saturday morning newspaper and also the Internet convinced Alice that the detectives had succeeded in keeping the information of Andre Capa’s arrest secret.
    “I’m surprised that reporter, Brinkley, didn’t find out about Capa.” Alice folded the newspaper and turned to Mike, who was stooping to wipe syrup off Peter’s face with a damp paper towel. “She found out everything else.”
    “She found out what we’ve read about,” Mike said. “There could be other stuff we don’t know.”
    “Right.” Of course, Alice thought, there would be. The police always held things back, crucial facts like Ivy’s gender and name. Maybe there was more. “But at least the detectives told us,” Alice added, “so we don’t have to worry anymore.”
    “Go brush your teeth, and tell Nell too.” Mike shooed Peter toward the stairs. “We’re leaving in five minutes.”
    “We don’t need to worry anymore, Mike, right?”
    “Are you asking me, or telling me?” His smile was slightly mischievous, bubbling with some nascent humor he wasn’t yet ready to let loose. He was feeling less worried, she realized with relief.
    “A little of both, I guess.”
    “We better boogie if we’re going to make it on time,” Mike reminded Alice, who was the only one still notdressed for their ten o’clock appointment with Judy Gersten to see the Third Place house.
    She got ready as quickly as she could, though she was beginning to notice that with each passing day it was harder to move around. As the twins grew, her physical capacities seemed to shrink; going through the simplest routines could feel like walking through water.
    She joined the family out front, where Nell and Peter were enduring the wait by decorating the stoop with chalk drawings.
    “Oh, Julius is going to love that,” Alice said.
    Mike grinned. “More