Who's sorry now?

get to pay on time payments. He’s so anxious to get rid of it that he’s given me a bargain price.”
    ”I’m glad this is working out for both of you. You could earn your keep by finding a jewelry store somewhere near when you get the motorcycle. They’ll know where a wire like that could be purchased.”
    ”I should have the motorcycle by tomorrow. I’ll go to the library and look in phone books today.”
    Howard grinned. ”That’s something I hadn’t thought about. You are earning your keep.”
    Mrs. White had come back to Mr. Kurtz’s shop to pick up her daughter’s dresses and was enormously impressed with what a good job he did. She also brought along the dress that the other surly tailor had messed up.
    Mr. Kurtz told her to go in the back room and change into the flawed dress and come back out. She did so. He almost lost his temper. ”That’s terrible. Completely wrong.”
    He took out his chalk and marked the shoulder lines, and said, ”Even if the other man had done it right, the sleeves would have been too long. But I can fix everything. First, I have to carefully rip out what he did, then start over. Put your other clothing back on and I’ll have it ready in three days.”
    ”I’m so glad you can do this right. I know I can trust you. I’m tempted to go back and tell him how awful he is and how you undid his mistakes.”
    ”It’s up to you. But it would probably upset you more than him.”
    ”You’re probably right. My husband and I are going on a trip soon. Could you have the dress ready by Friday? We’re driving to see my husband’s new granddaughter in Albany.”
    ”I could have it ready by Wednesday.”
    Ron Parker came back to the jail the next day. ”I charged a phone call to your office. It was long distance. I’ll pay you back if you want.”
    ”You don’t have to pay when you’re doing your job.”
    ”I’m not sure you’re going to like what I found out.”
    ”Tell me,” Howard said, as the front legs of his chair went back down to the floor.
    ”I called a jewelry place and asked if they sold the kind of wire that could cut through a ring. They told me no. They order it in six-inch sections from time to time from a company in New York City.”
    ”You called them, I suppose?”
    ”I did. I asked them if they’d had an order for a longer length of this kind of wire recently. They were surprised at the question and waffled a bit until I explained that I was the deputy to the chief of police of Voorburg-on-Hudson and was asking them in connection with a murder that involved using such a wire.
    ”Suddenly the guy on the phone went silent. I thought he’d hung up at first, but then he said, ‘Murder? With a wire from us?’ ”
    ”Naturally he’d be wary. Companies don’t like their products and murder in the same sentence. Go on—”
    ”That’s what I figured. I assured him that they wouldn’t be held responsible, but might have to come to identify whether or not a certain person made the purchase at some time in the last few weeks.”
    ”Could the person you were speaking to remember what he looked like?”
    ”This is the part you’ll either love or hate.”
    Parker paused to take a deep breath and spit it out as fast as he could. ”A man in his late forties or early fifties. Thinning, dirty brown hair. Short stature. Small hands. Shabby clothing.”
     

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
     
    HOWARD WALKER LEANED his elbows on the desk and stared at Deputy Parker for a long moment.
    He finally said, ”I’m stunned. I was sure we had two different cases and two criminals to pursue. You did good! So it’s certainly the same man who the librarians described as stealing the books, who also bought the long section of wire to strangle McBride.”
    ”You’re relieved?” Ron asked.
    ”Relieved? Yes. Instead of trying to find two men to put away for life, we need to find the one right man.”
    ”And how do we find him?”
    ”We just keep asking questions. I don’t believe he’s local. I know almost everyone who lives anywhere near Voorburg—at least by sight, if not by name. It’s a shame I don’t know one of those artists that newspapers use to make a face that can be identified by several people who have all seen the same person. Maybe Jack Summer could help us out.”
    ”Before you ask Jack, let me try it. I drew all my classmates, all thirteen of them when we finished eighth grade. I was pretty good at it. The teachers and the kids themselves said I