Who's sorry now?

happened to be home at Grace and Favor. They owned the newspaper and almost never objected to what he printed in the Voorburg Times. This time it wasn’t content, but expense.
    ”That’s what the town pays Chief Walker to do,” Lily said. ”Protect us from criminals.”
    Robert chimed in, ”I couldn’t agree more. It’s well worth the cost and I’m sure Mr. Prinney would agree.”
    ”It will also take time. I can get it into the next issue of the paper on Friday the twenty-sixth. I’ll also give Deputy Ron Parker credit for the drawing. This week’s paper has a nice interview with him.”
    Walker hated to wait. It wasn’t up to him to argue with the editor, especially when it was already too late to make a change.
    Ron knew by now what his boss was thinking. ”It can hold. It’s already been a long time. We want to arrest him. He’s probably going to get a death sentence. And when Jack publishes the picture somebody’s bound to know who he is. That’s what we need to keep in mind.”
    ”You’re talking to me as if you were my father,” Walker said with a half laugh that didn’t fool Ron.
    ”It’s not that I’m telling you facts you don’t already know. I’m just mentioning that we will get him.”
    ”I hope we’re both right about this. Let’s go to Mabel’s for lunch. It’s meat loaf today. And it’s on me this time.”
    They took Chief Walker’s favorite table at the very back. They’d hardly sat down when Jim Harbinger said, ”Can I join you? It’s meat loaf day.”
    Walker realized that the single person he hadn’t talked to about Edwin was Jim. They placed their orders and while they waited Howard asked, ”Did Edwin have any other visitors besides the gal in the red dress?”
    ”Only two. An old friend he’d known when he was a kid. But that was a long time ago. The other man he saw wasn’t really visiting Edwin. Edwin always got up just before dawn to hear and see the birds. He had binoculars. He told me he saw the guy putting back the can of red paint and yelled at him for being there.”
    ”Why didn’t Harry mention this when I asked him?”Walker asked.
    ”I don’t think I mentioned it to him. Maybe Edwin didn’t either.”
    ”Did he describe the man?”
    ”Skinny, short, and thinning greasy hair.”
    ”That’s our man,” Walker said to Parker.
    ”What man?” Jim asked.
    ”The one who came back and strangled Edwin.”
    ”You’re kidding, right?”
    ”I’m certain. After lunch go to Jack’s office and take a look at the drawing Deputy Parker made of him. The drawing and your description match exactly.”
    The three orders of meat loaf, with mashed potatoes, gravy, and overcooked green beans arrived, and they all shoveled it down as if they hadn’t eaten for days.
    Jim finished first and asked, ”How are you going to find the man who killed Edwin?”
    ”We’re hoping when the picture appears in the next newspaper someone here will recognize him.”
    ”How did Deputy Parker know what he looked like?”
    Parker explained about the librarians who’d all seen him when he checked out the German books to set on fire at the tailor’s.
    ”You draw good?”
    ”I hope I have,” Parker replied.
     

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
    Friday, May 26
     
    THE PICTURE IN THE FRIDAY PAPER was well printed and clear. Walker expected a rash of callers to ring up and identify the man in the picture. A few did call.
    ”That looks a lot like a man I knew in Ohio.”
    ”How long ago was that?”
    ”About twenty years ago. He was a farmer.”
    Walker had to thank him even though this man wouldn’t have looked like the picture twenty years later.
    Another caller said, ”The picture looks like a man I saw when I was in California last week in a restaurant.”
    The man they were looking for had been in Voorburg last week burning trash and books. And he didn’t look like he had the money to fly to and back from California.
    ”Give me your number and I’ll get in touch if you’re right,” Walker said.
    And that was the end of the calls that day. Walker tried to put a good interpretation on this. Not everybody read the paper as soon as it was delivered. Many saved it to read over the weekend.
    Maybe this wasn’t going to work at all. Few people outside Voorburg and its surrounding farms even got a copy. Walker was fairly sure this wasn’t somebody who lived anywhere near Voorburg.
    Again on Saturday and Sunday there were a few calls. All entirely unlikely. The callers