The Witness (Badge of Honor 4)

In a few moments everyone but the Paynes and Charley McFadden had gone down the steep stairway.

“Are you hungry, Matt?”

“I think there’s some ribs in the refrigerator,” Matt said.

“There’s more ribs in the refrigerator than you know,” she said. “I stopped off at Ribs Unlimited—I know how you like their ribs—on my way here and got you some.”

“Then take yours home with you or give them to Amy.”

“Why don’t I heat them all up, and we can have lunch? I haven’t had anything to eat, either.”

“I’ve got to get back to the office,” Brewster Payne said.

“Can you drop me at Hahnemann, Dad?” Amy asked.

He nodded.

At the head of the stairs, Amy turned and pointed her finger at Matt.

“For once in your life, Matt, do what people tell you.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, then, the three of us can eat the ribs,” Patricia Payne said with forced cheerfulness.

“Four,” Charley McFadden said. “Hay-zus will be back in a couple of minutes.”

“The four of us, then,” she agreed.

The telephone rang. Matt reached to pick it up, then stopped.

They all watched it wordlessly until, after seven rings, it stopped.

I have the strangest feeling that was Helene, Matt thought.

Charley McFadden suddenly got up from his chair and started down the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

“From now on,” Charley called, “I think we should keep that door locked.”

Matt glanced at his mother. She looked very sad. When she sensed his eyes on her, she smiled.

“He really is large, isn’t he?”

Jesus Martinez came back to the apartment almost an hour later, as Matt’s mother was cleaning up the kitchen.

“They don’t make that model anymore,” he said. “I have been in every electronics store in Center City trying to find these.”

He held up three tape cassettes.

The telephone had rung twice more while they had been eating. They hadn’t answered it.

It rang again almost immediately after Matt had installed a new tape.

“What are we supposed to do?” McFadden asked. “Answer it? Or let the machine answer it?”

“Let the machine do it,” Martinez said. “I think the chief wants the recording.”