She could hear his questions pulsing through the line, but he hesitated as if he didn’t know how to ask them.
“He mentioned that he knew you many years ago. Is that right, Miss Kos?” he asked, so polite, so pleasant, but Dani wasn’t fooled. He was suspicious of her.
“Uh, yes, sir. That’s true.” She was surprised Malone had mentioned her.
“Quite the coincidence,” he remarked.
“Yes, sir. It was.”
“He was a patrolman then.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know him from his beat?”
“Not exactly. He was assigned to me . . . to my case . . . when my parents were murdered.” That seemed safe enough to reveal.
“I’m so sorry. Odd. I lived in Chicago during that time. I don’t remember a case with the name Kos.”
“Kos was my mother’s maiden name. My father was George Flanagan.”
“Flanagan,” he repeated slowly, like he was searching his memory. “I might remember something about that after all. You say Michael was assigned to the case?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you were just a child?”
“Yes. I was ten.” She didn’t see what that had to do with Malone’s whereabouts and said as much.
“No, it doesn’t. You’re right. I was just curious. Such an odd coincidence.”
“We thought it strange as well, as it was fifteen years to the day when we first met.” She didn’t know why she told him that. It was completely irrelevant, but he made her nervous with his slow speech and mild questions. She was spilling information like a sieve. She wondered if he had that effect on everyone. He was quite the interrogator.
“Huh,” he murmured. And was silent for several seconds. “Well, don’t worry too much. He’s a very capable man,” he concluded.
“Yes, sir. He certainly is.”
“How well do you know Malone, Miss Kos?” he asked, keeping that conversational, I’m-only-asking-to-be-polite, tone.
She hesitated. She supposed she didn’t know him very well at all. And yet, she suspected she knew him better than anyone did.
“W-well enough, sir,” she babbled.
He waited for her to elaborate, but she bit her lip, screwed up her face, and kept the words from bubbling out. She already felt like a fool.
“Tell you what. I’ll make some calls and see if I can locate him. And I’ll tell him to ring and check in. Don’t expect me to call back tonight unless I get lucky. Most likely it will be tomorrow morning, but I will try to call you back, even if I don’t have any news. But don’t worry. He’s fine.”
“I certainly hope so. Thank you, Mr. Ness.”
She put the receiver back in its cradle and turned to find her aunts looking at her with matching befuddlement. They had entered the sewing room without her even being aware.
“Mr. Ness?” Lenka gasped.
“Why were you talking to Eliot Ness, Daniela?” Zuzana pressed.
“I thought he might know where Mr. Malone is.”
“So you contacted the safety director?” Zuzana asked, dumbfounded.
“Yes. I did. And he was very nice. He says he is certain Mr. Malone is fine, but he will make some inquiries and ring me back tomorrow.”
“Oh my,” Lenka exclaimed. “How exciting.”
“When he rings again, I want to talk to him,” Zuzana insisted. “If he can locate one ugly boarder, he can certainly find the man who’s chopping people up in my backyard.”
“Don’t say that, Zuzana,” Lenka said, shuddering. “Can you imagine if we actually found a body in our yard?”
The old women tottered back down the hallway and climbed the stairs to their interrupted supper. Dani followed them, but she was too nervous to eat.
The next morning, she found herself hovering near the phone again, neglecting the shop, her errands, and the visit she needed to make to the morgue. But Mr. Ness did not call. She finally left Lenka stationed in the sewing room and set out for the medical office to return the Peterkas’ mending.
Over the years, Dr. Peterka and his family had been by the shop dozens of times for fittings and alterations, but since moving to Shaker Heights and converting his house on Broadway into his medical practice, the visits were much less frequent. Dani was grateful Dr. Peterka continued his patronage at all. Margaret had even secured a small income washing the doctors’ white coats, which she did along with all the other wash in the Kos laundry room.
Margaret picked up the wash from the practice on Fridays and dropped it off on Mondays, but because Dani had the mending to return to Libbie Peterka, she loaded the laundered white coats into her wagon and delivered them to save Margaret a trip.