Eye to Eye: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Read Online Free PDF Page B

bought a call to Souza's twenty-four-hour number.
I figured it was time for all the players to stand up and identify
themselves, and he was first on my list. What I got, though, was
Souza's "anchor," a 22-year-old named Foster Scott who wanted
desperately to be a detective someday but probably never would if
he stuck with the Souza Bureau of Private Investigation. Souza
knows a good thing when he sees it and he knew he had the perfect
anchorman in Foster Scott.
    "Put Greg on, Foster," I growled.
    I did not bother to identify myself because
this kid never forgets a voice; furthermore, he never takes notes
but can deliver verbatim an entire daylong list of messages. So I
knew something was up when he failed to "recognize" me, coming back
instead with a very formal, "Sorry, sir, he's mobile. But if it's
important, please hang up and call right back and I'll put you on
the automatic forward."
    I hung up without another word, punched the
number again, and this time got my man.
    "I was hoping you'd call,"
he said, and the tone—even
    considering the
source—raised my hackles just a mite. "We're on radio relay so keep
that in mind. What'd you get from the girl?"
    Leave it to Souza to refer to a Ph.D. in
creation physics as "the girl," for God's sake.
    I replied, "First you tell me, pal."
    'Tell you what?"
    "Exactly what is going
down here. Precisely who is paying your freight. Approximately what
are you expecting from me."
    "Can't go into that right here, old
buddy."
    "Then stop the goddamned car at the nearest
phone booth and call me back. I'll give you the number."
    "Don't know if I should do that. Think
something is at my tailgate. Uh, well, maybe I better, though. We
really do need to talk."
    I gave him the number and had to repeat it
twice. Damned guy was probably speeding along a freeway somewhere,
trying to look forward and backward at the same time while also
jotting a telephone number. I could picture it in my mind, and had
to wonder if Ma Bell had finally reached too far in the effort to
bring the world a little closer.
    But I got the callback in
about two minutes, and now the paranoia was unrestrained. "Listen,
Ash, let's make this quick. If these guys are at state of the art,
then you know as well as I do that they could have been scanning
for my voiceprint and locked me in on the 'hello.' Don't
go—"
    "Wait, wait," I interrupted. "Which guys are
these?"
    "Beats hell out of me.
They barged in on Foster 'bout an hour ago, flashed ID's at him.
All he could make out were the screamin' eagles of some federal
agency, but he says they didn't look, FBI. Foster thinks the office
is under surveillance right now, and so do I. I was up your way. So
don't go home."
    He could be the most exasperating son of
a...
    "Tell me about it, Greg."
    "Well, you know me. Once I've seen a face,
I've got it locked. Right?"
    I sighed and bowed to the inevitable drama.
"Right, Greg, right. You have an unbelievable mind." Amen.
    "Well, I saw Hank Gavinsky tonight. Remember
him?"
    I did not.
    "Remember?—the NSC case."
    I said, "Right" just to keep him moving;
didn't know what the hell he was talking about.
    "Word got out just after that, maybe old
Hank was doubling on us. And he flat dropped out of sight. I saw
Jimmy Casaba last year during that thing with Guatemala. He told me
Hank was tripling, as a double cover, and he's really a CIA hitman,
now."
    I said, "Greg, for God's sake...will you
just tell me—I thought we needed to make this quick."
    "Right, I'm making it as quick as I can."
But the tension was building in that voice and it was even starting
to infect me. "I told you I saw Hank tonight. I was out your way
when Foster alerted me. So I dropped through your neighborhood,
figured it was better than risking the telephones. Know where I saw
Hank? Just off your driveway, pal, just parked and waiting. Don't
go home tonight, Ash. Smear mud on your license plates and check
into a hotel under an assumed name until I get this thing
straightened