Radar’s heart seemed to freeze in midbeat inside his chest.
Stall-you don’t have to really carry it out. Just stall. Go to the bank, deal with things when you get there.
“And if this is not done on time,” the man told him, “I will kill Tod. I hope you’re taking me as seriously as you need to.”
“I hear you.”
Stay on the line, stay on the line. Maybe the trace will go through-
“I’m going to give you four phone numbers. Write them down.”
Radar got out a pen. “Whose numbers are they?”
“Cable news networks. Once you’re in the bank, I want you to call them and tell them where you are and that they need to be there, filming by four twenty-five. I want them recording it live when it happens. I’ll call you again when you’re at the bank.”
The man hung up.
Calvin cancelled his lecture for this afternoon so he could help us, a gesture that, as much as I appreciated it, definitely took me by surprise. I’d left him alone a few minutes ago so he could focus on his algorithms and now, as I headed to my desk, I saw Radar lowering his phone’s receiver. He was breathing heavily, staring at a shoebox on his lap. He looked shaken.
“Hey, you alright?”
He looked my way. “Sure.”
But he didn’t look sure. “Something up?”
He shook his head, then covered the box carefully with the lid. Stood. “Just Gayle. I need to step out for a bit. If I get any calls, take a message and have the dispatcher pass it along to me.”
“So everything’s okay?”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s just, something came up with one of the kids. Tod.”
“Get sick at school?”
Radar looked distracted.
“I mean school’s not out yet. Did he get sick? I just didn’t know if-”
“Yeah, no. He’s at home. He’s safe.”
He picked up his keys. “I’ll be on the radio, okay? Call me if anything comes up.”
“Okay.”
He started for the hall.
“Hey, Radar.”
He turned and looked at me.
“Why did you put it that way?”
“What way?”
“You said, ‘He’s safe.’ Why didn’t you just say, ‘He’s okay’?”
“He is,” he assured me. “He’s okay. I’ll talk to you in a minute.”
And then, with the box tucked under his arm, he left for the stairs.