IN THE CAR, OUT OF THE RAIN, SHIVERING IN the warm blast from the heater, still sought by the dead Hector X, Hazard listened to the ring, ring, ring until he wanted to roll down the window and throw the cell phone into the street.
The ringing stopped just as he noticed activity at the Laputa residence. A man came out of the house, paused to lock the front door, and descended1 the porch steps.
Even in the rain and steadily2 clotting3 fog, Hazard recognized the guy who had earlier entered the house by way of the garage. All but certainly, this was Vladimir Laputa.
At the junction4 of private walkway and public sidewalk, Laputa turned right and retraced5 the route by which he had arrived. He still swaggered, but he didn’t seem to be either talking to himself or singing.
He had changed into an entirely6 black outfit7 that appeared to be weatherproof, as if he would soon be driving north to Mammoth8 or to some other ski resort in the Sierras.
Like a premonition of snow, white masses of fog drifted around him, nearly obscuring him, before he turned right at the corner and moved out of sight.
[493] Having already released the hand brake and put the car in gear, Hazard switched on the headlights and drove to the corner, where traffic splashed past on the cross street. He looked to the right and saw Laputa walking northward9. When the professor was almost out of sight, Hazard turned the corner and followed him.
Whenever he drew within half a block of Laputa, he pulled to the curb10 and waited, letting his quarry11 proceed toward the limits of fog-diminished visibility. Then he drove after him again.
In these fits and starts, Hazard tracked the professor two and a half blocks. There, never having glanced back, Laputa got into a black Land Rover.
Remaining too far behind to read the license12 plate, letting other traffic intervene from time to time to mask his continuous presence, Hazard shadowed the Land Rover along a direct route to the Beverly Center, at Beverly Boulevard and La Cienega. Although somewhat oddly dressed for a trip to the mall, Laputa apparently13 intended to go shopping.
Conducting on-the-roll surveillance in a parking garage was a lot trickier14 than doing the same thing on public streets. Hazard followed the Land Rover up ramp15 after ramp, floor by floor, past ranks of parked vehicles, until Laputa found an empty space.
Near the end of that aisle16, a slot waited for Hazard’s sedan. He parked, switched off the engine, got out, and watched his man over the roofs of the parked cars.
He expected the professor to follow the signs to the nearest mall entrance. Instead, Laputa returned on foot to the ramp up which he had just driven.
Although other shoppers were walking through the garage, and although numerous vehicles roamed in search of parking spaces and exit routes, Hazard hung back from his quarry as far as he dared. He worried that the professor would spot him, and would know him at once for what he was.
Laputa descended one long ramp, then another. Two floors below [494] the level on which he’d left the Land Rover, he walked up to a parked Acura coupe, which chirruped as he unlocked the doors with a remote.
Frozen by surprise, Hazard halted as the professor got into the driver’s seat.
The guy had not come here to go shopping. He was picking up new wheels.
The Land Rover or the Acura almost certainly was a Kleenex car, meant to be used in the commission of a crime, and then tossed away. Maybe both vehicles were Kleenex.
Hazard considered making an arrest on the basis of suspicious behavior.
No. He couldn’t risk it. Not with a respectable university professor. Not with Blonde in the Pond about to break wide open and a powerful city councilman about to become his mortal enemy. He was already the subject of an OIS investigation17 for shooting Hector X. In these circumstances, every mistake he made would be woven into the rope with which they would hang him.
He had no legitimate18 reason to be following Laputa. The murder of Mina Reynerd wasn’t his case. All day he had been using his city-paid time and his police authority to help a friend in a personal matter. He had put his pecker in a vise and had tightened19 the handle himself; now he couldn’t make a sudden move against the professor without big-time grief.
In the Acura, unaware20 that he was under surveillance, Laputa pulled shut the driver’s door. He started the engine. He seemed to be fiddling21 with the radio.
Hazard sprinted22 back the way that he’d come, up two ramps23, to the department sedan.
By the time he drove pell-mell down to the garage exit, hoping to fall in behind the Acura, Laputa had gone.
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1
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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clotting
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| v.凝固( clot的现在分词 )；烧结 | |
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junction
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| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
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retraced
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| v.折回( retrace的过去式和过去分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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trickier
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| adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的 | |
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ramp
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| n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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19
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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unaware
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| a.不知道的，未意识到的 | |
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fiddling
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| 微小的 | |
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sprinted
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| v.短距离疾跑( sprint的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ramps
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| resources allocation and multiproject scheduling 资源分配和多项目的行程安排 | |
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