A coded message. Devlin wanted to think about what she was doing, but not here. Rockaway was a peninsula only three or four blocks wide. If he were spotted, it would be easy to seal him off and then tighten the perimeter until they had him. The old man cut the string on the newspapers and put them on the bench under the magazines, then took one for himself. Shopping at Macy’s was the clue. A long time ago, talking about police work, he had told her that the best way to lose someone following her was to go someplace crowded with people, like Macy’s. So she thought she was being followed, and she was going to lose the tail before she went to John’s place.

Devlin’s next stop was Forest Hills. He wanted to call Paterson. It was almost nine o’clock now. He hadn’t forgotten the fourteen hundred Major had paid him. No subway—he had to stay away from people. The old man behind the counter spread the newspaper, a tabloid, almost certainly the Post, out on the glass counter. Devlin called John again.

“If your line isn’t tapped now, it will be soon. Tell Eileen I’ll call her there later. Briefly.”

“I wish you’d turn yourself in, Frank.”

“You had to get that on the record.”

“No, Frank, I mean it. You’re spinning your wheels. What you need is a lawyer who eats his young, and nothing less.”

“My lawyer is going to love having the prosecution present the tape of this conversation as evidence.”

John laughed. “Don’t hire a lawyer with children.”

Before he left the telephone booth, Devlin got some change ready for a paper. The old man was getting a guy some cigarettes. Devlin moved quickly, keeping his head turned away from the old man, scooping up a Post, and dropping the change on the counter in the same motion. Devlin’s picture covered two-thirds of the front page. There was no way to tell what the old man had seen. Devlin could only keep on going.

9:24 P.M. …

9:24 P.M. …

Devlin had the driver pull over near one of the kiosks of the IND 71st Avenue-Continental Avenue station on Queens Boulevard, and then he gave him enough change and small bills to keep him in place counting and able to witness Devlin’s descent into the subway. Devlin was not just trying to throw people off his trail. Harry Levine lived five blocks from here; Levine’s place was Devlin’s ultimate destination. Levine needed protection, too. The people who had tapped Eileen’s telephone could have a van full of eavesdropping equipment parked outside Levine’s house right now.