They are within minutes of closing, and he knows the routine by now. “Is it okay if I take off?” asks Zack.

Dennis has worked the late shift too. He looks around. “Place looks good. Sure, go ahead.” Dennis is starting to look for his keys.

Zack heads out the door, waving good night to Dennis. He waits outside for a moment while his boss locks the door and heads into the back room.

Zack then uses his newly made copy of Dennis’s key to slip back into the GreenGirl. He slides silently into the women’s bathroom, leaving the bathroom dead bolt unlocked to indicate that it’s unoccupied, and waits silently until he hears Dennis exit.

Zack then emerges into the darkened GreenGirl. He leaves the lights off, heads into the back room, lays out rags and aprons into a bed, and settles in to sleep.

67.

67.

“What can you tell me about Karloff?”

“That’s the point. Nothing. No one knows anything.”

Oh yeah?

Not so long ago, Zack would have headed up the giant stone staircase between the lion sculptures and into the giant high-vaulted main reading room of the New York Public Library, ready to attack the vast card catalogue.

But today, he simply flips open the cover of his old beat-up college laptop, still covered with rock band and soccer team and fraternity decals, he taps a couple keys, and he is suddenly connected to the world’s information. To all its answers.

But his first answer will require a helping hand, and once again, he knows only one place to find it.

He digs out the card. He takes a deep breath. Dials.

“Hello?”

“Detective Lopez? It’s Zack Yellin again.”

“Zack! Always good to hear your voice.”

Zack knows he’s about to disappoint the detective once again. Complicate the moment. Bring it down. Zack wishes he could disappear. Shrink away from this. But he sees no other way. “Um, I, uh, need a little hand again, sir. Might need you to pull a couple of strings…”

“You’re not getting into any trouble, are you, Zack?”

They both know Lopez has heard by now about the close call between Steve and Joey Richter. About Zack’s less publicized, second brush with heroism.

“No, no, sir…it’s…just research.”

“Mmmm. Research. Go ahead.” Lopez sounds skeptical.

“I just need someone to look into the real name and identity of this guy whose street name is Karloff.”

There is a pause until Lopez says sternly, “We both know you should not be doing this.”

Zack says nothing.

“You’re fooling around where you shouldn’t…”

Zack is silent.

Out on his porch overlooking the potato fields of Long Island, Detective Lopez sighs and takes a deep breath.

The kid is really smart. He’s proven himself before.