Jack and Cyrus loped ahead to the entrance to the underground parking lot, where they’d parked their rental earlier. He was talking as fast as he was walking. “Lionel Lewis, the head of the Cavaliers, called to tell me that two of his boys spotted what he thinks is Zack Meadows’s Mercedes parked at the back end of Happy Village. He said he swears it’s Meadows’s car, but with a Kansas license plate on the back. Charles ran the number Lionel gave us earlier, and the Benz is registered in Zack Meadows’s name. It’s a simple matter to lift a plate and put another one in its place. He thinks that’s what Meadows did. The question is, what is Meadows doing at Happy Village at three o’clock in the morning? That’s all I know, so if you have any other questions, I do not have the answers for them.”

“So nobody knows we’re going to Happy Village?” Dennis said uneasily.

“That would be correct,” Jack said, sliding behind the wheel. He waited for Cyrus to buckle up before he started the engine. “Buckle up, Dennis, then send off a text to Maggie and Ted. They won’t get it till later, but by then we should be back at Babylon. Or not.”

It was the “or not” that was bothering Dennis. He immediately sent off not one but three texts, including Espinosa at the last minute. It didn’t make him feel any better.

“Lionel told me to park behind the second building on Lilac Lane. He said there is a carport there with two vacant spaces. One belongs to his mother, who drove to her sister’s to help her out because she broke her arm. We’re to park in her space. The other space he said belongs to one of the tenants who mysteriously disappeared. He’ll be waiting for us when we get there.”

“This could be a wild goose chase, you know that, right, Jack?”

“Of course I know that, but then again, as Lionel pointed out, the tenants—even the ones who are well-off financially—do not drive Mercedes. He also pointed out that people do not come calling at Happy Village at two o’clock in the morning, and yes, it means whoever it is has been there for over an hour. That’s why he called us.”

“To do what?” Dennis asked.