“This was the man in the blue shirt? I just saw him. He was the rude one?”

“There were two men, and both were rude. We see other men in the back, but we were scared to ask them.”

“Did they have Americano accents?”

“No, sir. They speak with a different flavor.”

“One more question. In the evening, do these men leave for the day?”

They had another discussion, this time with the older man doing most of the talking. Then the younger man answered.

“We cannot know. If we have no job when lunch ends, we go, but we arrive before seven in the morning, and the men are always there with cars in the lot. They must come with the sun to be here before us, but they are.”

“The nice cars?”

“Sí. Yes. They are very nice.”

“And they come and go during the day?”

“Sometimes. Mostly no, but sometimes. The man will take down the chain, and they go in or come out, but mostly no.”

“Sometimes different cars?”

“Sí. Sometimes.”

“Muchas gracias, mis amigos.”

Pike offered a twenty-dollar bill for their help, but the men refused and continued on their way. As they were leaving, the man in the blue shirt reappeared and returned to the front building.

Pike thought about dialing the number again to see if anyone answered, but then it occurred to him to see if the business had a second number. He opened his cell phone to call Information, but his phone could not find a signal. This confirmed the reason behind the landline.

Pike brought a handful of quarters to a pay phone hanging beside the center’s entrance to make the call, and asked if they had a listing for Diamond Reclamations in Lake View Terrace. They did, and a computer voice gave him the listing. It was different from the number he had.

Pike copied the new number, then called Information again for the same listing, and asked if Diamond had more than one number. The operator now read off two numbers, and the second number was the number from Grebner’s phone.

Pike thumbed in more money, and dialed the newest number. He watched the office as he dialed.

A male voice answered on the second ring, and Pike wondered if he was the man in the blue shirt. East European accent, but the accent was light.

The man was careful when he answered, as if he wasn’t sure what to say.

“Hello.”

“Is this Diamond Reclamations?”

“Yes, but we are closed.”

“I have ten Crown Victorias for sale. I need to get rid of them, and I will let you have them cheap. Is there someone I can speak with about this?”

“No, I am sorry. We are closed.”

“The sign says you want metal.”

The man hung up before Pike could say more.

Pike counted to one hundred, then dialed the number again, but this time an answering machine picked up.