Meanwhile, down in his library, William's thoughts had wandered again. He had started by admiring the plans for his new restaurant, but had moved on to a general review of his conversation with Julie, and had ended by remembering, again, the time he went camping with me in the desert.
Since he was very content at the moment, he remembered that trip with great fondness, and then went on to remember other things about me with the same fondness. By the time he was finished, he was even chuckling to himself about the evening I destroyed his pipeline deal.
I won't say he was ready to thank me, yet, but he was close to forgiving me.
On a sudden impulse he dialed the phone.
"Hello. This is William Hogan. Let me speak to Chief Oakes, please."
He looked the sketches over as he waited, nodding to himself.
"Chief Oakes here."
"This is William Hogan, Chief."
"Mr. Hogan! I was just going to call you. We've made some progress on Mr. Smith."
"That's what I want to talk about. I want to call off the search."
"Call it off?"
"Yes. I'm dropping all charges. I'll sign anything you need. The man's been hounded long enough."
Oakes' voice was measured.
"Actually, Mr. Hogan, it's a little more complicated than that."
"That's all right, Chief. Just tell me what I have to do. I'll come down to the station, if you want."
"It's not that. It's just-you can drop the charges, Mr. Hogan, but we can't call off the search. There are other people looking for Mr. Smith now."
"Other people?"
"I checked into his background as part of the investigation."
"And?"
"Before you met him, he had escaped from a psychiatric hospital."
