Chapter 4 A Hint

Quickly, Ironside picked up the microphone.

He didn't hear the radio-trained voice of his Sergeant, but a quite agitated Mark's. He had known the signs all right, but that was about it.

"This is Mark. We are held as hostages by two men. They want to trade us against Fr..."

"Mark, what the flamin'..." Of course, Mark couldn't hear him for he was still pressing the button.

"...'s hurt bad, holy cow. We will call again tomorrow. Over."

"..." Ironside wanted to ask more, wanted to talk to Mark, but this one had ended the call. The chief called back, but there was no answer. Probably Mark had been forced away from the radio.

What could it have been what he had missed while pressing the button?

Ironside tried to remember exactly what he had heard. He wanted to get every tidbit of information out of Mark's words.

So – they had been right. Ed and Mark were held hostage.

Two men – and the Vincent-brothers still seemed to be a very good guess.

They would call again, probably to communicate the details.

And perhaps worst of all: Somebody was hurt, most probably Ed. How bad? What had happened to him?

Ironside was more worried than he would anybody have let to know.

Mark seemed to be very anxious about him, too, otherwise he wouldn't have sworn like that. What exactly had Mark said? "Holy cow"? That was more than a little odd. Although this was a common term among teenagers, Ironside had never heard it of Mark, not to mention Eve or Ed. In contrary – they had joked about it, as they had heard it in the western-series "Bonanza". But why should Mark use it in such an extreme situation?

Ironside pulled himself up to a sitting position in his bed. That was it. Mark wanted to give him a hint. But what kind of hint? Were they somewhere around Lake Tahoe, where the "Bonanza"-stories were supposed to take place?

The chief picked up the phone and called Eve. He was lucky: She had just reached her apartment. Without a further word she turned around and came back to the office.

Meanwhile, Ironside organized a search warrant for the Vincents' house. He had to awaken a judge to get it, but he didn't care. Then he sent two of the officers on duty out to search for a list of those cottages.

Ironside was too agitated to tell Eve how much he appreciated her coming back. But she didn't even notice. There were far more important things to consider now.

"Holy cow? – Does he mean a ranch?"

"I don't know, that's why I wanted you here – together we might find out more."

Much to Ironside's amazement, the list came quicker than expected. The whole department knew now about Frank Vincent killing their colleagues. And they also knew about his little games with Ed and were more than glad to help.

But the rest was a job for just the chief and Eve. All the others didn't know Mark well enough to understand his possible code.

The task at hand wasn't easy: Harry and Fred owned twenty-seven cottages or lodges, but none of them were near Lake Tahoe. Eve marked every one of their addresses on a map. But they couldn't find a pattern. Not one of those cottages seemed to be near a ranch – or at least they could not detect any.

Suddenly the chief paused for a moment. "Eve, suppose the hint wasn't Mark's idea, but Ed's. Ed has a cold and is probably hurt – could he have said another, similar word, but Mark didn't understand him correctly?"

"What sounds similar to "cow" and you can use it as a curse?"

At first go they couldn't think of anything.

Ironside thought aloud: "I think it has to be something Ed knows but Mark doesn't, for I'm sure that Mark said "cow" and nothing else. The misunderstanding – if any - has to be between Ed and Mark."

"That leaves us somewhere before your accident, doesn't it?"

Now an idea stroke Ironside: "I think he meant "Crowe". Do you remember the Crowe-affair? Ed and I were at it just before I was shot. We had to do research out of town, in a village near one of those cottages. It's a good guess that this is the right one. Perhaps Ed wanted Mark to give us an unsuspicious hint in order not to endanger him.

Let's get going, but not alone. If I'm not mistaken, some of those cops of homicide won't mind being thrown out of their beds in this case. And then I want a medical helicopter ready to get Ed to a hospital if needed – we don't know how bad he is."