"I understand," he said, producing his badge and associated officially misleading papers, "that you recently received 40 packages from L.L. Beans and addressed to A. K. Molarie."
"I hope Acky isn't in any trouble", she responded. "-- such a nice man and so generous to his relatives of many sizes."
In the course of a lengthy conversation, Jack affirmed that A. K. Molarie had provided the Post Office not only with a false identity, but also with a nonexistent home address. Luckily, the Post Mistress was more familiar with vintage trucks than would be usual except by collectors (or in the Gold Country and in certain parts of the Central Valley). She identified the truck into which he had loaded 40 boxes as the same kind of truck her husband had driven around the time Truman was President. Matching the description of the vehicle that had stalked both Caydance and Sido, it was a red and white 1950 Dodge Power Wagon.
Giselle was performing a Nutcracker rehearsal for a children's group on that day, so Jack embarked on detective work in neighboring Gold Country towns.
Three towns away, the owner of a local grocery store pointed up the hill to a mobile home park, where a sinister-looking vintage pink mobile home appeared. But, no red and white 1950 Dodge Power Wagon was parked beside it.
"The owner is on vacation," the manager informed Jack. "But yes, he drives an old Dodge truck".
As to how his agency had located
a Post Office in Northern California to which an unusual amount of winter clothing for men of various sizes had been recently delivered, Jack was not at liberty to disclose, but this information -- received in response to a hunch that Mackie Alarie would need to outfit California thugs, who were not equipped for Northeast Kingdom weather -- explains why Jack was talking with the Post Mistress at a Post Office in the California Gold Country.