"We're going out toMirrorLake this weekend. We were wondering if you were interested in coming along. Doug hasn't been salmon fishing in months, and I just feel like getting out of the city."
"Just us three?"
"Well I was thinking of asking Doug's friend Ned. You know, it's always better when it's a foursome."
"Have I met Ned?"
"I don't think so. No, you haven't. But you'll really like him."
"He's a really terrific guy," Doug put in. "Great sense of humor, you know. Great practical joker."
"You'd really like him. He used to play quarterback forPortlandU. He's done pretty well for himself in the wood pulp business. And I can guarantee that he doesn't wear sock suspenders."
The man at the table in the corner said, "-you just let me know exactly where she's going to be, and when, and we'll take care of the rest. Don't go variegating your routine. Stay in town and have the cat sense not to do anything that's different from what you normally do. That's the mistake that so many clients make. They have a perfect story but for no reason they do something out of character, and that gets the cops asking themselves why did this guy do something out of character-cops being professionally nosey, which is what they're paid for."
He said something else, and by the way he curled his lip it looked like something of a threat, but Holly couldn't quite catch it.
"Oh, come on," said the woman in the shiny green dress. "We'll have a ball. I promise you won't regret it."
"All right. Allright. You win. Shoes off, sparkling wine, licking, whatever you want. No dancing, though. Definitely no dancing."
"But Iliketo dance."
"Listen, I'll be lucky if I can stand up, forget about dancing."
"Then maybe we should leave it."
"What do you mean? I said yes, didn't I? You've been nagging me all evening and now you want to leave it?"
"I know, but you're drunk. Maybe we should leave it till you sober up."
The man turned and looked at her for the first time. "I don't think it would be a good idea to wait until I'm sober, because you don't turn me on when I'm sober."
Holly laughed. The woman heard her laugh and turned around, frowning, but Holly was obviously too far away to have overheard what she was saying, and she turned back to the man again, looking cross.
"Lipreading again?" said Doug, sucking teriyaki sauce from his fingers.
"Yes. I know I shouldn't."
"Look, how aboutMirrorLake ?" Katie persisted. "We can swim, we can take the boat out."
"And what else? Matchmaking 'round the old campfire?"
"Holly, it's just that I care about you. You're special."
Holly kept on smiling. "Let me think about it, okay? But just because I happen to be deaf, that doesn't mean that I need you to find lovers for me."
"Did I say anything about lovers? Doug, did I say anything about lovers?"
Holly glanced over to the table in the corner. The man finished his beer and wiped his mouth with a neatly folded paper napkin. "-there won't be a trace, I guarantee it. You won't even know she ever existed. How? You don't want to know how. In fact, the less you know, the better. But this guy's a pro. You won't be turning on the news to hear that somebody's found her detached head in a bus-station locker."
A Meeting with"Mickey Slim"
Mickey was waiting for her outside the restaurant, lounging back in his shiny black Oldsmobile Aurora, smoking a cigarette, which he tossed out onto the sidewalk as soon as he saw her.
She said good night to Doug and Katie. "That was great. I had such a good time."
Doug checked his watch. "You sure you don't want to come on to C.C. Slaughter's? Jesus, it's only a quarter after nine."
"I'd love to, but I'm really tired. Daisy has a math test tomorrow and I have to see the Joseph family at nine."
"Oh, the Josephs . Okay, you'll need all of your strength for that."
She kissed them and gave them a wave as they walked away. Then she crossed the sidewalk to the Oldsmobile. Mickey leaned across the seat and unlatched the door for her.
"How's the sexiest public servant in thePacific Northwest ?"
"A year older. It's my birthday today."
"Hey, why didn't you tell me? I would have bought you something. One of those magic Tillamook necklaces you like so much."
"You police detective, me social worker. Let's keep it strictly professional."
"But I love you."
"No you don't. You only love you."
Mickey was skinny and rangy and almost always wore a black suit and a black shirt with a black necktie. He would have been the first to admit that he wasn't particularly handsome. His cropped black hair was receding and he had a sharply pointed nose, but he had wounded gray eyes and a kind of etched, half-starved look that seemed to appeal to almost all of the women he met.
His real name was Mickey Kavanagh, but years ago one of his sergeants had christened him "Mickey Slim"-not just because he was so thin, but in honor of the 1950s down-and-outs' cocktail of choice, gin mixed with DDT, which had the effect of being an upper and a downer at the same time. Which pretty much summed up Mickey's personality to a T.
"Thanks for that text message," he told Holly, holding up his cell phone. "Those guys you were lipreading are they still inside?"
"No, they left about ten minutes ago."
"Get a look at them?"
"Not very clearly. The one who was doing most of the talking was forty-five, maybe, broad shoulders, long gray hair tied back in a ponytail. Craggy kind of face, if you know what I mean. Acne scars. His accent wasn't locaclass="underline" The way he was biting the ends of his words, I'd say that he was almost certainly out ofChicago . He used the wordscat sense,too, and you very rarely hear anybody outside ofChicago saying that."
"What about the other one?"
"I never saw him speak. He had his back to me most of the time but he looked as if he were older, more stooped, you know? He was wearing a green raincoat and he was carrying a yellow plastic shopping bag. I think he may have had a mustache."
"Want to tell me exactly what was said?"
"It was very oblique, most of it. But I'd definitely say that they were arranging to kill some woman. The guy with the ponytail said that he was going to get a real pro to do the job. He said, 'You won't even know she ever existed.' "
"Want to come back to headquarters and look at some pictures?"
"This is my birthday, Mickey, and Daisy's waiting up for me."
"I'll make it up to you, I promise. I'll take you out to McCormick and Schmick's tomorrow night and then we can go back to your place and make love until the steam comes out of our ears."
"Sorry, Mickey."
"All right, we can go back tomyplace and make love until the steam comes out of our ears. You'll just have to be careful not to kneel in the cat litter."
"I'll look at some pictures at home, okay? And if I see a face that rings a bell, I'll call you."
"Okay, okay. I know when I'm spurned."
The Three Concubines
They drove through the brightly lit center ofPortland , along the tree-lined transit mall, where people were still strolling between the flower tubs, window-shopping. It had rained earlier, but now the evening was dry and warm, although the lights from the stores and the streetlights and the forty-storyInterstateBankTower were still reflected in the sidewalks.