"And?"
"I'm ultimately not interested in Frenchmen," she said.
"Well, Jesus, Weather, why don't you just tell him to blow it out his froggy ass?"
"I don't think that would exactly be a diplomatic way to handle it"
"You aren't the fuckin' State Department." He let himself get a little angry about it.
" and I've got to work with him. He's an important guy around here."
They talked for another minute or two, and he let himself get a little angrierand at the bottom of it, was satisfied that she was impressed by the anger. Then he went back to the shower, finished cleaning up, and got dressed. All right. He picked up the phone and dialed Jael.
She answered on the third ring, and he said, "Your problem is, you're too Victorian."
"That's my problem, all right," she said lazily. "Hang on" He could hear her yell, "It's okay, it's for me," and then she was back.
"Have you had breakfast?"
"I'm barely awake. It's not even ten-thirty," she said.
"I'll come get you if you want."
"Can't. I've got a half-dozen people coming at noon. We're working out a joint show, and we've got way too many people. We're trying to figure out how to screw some of them. You're welcome to come over, but you wouldn't like the people, and I don't want any of them thrown out any windows."
"Goddamnit. I can't find anyone to talk to this morning," he said.
"And tonight, my dad's getting in. We're all going over to the airport to pick him up. So"
"No dinner. No midnight snack."
"You ever tried phone sex?" she asked.
"Tried once, but it doesn't work. I feel like a silly jerk-off."
"That's sort of inevitable," she said.
"On the other hand, I'm good at giving it. I wouldn't want to use the wordbrilliant, but then, I'm a modest kind of guy."
"Really? That's interesting," she said. "I mean, how would you start it?"
"Are you still in bed?"
"Yeah."
"What are you wearing?" he asked.
"A flannel nightshirt and underpants and socks," she said.
"Socks? Jesus. That makes it a little harder," Lucas said.
"Come on, Davenport."
"All right. You know that fake Indian dreamcatcher you've got hanging over your sink?"
"Yeah?"
"Go get it," he said.
"Go get it? What for?"
"Listen, are you going to do this, or not?"
"Well I just wanted to know"
"You're gonna need that hawk feather," he said.
After a moment, she said, "Hang on."
"Wait a minute! You still there?"
She came back. "Yes?"
"Didn't I see one of those Lady Remington leg shavers in the bathroom?"
"Yes?"
"Bring that too," Lucas said.
"I'll tell you right now, I'm not shaving anything," she said.
"You don't use those things toshave," Lucas said. "You use them toshave? You naive little waif, you."
"I'll be right back," she said.
The City Hall was quiet; there were fewer TV trucks at the curb, and the Homicide office was mostly empty. Del called on the cell phone and said, "Hot damn, you've turned it on."
"Yeah. What's going on?"
"Nothing. I was just calling to ask."
"All right. I'm turning this fucking thing off."
"Nodon't do that. Listen, I'm gonna take off with the old lady this afternoon. Go see an aunt of hers, and then maybe go look at some carpet."
"You're doing carpet?"
"Yeah, maybe for the family room."
"All right. Well. See you later."
He wound up in his office with all the paper on the case; he found nothing new, but strengthened his sense that Spooner was at the bottom of it. Then Lester called, and said that the gay friend of John Dukeljin, who had identified Spooner as being at the party, and carrying a shoulder bag, remembered seeing a man with a bag but couldn't pick Spooner out of a photo spread.
"Par for the course," Lucas said. "You find anybody else?"
"Two other people think they saw him. But the guy is sort of a nebbish, and the light was bad, they had those strobe things you dance to So that's what we sot."
Rose Marie called and said, "Here's a mystery for you. Why would the head of the state highway patrol call me up at home and say, 'Tell that fuckin' Davenport to knock it the fuck off?"
Lucas thought for a moment. "Must be political," he said. "He's a Republican."
"I thought it might be something like that," she said.
"Is Olson coming in this afternoon?" Lucas asked.
"No. I told him we'd call if there were any serious developments."
"All right. I'm outa here."
"See you Monday And Lucas, knock it the fuck off, whatever it is."
He called Catrin at her home, ready to hang up at a man's voice. "What are you doing?"
She didn't need to ask who it wasa good sign, "Well. I'm moving out."
"When?"
"I'm staying with a friend tonight. Jack seems to be mostly amused," she said. "Maybe he thinks I'm going through some kind of phase. It's making me really angry."
"If you'd like to get a bite and talk, I'll meet you halfway."
"God, Lucas, could we tomorrow?" she asked. "I'm just really jammed today. I mean, I packed away my daughters First Communion pictures."
"Okay, okay Don't tell me. You've got my cell phone?"
"You never answer."
"It's now permanently onat least for the duration of the Alie'e thing."
"I'll call you."
He had wicked designs on three women, was worried sick about how he could possibly juggle them and he couldn't get a date. "They'll always take you at Saks," he said to his office walls.
They took him at Saks. For a lot. "Lucas, how are you" the custom-shop salesman said. "We havegot something for you. I've been saving it. Two new fabrics from Italy you won't believe that they're wool."
He killed two hours at Saks and wrote a check for three thousand dollars. He took a call halfway through the fitting from the cops who were tailing Olson.
"We got a concept," the cop said.
"I'm interested."
"We just took Olson back to his motel. He's preaching tonight down in West St. Paul you know where the Southview Country Club is?"
"Yeah."
"He'll be at a church right around there. He actually got off this tour he was doing, and drove into the church parking lot, like he was just figuring out where it was. Then he went back to driving, and finally wound up here at the motel. And what we got to thinking was, what if he's timing something?"
"Huh."
"Yeah. When you think about it, West St. Paul and Spooner's place in Highland Park, you don't connect them, but if you look at a map, it ain't farabout six miles, and most of that is Interstate. He could do a round-trip in less than fifteen minutes. What if he does his weird preaching thing, then tells the pastor or whoever that he needs to be alone for a bit, to recoveror thinks of some shit like thatgoes out to his car, runs over to Highland Park, wastes Spooner, runs back, and there he is: all those witnesses who say he was at the church."
"Sounds Hollywood."
"Yeah, well that's our concept."
"Could be his concept, too. How many guys we got on Spooner tonight?"
"Two or four."
"I'll make sure it's four. You need any more help on Olson?" Lucas asked.
"If he goes to the church, we could use one more car, for awhile, anyway."
"All right, get me a radio, and I'll come out and sit with you. I'm not doing anything."
He spent the rest of the afternoon walking around towngot his hair cut, visited a game store, three bars, and a gun shop, where a dealer tried to sell him a $2,600 Scout rifle by Steyr.