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  Myron said nothing.

  You mean in terms of his contract, don't you?

  I have to go, he repeated.

  She leaned back and recrossed her arms. Well, Myron, I have to hand it to you. You are

  definitely an agent. Trying to squeeze one more commission out of a corpse, eh?

  Myron let the insult roll off. If Clu was clean, his contract would still be valid. You'd owe the

  family at least three million dollars.

  So this is a shakedown? You're here for money?

  He glanced at the picture of the young girl again. He remembered the diskette, the laugh, the

  blood. Right now, he said, I'd just like to talk with the team doctor.

  Sophie Mayor looked at him like he was a turd on the carpet. Get out of my office, Myron.

  Will you let me speak to the doctor?

  You don't have any legal standing here.

  I think I do.

  You don't, believe me. The blood money has run dry here. Get out, Myron. Now.

  He took one more look at the photograph. Now was not the time to argue the point. He hurried

  out the door.

  Chapter 18

  Myron was starting to hurt. The Tylenol alone wasn't doing the trick. He had Tylenol with codeine in his back pocket, but he did not dare. He needed to stay sharp, and that stuff put him to sleep faster than, er, sex. He quickly cataloged the sore spots. His sliced-up shin hurt most, followed closely by his bruised ribs. The rest of the aches were an almost welcome distraction. But the pain made him conscious of every movement.

  When he got back to his office, Big Cyndi handed him a huge pile of message slips.

  How many reporters have called? he asked.

  I stopped counting, Mr. Bolitar.

  Any messages from Bruce Taylor?

  Yes.

  Bruce covered the Mets, not the Yankees. But every reporter wanted in on this story. Bruce was

  also something of a friend. He would know about Sophie Mayor's daughter. The question was, of

  course, how to raise the subject without getting him overly curious.

  Myron closed his office door, sat down, dialed a number. A voice answered on the first ring.

  Taylor.

  Hey, Brucie.

  Myron? Jesus Christ. Hey, I appreciate you calling me back.

  Sure, Bruce. I love to cooperate with my favorite reporter.

  Pause. Then: Uh-oh.

  What? Myron said.

  This is too easy.

  Pardon.

  Okay, Myron, let's skip the part where you break down my defenses with your supernatural

  charisma. Cut to it.

  I want to make a deal.

  I'm listening.

  I'm not willing to make a statement yet. But when I do, you get first crack. An exclusive.

  An exclusive? Sheesh, Myron, you really do know your media lingo, don't you?

  I could have said scoop. It's one of my favorite words.

  Okay, Myron, great. So in return for your not telling me anything, you get what?

  Just some information. But you don't read into anything that I ask and you don't report on it.

  You're just my source.

  More like your bitch, Bruce said.

  If that's what you're into.

  Not today, dear, I have a headache. So let me get this straight. You tell me nothing. I report

  nothing. In return I get to tell you everything. Sorry, big guy, no deal.

  Bye-bye, Brucie.

  Whoa, whoa, Myron, hold up. Christ, I'm not a general manager. Don't pull that negotiating

  crap on me. Look, let's stop tugging each other's chains here. This is what we do: You give me something. A statement, anything. it can be as innocuous as you want to make it. But I want to be the first with a statement from Myron Bolitar. Then I tell you what you want, I keep quiet, you give me the exclusive scoop or whatever before everyone else. Deal? Deal, Myron said. Here's your statement: Esperanza Diaz did not kill Clu Haid. I stand behind her one hundred percent.

  Was she having an affair with Clu?

  That's my statement, Bruce. Period.

  Okay, line, but what's this about your being out of the country at the time of the murder?

  A statement, Bruce. As in, 'no further comment.' As in, 'I'll be answering no questions today.'

  Hey, it's already public knowledge. I just want a confirmation. You were in the Caribbean,

  right?

  Right.

  Where in the Caribbean?

  No comment.

  Why not? Were you really in the Cayman Islands?

  No, I was not in the Caymans.

  Then where?

  See how reporters work? No comment.

  I called you immediately following Clu's positive drug test. Esperanza said you were in town

  but would not comment.

  And I still won't, Myron said. Now it's your turn, Bruce.

  Come on, Myron, you're giving me nothing here.

  We had a deal.

  Yeah, all right, sure, I want to be fair, he said in a tone that made it clear he would start up

  again later. Ask away.

  Casual, casual. He couldn't just ask about Sophie Mayor's daughter. Subtlety. That was the key. Myron's office door opened, and Win swept into the room. Myron signaled with one finger. Win nodded and opened a closet door. There was a full-length mirror on the inside back. Win stared at his reflection and smiled. A nice way of passing the time.

  What were the rumors about Clu? Myron asked.

  You mean before the positive test results?

  Yes.

  Time bomb, Bruce said.

  Explain.

  He was pitching great, no question. And he looked good. Thinned down, seemed focused. But

  then a week or so before the drug test, he started looking like hell Christ, you must have seen it,

  right? Or were you out of the country then too?

  Just go on, Bruce.

  What else can I tell you? With Clu you've seen it a hundred times before. The guy breaks your

  heart. His arm was touched by God. The rest of him was, well, just touched, if you follow my

  meaning.

  So there were signs before the positive test?

  Yeah, I guess. In hindsight, sure there were lots of signs. I hear his wife threw him out. He was

  unshaven, red-eyed, that kind of thing.

  It didn't have to be drugs, Myron said.

  True. It could have been booze.

  Or maybe it was just the strain of marital discord.

  Look, Myron, maybe some guys like Orel Hershiser get the benefit of the doubt. But when it

  comes to Clu Haid or Steve Howe or some other perennial screwup, you figure it's substance abuse, and eleven times out of ten you're right.

  Myron looked over at Win. Win had finished patting the blond locks and was now using the

  mirror to practice his different smiles. Right now he was working on roguish.

  Subtle, Myron reminded himself, subtle . Bruce?

  Yeah?

  What can you tell me about Sophie Mayor?

  What about her?

  Nothing specific.

  Just curious, huh?

  Right, curious.

  Sure you are, Bruce said.

  How much damage did Clu's drug test do to her?

  Tremendous damage. But you know this. Sophie Mayor stuck her neck out, and for a while she

  was a genius. Then Clu fails the drug test, and presto, she's an idiotic bimbo who should let the

  men run things.

  So tell me about her background.

  Background?

  Yes. I want to get a feel for her.

  Why? Bruce asked. Then: Ah, what the hell. She's from Kansas, I think, or Iowa or Indiana or

  Montana. Someplace like that. An aged Ivory Girl type. Loves fishing, hunting, all that nature stuff. She was also something of a math prodigy. Came East to go to MIT. Tha
t's where she met Gary Mayor. They got married and lived most of their lives as science professors. He taught at Brandeis; she taught at Tufts. They developed a software program for personal finance in the early eighties and suddenly went from middle-class professors to millionaires. They took the company public in '94 and changed the m to a b.

  The m to a b?

  Millionaire to billionaire.

  Oh.

  So the Mayors did what lots of superwealthy people do: They bought a sports franchise. In this

  case, the Yankees. Gary Mayor grew up loving them. It was going to be a nice toy for him, but of course he never got to enjoy it. Myron cleared his throat. And they, uh, have children? Senor Subtle-ol They had two. You know Jared. He's actually a pretty good kid, smart, went to your alma mater, Duke. But everyone hates him because he got the job through nepotism. His main responsibility is to keep an eye on Mommy's investment. My understanding is that he's actually pretty good at that and that he leaves the baseball to the baseball guys.

  Uh-huh.

  Theyalso have a daughter. Or had a daughter.

  With great effort, Win sighed, closed the closet door. So difficult to pull himself away from a

  mirror. He sat across from Myron looking, as always, completely at ease. Myron cleared his

  throat and said into the phone, What do you mean, had a daughter?

  The daughter's very estranged. Don't you remember the story?

  Vaguely. She ran away, right?

  Right. Her name was Lucy. She took off with a boyfriend, some grunge musician, a few weeks

  before her eighteenth birthday. This was, I don't know, ten, fifteen years ago. Before the Mayors

  had any money.

  So where does she live now?

  Well, that's the thing. No one knows.

  I don't understand.

  She ran away, that much is known for sure. She left them a note, I think. She was going to hit

  the road with her boyfriend and seek her fortune, the usual teenage stuff. Sophie and Gary Mayor were typical East Coast college professors who read too much Dr. Spock, so they gave their daughter 'space,' figuring of course that she'd come back.

  But she didn't.

  Duh.

  And they never heard from her?

  Duh again.

  But I remember reading about this a few years ago. Didn't they start a search for her or

  something?

  Yeah. First off, the boyfriend came back after a few months. They'd broken up and gone their

  separate ways. Big shock, right? Anyway, he didn't know where she went. So the Mayors called

  the police, but they treated it like no big deal. Lucy was eighteen by this time, and she had

  clearly run away on her own. There was no evidence of foul play or anything and remember that

  this was before the Mayors had beaucoup bucks.

  And after they became rich?

  Sophie and Gary tried to find her again. They made it like a search for the missing heiress. The tabloids loved it for a while. There were some wild reports but nothing concrete. Some say Lucy moved overseas. Some say she's living in a commune somewhere. Some say she's dead. Whatever. They never found her, and there was still no sign of foul play, so the story eventually petered out.

  Silence. Win looked at Myron and arched an eyebrow. Myron shook his head.

  So why the interest? Bruce asked.

  I just want to get a feel for the Mayors.

  Uh-huh.

  No big deal.

  Okay, I buy that. Not.

  It's the truth, Myron lied. And how about using a more up-to-date reference? No one says not

  anymore.

  They don't? Pause: Guess I gotta watch more MTV. But Vanilla Ice is still hip, right?

  Ice, ice, baby.

  Fine, okay, we'll play it your way for now, Myron. But I don't know anything else about Lucy

  Mayor. You can try a search on Lexis. The papers might have more detail.

  Good idea, thanks. Listen, Bruce, I got another call coming in.

  What? You're just going to cut me loose?

  That was our deal.

  So why all the questions about the Mayors?

  Like I said, I want to get a feel for them.

  Does the phrase what a crock mean anything to you?

  Good-bye, Bruce.

  Wait. Pause. Then Bruce said, Something serious is going down here, right?

  Clu Haid has been murdered. Esperanza's been arrested for the crime. I'd say that's pretty

  serious.

  There's more to it. Tell me that much. I won't print it, I promise.

  Truth, Bruce? I don't know yet.

  And when you do?

  You'll be the first to know.

  You really think Esperanza's innocent? Even with all that evidence?

  Yes.

  Call me, Myron. If you need anything else. I like Esperanza. I want to help if I can.

  Myron hung up. He looked over at Win. Win seemed in deep thought. He was tapping his chin

  with his index finger. They sat in silence for several seconds.

  Win stopped tapping and asked, Whatever happened to the King Family?

  You mean the ones with the Christmas specials?

  Win nodded. Every year you were supposed to watch the King Family Christmas Special. There

  must have been a hundred of the buggers big Kings with beards, little Kings in knickers,

  Mommy Kings, Daddy Kings, Uncle and Aunt and Cousin Kings. Then one year poof

  they're gone. All of them. What happened?

  I don't know.

  Strange, isn't it?

  I guess.

  And what did the King clan do the rest of the year?

  Prepared for the next Christmas special?

  What a life, no? Win said. Christmas passes, and you start thinking about next Christmas.

  You live in a snow globe of Christmas.

  I guess.

  I wonder where they are now, all those suddenly unemployed Kings. Do they sell cars?

  Insurance? Are they drug dealers? Do they get sad every Christmas?

  Yeah, poignant point, Win. By the way, did you come down here for a reason?

  Discussing the King Family isn't reason enough? Weren't you the one who came up to my

  office because you didn't understand the meaning of a Sheena Easton song?

  You're comparing the King Family to Sheena Easton?

  Yes, well, in truth, I came up here to inform you that I quashed the subpoenas against Lock-Horne.

  Myron shouldn't have been surprised. The power of payoffs, he said with a shake of his head.

  It never fails to amaze me.

  Payoff is such an offensive term, Win said. I prefer the more politically correct assisting the contribution-challenged He sat back, crossed his legs in that way of his, folded his hands on his lap. He gestured at the phone and said, Explain.

  So Myron did. He filled him in on everything, especially on the Lucy Mayor incident. When

  Myron was finished, Win said, Puzzling.

  Agreed.

  But I am not sure I see a connection.

  Someone mails me a diskette with Lucy Mayor's image on it and a little while later Clu is

  murdered. You think that's just a coincidence?

  Win mulled that over. Too early to tell, he concluded. Let's do a little recap, shall we?

  Go ahead.

  Let's start with a straight time line: Clu gets traded to New York, he pitches well, he gets

  thrown out by Bonnie, he starts collapsing, he fails a drug test, he desperately searches for you, he comes to me and withdraws two hundred thousand dollars, he strikes Esperanza, he gets murdered. Win stopped. That sound fair?

  Yes.

  Now let's explore some possible tangents from this line.

  Let's.

  One, our old fraternity chum Billy Lee Palms appears to be missing. Clu purportedly contacted

  him shortly before
the murder. Aside from that, is there any reason to tie Billy Lee into all this?

  Not really. And according to his mother, Billy Lee isn't the most dependable tool in the shed.

  So maybe his disappearance has nothing to do with this.

  Maybe.

  But that would be yet another bizarre coincidence Win said.

  It would at that.

  Fine, let's move on for the moment. Tangent two, this Take A Guess nightspot.

  All we know is that Clu called them.

  Win shook his head. We know a great deal more.

  For example?

  They overreacted to your visit. Tossing you out would have been one thing. Roughing you up a bit would have been one thing. But this sort of interrogation complete with knife slashes and electrocution that's overkill.

  Meaning?

  Meaning that you struck a nerve, poked the hive, stirred the nest, choose your favorite cliche.

  So they're connected into all this.

  Logical, Win said, again doing his best Spock.

  How?

  Heavens, I haven't a clue.

  Myron chewed it over a bit. I had thought maybe Clu and Esperanza hooked up there.

  And now?

  Let's say they did hook up there. What would be the big deal about that? Why the overkill?

  So it's something else.

  Myron nodded. Any more tangents?

  The big one, Win said. The disappearance of Lucy Mayor.

  Which happened more than ten years ago.

  And we must confess that her connection is tenuous at best.

  So confessed, Myron said.

  Win steepled his fingers and raised the pointers. But the diskette was addressed to you.

  Yes.

  Ergo we cannot be sure that Lucy Mayor is connected to Clu Haid at all

  Right.

  but we can be sure that Lucy Mayor is somehow connected to you.

  Me? Myron made a face. I can't imagine how.

  Think hard. Perhaps you met her once.

  Myron shook his head. Never.

  You might not have known. The woman has been living in some sort of clandestine state for a

  very long time. Perhaps she was someone you met in a bar, a one-night stand.

  I don't one-night stand.

  That's right, Win said. Then with flat eyes: God, I wish I were you.

  Myron waved him off. But suppose you're right. Suppose I did meet her but didn't know it. So

  what? She decides to repay me by sending me a diskette of her face melting into a puddle of

  blood?

  Win nodded. Puzzling.

  So where does that leave us?