Blanche looked up at me with a cocked head, big brown eyes full of pity. Robin took out the egg carton and said, “Tough night, huh?”
“I kept you up?”
“Only when you thrashed—don’t apologize, we all go through it.”
“Not you.”
“Oh, yes, I’m perfect, darling. Remember two months ago? That piece of Adirondack spruce I paid a fortune for, I get it here and it splinters?”
“Don’t remember you thrashing.”
“I’m a jaw-grinder. Had headaches for a week.” She cracked five eggs into a bowl and whisked. “You gently rubbed my temples.”
“Did it help?”
“The fact that you cared helped. Plain scrambled or with stuff? There’s some of that pastrami from last night.”
“Stuff sounds good.”
“Bring whatever you want from the fridge then call Milo.”
“About what?”
“He phoned half an hour ago, we didn’t get into details, you know how he shields me.” She smiled. “Not wanting to upset perfection.”
How muchItell her has been an issue for us. This time I’d given her enough basics not to feel marginalized. But no sense piling on the cruelest details.
I said, “Gallant.”
“When he pushes the right button, he’s got it in him.”
I headed for my office.
Robin said, “When he asked where you were, I told him you were snoozing.”
“And he made a crack, right? Let me guess: Prince Charming getting his beauty sleep. Babe in dreamland?”
“Nope. He said you deserved it.”
—
No answer at Milo’s office phone. I tried his cell.
He said, “Risen and shiny? Cucumbers off the eyes, yet?”
“Like you said, salad’s virtuous. What’s up?”
“Waiting to hear from McGann and Vollmann’s landlord. Meanwhile, Alicia gets a five-course dinner, place of her choosing. She found two shelters Huralnik drifted in and out of. At the second one she got tipped to an encampment where Huralnik slept when she was in the mood for not-so-fresh air andthatled to two others.”
“Any of the places near Skaggs?”
“Four miles away, warehouse district, the jungle keeps expanding east. Several homeless told her the same thing: Huralnik would disappear for days, even weeks. One guy swore to seeing her in Santa Monica. So she coulda been anywhere when she got abducted.”
And yet, he sounded buoyant.
I said, “Doesn’t narrow it down much.”
“True but I’m taking a page from your optimism book: It doesn’teliminatethe area around Skaggs. Main reason I’m calling is something else they said about Huralnik. She could suddenly get hypersexual. That a symptom of schizophrenia?”
