She said something I couldn't hear.
'I didn't get that,' I said.
'Randolph Simpson,' she said in a voice that came out too loud because she was forcing it.
'Ah yes,' I said. 'The old family friend.'
'My father knew him. When my father was younger he did some business with his family.'
'The first time I asked, you said you didn't know him.'
'He requires anonymity,' Vivian said.
'I'll bet he does,' I said.
'In truth he frightens me. He told me to tell no one he'd helped me with Carmen, and when you asked I was afraid.'
'You think Carmen's with him?'
'I don't know.' I could hear her breath go in shakily and come out the same way. 'I guess I don't want to know.'
'So where's Mars come in?'
'I asked Eddie to see if he could find out where Carmen was.'
'And he agreed?'
'Yes. He helped me with Carmen before. He knows about her.'
'What's he get out of it?'
'Nothing. It's just a favor to me.'
'Guys like Mars don't do favors,' I said. 'He gets something.'
'Maybe you wouldn't understand,' Vivian said. 'But Eddie Mars loves me.'
'I might understand that, but I'm not sure I understand it in a gee like Eddie.'
'I know. I know what Eddie is, but he is capable of love, Marlowe, and he loves me.'
'How about you?' I said.
'Do I love him?'
'Un huh.'
'No, I don't suppose I do. But it would be easy to. Eddie's a powerful man. He has money. He has influence. He's tough and things don't scare him.'
'And he's crooked as a con man's smile,' I said.
'Maybe, but if you've been alone and a woman and frightened, power and influence and money and tough looks like it might be enough.'
'What about me?' I said.
She paused, rubbing the back of my hand against her cheek.
'You're different, Marlowe.'
I had nothing to add to that. I took a cigarette from her lacquered box and lit it and passed it to her and took another and lit it for myself. We lay quietly smoking.
'You think she's with Simpson?' I said.
She took in some smoke. When she let it out it drifted up and hung wispily above us as we lay on our backs.
'I don't know,' she said. 'I'm afraid that she could be.'
'Tell me about him,' I said.
Again the slow inhale and the smoke drifting lazily up.
'He's the… oddest man I know. He plays golf, for instance, on his own golf course, just him and his partner, and the bodyguards.'
'The boys in the dark suits,' I said. 'I've met several of them.'
'They surround him wherever he goes.'
'Swell,' I said.
'He's been married, but he's not married now, and he likes girls, but never for very long. And they always have to be brought to his home. And, ah, they, ah, all have to have a medical examination.'
'See how easy I am,' I said. 'Um.'
'You think Simpson got you to send Carmen to Bonsentir so Bonsentir could hand her along?'
'I don't know,' Vivian said. 'I'm afraid to know. I kept hoping maybe Eddie would somehow take care of it.'
'He's tight with Bonsentir?'
