'Yes,' I said.. Susan put her hand on my arm and squeezed.
'Mrs. Kyle,' Susan said, 'do you want your daughter back?'
'Yes.' She looked at her husband. 'Yes, but Harry… I… Could I get you some coffee? And some cake? And we could sit down and try to…' She made a flutter with her right hand and stopped talking.
'For crissake, Bunni, nobody wants any goddamn cake.'
'Harry, I just asked,' Mrs. Kyle said.
'Just shut up, will you, and let me handle this.'
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. I looked at Susan. I could see the anger tightening her face, pinching small commas at the corners of her mouth.
Kyle turned to us, an in-charge guy, and tossed his chin at me. 'How much you charge?' he said.
'To work for you?'
'Yes.'
'Two hundred billion dollars a day.'
Kyle frowned. For a moment he'd felt comfortable, talking price. He knew about price. 'You being a wise guy?”
'Yes,' I said.
'You want the job or not?' Kyle said.
'I would rather spend the rest of my life at a Barry Manilow concert,' I said.
Kyle looked at Susan, 'I don't know what the hell he's talking about,' he said.
Susan looked half mad and half amused. 'He's saying he doesn't want to work for you.'
'Then what the hell did you bring him here for, for crissake?'
'When I came,' I said, 'I didn't know you. Now I do. If I were your kid, I'd run away too.'
Bunni Kyle said, 'Mr. Spencer.'
Susan said, looking at me at full voltage, 'The girl, the girl needs help. Her father is not her fault.'
'Never mind,' Kyle said. 'The hell with him.'
'For me,' Susan said, looking right at me. 'A favor. For me.'
I took in a deep breath. Mrs. Kyle was looking at me. I said to her, 'I'll work for you, Mrs. Kyle.'
'Like hell you will,' Kyle said. 'I'm not paying you a dime to work for anyone.'
'One dollar,' I said to Mrs. Kyle. 'I will work for you for a dollar. I'll find the kid and bring her back to you.'
'Oh, no,' Kyle said. 'No you don't. I say no, I mean no.'
I put my face into his. His breath smelled of martini and peanuts. 'If you don't button it up,' I said with as much control as I had left, 'I am going to hurt you.'
Kyle opened his mouth to speak and looked at me and saw something in my face that made him shut his mouth without speaking. Susan insinuated herself between us.
'Come on, ducky,' she said. 'Let's go find April.' She leaned back against me, pushing me away with her butt. If I hadn't been so mad I'd have enjoyed it. 'I'll call you, Mrs. Kyle, the minute we find her.' Susan backed us toward the door. Kyle was looking at me, the color of his face deepening to maroon.
'While you're pushing me,' I murmured to Susan, 'with your seat, could you sway back and forth slightly?'
She gave a harder push.
I said in a falsetto voice, 'That's not what I meant.' And we left.
Chapter 2
'He better not go out during the Thanksgiving season,' I said. We were driving in Susan's big red Ford Bronco. It had oversize tires and a low-range option in four-wheel drive. Susan claimed it went through snowstorms and over mountains and gave her a sense that she could conquer winter. 'He is a terrible turkey, isn't he?' Susan said. 'After we find the girl, can I beat him up?' Susan shook her head. 'Slash his tires?' I said. 'No.' 'Soap his windows?'
Susan turned down her street.
'I'm not surprised she's tricking,' Susan said.
'The kid?'
'Yes, April. I've been trying to salvage… no, that's not the right word… prevent the wreck she's been heading for since she was in the tenth grade.'
'She a senior now?'
'Yes, she's scheduled to graduate in June.'
'Besides being the daughter of a major league dildo, what is her problem?'
Susan swung the Bronco into her driveway. 'I don't know, exactly. I only get her end of it. I've had a couple of
