brilliance of the fifth floor was overpowering.
I followed Gretchen out into a corridor of potted plants to a large circular pool in the center of the room. The plants were exotic flowering types that I didn't recognize, but the scent of them and the density of colors was intense. Beside the pool a man sat at an emerald cube of a desk in a silk bathrobe talking into a silver telephone.
Gretchen Coolidge said, 'Please sit down.' I sat near the desk in an angular chrome chair with green upholstery. Gretchen sat next to me. The guy at the desk continued to listen to the phone, nodding slightly. I looked around.
Gretchen Coolidge looked to be in her early forties. She had prominent cheekbones and short blond hair and large black-rimmed aviator glasses. She wore a double-breasted gray suit with a fine pinstripe in it and a lavender shirt with a narrow lavender-and-gray dotted necktie. A lavender handkerchief showed in her breast pocket. Her hose were a paler shade of lavender with very pale gray patterns in them. And she wore sling-strap three-inch heels of a deeper lavender. Her nails were short and painted pink. Her lipstick was pink. Her teeth were very white and even. Her breasts were large and looked as if, freed from restraint, they'd be even larger. She had slim hips and her ankles were small.
The guy on the phone was Perry Lehman. I'd seen his picture enough to recognize him. He was smallish and had long black hair. He wore a thick gold chain around his neck with a diamond-studded miniature crown suspended from it. The crown was hung to the same rakish cant as the trademark on the front door. He was darkly tanned. His small hands were manicured. He smoked a large cigar as he listened on the phone. Taking it from his mouth occasionally to study it, admire the pale greenish precision of the wrapper.
He had a big diamond ring on the little finger of his right hand. Where the silk robe gaped, there was a sprinkle of gray hair on his cocoa-butter chest.
He said into the phone, 'Okay, bottom line is one million, no more. You crunch the figures any way you want to, but it's one million, no more.'
He listened again, then nodded once and said 'Yes,' and hung up the phone. He let the chair tilt forward and touched a button on his desk phone. Actually desk phone didn't quite cover it. There were enough buttons and lights and switches to qualify it as a communications console. He leaned back again in his high-backed green leather swivel and put his feet up on the desk. He was barefooted. A black man even larger than the one downstairs came in from behind some greenery carrying a silver tray with a silver ice bucket with an open bottle of champagne in it. There was a tall fluted champagne glass on the tray. The black man placed the tray on a small glass table beside the desk and stepped back. He was wearing a regimental tunic with brass buttons and gold epaulets, like the guy downstairs. But this tunic was white. He was hatless, his hair cropped close to his head: He looked at me without expression.
Lehman said, 'That will be fine, Brutus. I'll call if I need you.' The black man nodded, about-faced, and marched out. Lehman took the champagne from the ice bucket and poured some into his glass, carefully, a little at a time, letting the bubbles settle. The champagne was Taittinger Blanc de Blancs. When he had filled his glass he took a mouthful, and closed his eyes and tipped his head back and let the wine trickle down his throat. When he had swallowed he opened his eyes and looked at me and said, 'Ah, nectar of the gods.'
'Actually that's a tautology,' I said.
'Excuse me?' Lehman said.
'Nectar is the drink of the gods, no need to say nectar of the gods. It's like saying ambrosia of the gods. Better simply to say, `Ah, nectar.' '
Lehman looked at Gretchen Coolidge. 'This gentleman says he is from Tony Marcus,' she said. 'He told Virgil that Mr. Marcus told him you would, ah, fix him up.'
'You an English teacher, pal?' Lehman drank more champagne.
'Pal,' I said. 'I always love guys that call me pal.'
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the regimental beastie reappear near one of the palm trees, by the far edge of the pool.
Lehman stared at me.
Gretchen said, 'Mr. Lehman is very busy, perhaps you could tell us exactly what you had in mind?'
'And why you think a recommendation from Tony Marcus means a piss hole in the snow to me?' Lehman said.
'Ah, the lilt of your imagery, Perry.'
Lehman flicked a glance at the big black man.
'If Gunga Din assaults me, Perry, you'll never find out what I want and the place will get all messy.'
He glanced at the Rolex watch on his left wrist.
'You got one minute from now,' he said, 'to tell me what you want.' He drank the rest of the champagne, pulled the bottle from the bucket and carefully poured some more.
'I'm backtracking a kid named Ginger Buckey. Art Floyd picked her up at a massage parlor in Portland, Maine, and brought her down here and put her in your club. I want to know where she went from here.'
'I don't know any Art Floyd, or Ginger whatever.'
'And you, Ms. Coolidge?' I said.
'I'm afraid I can't help either.'
I turned my head and looked at the black man. He stared at me without expression. 'Et tu, Brutus,' I said.
'Any other questions?' Lehman said.
'You haven't run across a woman named April Kyle, have you?'
Lehman shook his head. Gretchen shook her head. Brutus simply gazed at me.
