'Sure,' I said.
'I understand. No need to tell me anything. I'll just stick my head out the window and yell 'Hey, Anthony.' That'll probably work.'
'I'm in a sensitive business,' Ventura said.
'I don't like people poking around in it.'
I held the picture out to Shirley.
'Then take back your picture, and take a walk. You hire me to look for Anthony I'm going to be poking around in your business.'
Shirley didn't take the picture.
'I'm going to look through his belongings. I'm going to ask around the neighborhood. I'm going to talk to people who knew him.'
'The hell you will,' Ventura said.
'We have a condo,' Shirley said.
'In Point of Pines.'
She gave me the address. Ventura stood up and took the picture that I was still holding out toward Shirley.
'Come on, Shirley. Deal's off,' he said.
'This is family business.'
Shirley's face got red and squeezed up and tears began to roll down her cheeks. She clasped both hands together in her lap and lowered her head as if she were studying the grip and began to sob. I sat back in my chair and watched.
'Come on,' Ventura said again.
Shirley kept right on sobbing at her lap.
'Goddamn it, Shirley…'
Shirley sobbed resolutely. I sat, with my chair tilted back, and waited.
'Oh, fuck!' Ventura said and tossed the picture back on my desk and sat down.
I got a box of Kleenex out of my bottom drawer and placed them on the desk where Shirley could reach them. She plucked one out and dabbed at her eyes with it.
'We're in business?' I said to Ventura.
'Yeah.'
Shirley looked up and smiled, and said, 'Thank you, Daddy.'
Ventura nodded without looking at her. He was looking at me. A hard look. So I'd know how dangerous he was. He was wasting his time. I already knew how dangerous he was.
'You know my occupation, right?' Ventura said.
'Yeah.'
Ventura looked an even harder look at me. I managed to keep my poise.
'You learn anything, might be, ah, some kind of problem, you know, you keep it to your fucking self, right?'
'Anyone ever actually faint when you were giving them the hard stare?' I said.
Ventura didn't answer. He kept looking at me.
'You know, sort of gasp with terror,' I said, 'and slide down in the chair and let their head fall sideways with their tongue hanging out? Like this?'
I demonstrated what I meant. Shirley giggled into the Kleenex she was still using.
'Shut up, Shirley, he ain't funny,' Ventura said, without easing up on his hard look.
'You know that, Spenser?' he said.
'You ain't funny. You think you are. You think you're a fucking riot, you know? Well, you ain't.
My kid wants you to find her husband. Okay, you find him, and I pay you, and you go your way. No problem. But you dick around with me at all, and something will happen that won't be so fucking funny.'
Still playing dead, slumped in my chair with my head tilted, and my tongue out, I opened one eye and looked at Shirley. She giggled again. Then I slurped my tongue in and sat up.
'Okay,' I said.
'Now it's my turn. There's a lot about this deal that doesn't make any sense, because there's a lot you're not telling me. That's all right, I'm used to it. I'll take the case. But when I find out what you're not telling me, I reserve the right, if I don't like it, to quit.'
Ventura didn't have a big repertoire. He was back to his hard look again.
'What did Anthony do for you?' I said to Ventura.
