'More so even than myself,' I said.
'Perhaps you're too modest,' she said. 'But he had a terrible time hanging on to them. Carla was, as far as I know, his last marriage, but there are certainly a lot of girlfriends. I'd look for him with a woman.'
'How'd he feel about Susan?' I said.
'He always said she was the one he should have stayed with. Is the question just curiosity?'
'Probably,' I said. 'I'm involved because he came to her with a tale of woe. But when I spoke to him, he denied any trouble.'
'You're a man,' Nancy said.
'Yes, I am.'
'He couldn't admit to another man that he was in trouble, or that he was anything but an All Ivy League success.'
'You're saying he could get Susan to ask me to help but he couldn't admit to me that he needed help?'
'Yes.'
'Wow.'
'You know he changed his name?' she said.
'Yes.'
'A lot of it is my father's fault,' she said. 'He thought that being a success in America was to join the Yankees, to be everything Brad pretends to be.'
'You didn't change your name,' I said.
'Well, actually, of course, I did.'
'Yeah. To Ginsberg. A fine old Yankee name.'
'I see your point,' she said. 'No, Joel and I are Jewish. We have no desire to be thought otherwise.'
'So how'd you escape your father's dream,' I said.
'Well, I was a girl,' she said, '… and I got some help.'
'A sound decision in both cases.'
'I didn't decide to be a girl, Mr. Spenser.'
'Well, I'm glad it worked out that way,' I said. 'You'd have been wasted as a boy.'
She colored slightly and smiled.
'Well,' she said. 'Well; I guess, thank you.'
I smiled, my low-wattage smile. I had promised Susan exclusivity, and I didn't want Nancy to fling herself into my arms.
'Anything else you can tell me about your brother?' I said.
'He's not a bad man,' she said. 'He's just… my father screwed his head up.'
'You had the same father,' I said, 'and you did something about it.'
'I know,' she said.
chapter twenty-seven
I WAS SITTING IN my office with a pad of lined yellow paper trying to find a pattern in the matter of Brad Sterling aka Silverman. Susan always said that the paper was a really ugly color, even after I had explained to her that all detectives used yellow paper with blue lines on it. It was how you knew you were a detective. But even though I was using the correct paper, I was getting nowhere, and slowly, which was another way to know you were a detective.
The phone rang. I answered.
'This is Mattie Clayman,' the caller said. 'From AIDS Place.'
'Yes,' I said. 'I remember.'
'I just wanted to thank you.'
'I like the impulse, but what for.'
'I'm used to being bullshitted,' she said. 'I didn't believe you when you said you'd find out what happened to our money.'
'From Galapalooza,' I said.
'Right.'
'I haven't found out yet,' I said.
'Maybe not, but you've started the ball rolling. The guy came by yesterday from the AG's office.'
'What guy?'
'Guy from the Public Charities Division, said he was looking into funds distribution from Galapalooza. I assumed you'd sent him.'
