'You bet.'
'You mean you'd let Jimbo loose with a mare?'
'He's different around mares,' Martin said.
'Him too,' I said.
TEN
MICKEY BLAIR WENT out of the track office with a springy walk that made her long blond braid bounce against the full length of her spine. She left the door open behind her. Through the open door, I could look straight along the stable row where the horses hung their heads out of their stalls and looked around. It reminded me of one of those streets in Amsterdam where the whores sat in windows.
I had a yellow legal-size pad on the desk by my right hand, and a nice Bic pen lying on it at a rakish angle. The pad was blank. I had spent the day interviewing stable crew about the attempt on Hugger Mugger and had learned so little that I thought I might have crossed into deficit. I looked at my watch. Twenty to five. Penny Clive came in wearing black jeans and a white T-shirt and a black jacket. She went to the refrigerator, took out two Cokes, and handed me one. She sat down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table. I was able to observe that her jeans fit her very well. It was about the only thing I'd observed all day.
'You got him in your sights?' she said.
'I think I know somewhat less than I did this morning.'
'Oh dear,' Penny said.
We each drank some Coke.
'I gather my sister came to visit,' Penny said.
'Where did you gather that?' I said.
She smiled and shrugged.
'Daddy likes to know what SueSue and Stonie are up to,' she said.
'So you keep an eye on them?'
'It's a small community,' Penny said. 'I usually know what's going on in it.'
'Someone at the motel tipped you.'
She smiled.
'Because you'd alerted them,' I said.
She continued to smile.
'Because you figured she'd come to call,' I said.
'SueSue is predictable,' Penny said.
'Who keeps an eye on you?' I said.
'I'm self-regulating,' Penny said, and her smile increased so that the laugh parentheses at the corners of her mouth deepened. 'I hope SueSue wasn't offensive.'
'Not at all,' I said.
'She has a problem with alcohol,' Penny said.
'I gathered that she might.'
'And men,' Penny said.
I was quiet. Penny was quiet.
Finally Penny said, 'Did she come on to you?'
'I wondered how you were going to get to it. Straight on is good.'
'Thank you. Did she?'
'I think that's between SueSue and me,' I said.
Penny nodded.
'Of course,' she said. 'I'm sorry to be cross-examining you.'
'Just doing your job,' I said.
'It's not like it sounds,' she said. 'My sisters are both, what, wild? Daddy is just trying… He's being a daddy.'
'How are the marriages?' I said.
'They don't work very well.'
'Children?'
'No.'
'How's Daddy feel about that?'
'He wants an heir.'
