'You came here asking me to save your child,' I said.
'So you boosted the price?'
'No. That's the price. I was trying to help you decide if it's worth paying.'
'By playing on a mother's guilt?'
I didn't remember anything about guilt, but I let it ride.
'Can you do it?'
'Sure,' I said. 'I can eat this guy's lunch.'
'Do you require payment to start?'
'No. I'll bill you when it's done.'
'What are you going to do?'
'I'll speak with Kate.'
'She's very frightened. You'll have to be careful with her.'
'I'll need an address.'
Valerie took out a business card and wrote on the back.
'I'd prefer that you talk to her when I'm there.'
'Sure.'
'This evening?'
'Yes.'
'Seven?'
'Fine.'
She stood. I stood.
'Where is Kate now?'
'I sent her and Miranda to my mother's home in Brookline,' Valerie said. 'Until I could arrange for her safety. That's the address on the back of my card.'
'I'll meet you there,' I said.
She looked at me the way people look at racehorses before the auction.
'Well, you look as if you'd be formidable,' she said.
'You should see me in my red cape,' I said.
'I'm sure I should,' she said.
TWENTY-THREE
I TALKED WITH Kate in the living room of a big half-timbered Tudor-style house on a side road off of Route 9 not very far from Longwood Tennis Club. Miranda made a brief appearance in joint custody of Valerie's mother and a Shih Tzu named Buttons. Miranda seemed overdressed to me, and mildly uneasy. But I was inexpert with sixteen- month-old kids. The Shih Tzu sniffed my ankles thoughtfully, and then followed Miranda and her grandmother from the room.
'The dog is a Shih Tzu?' I said.
Valerie said it was.
'Knew a woman in Ames, Iowa, had one of those.'
'How nice,' Valerie said.
'Dog's name was Buttons too.'
Valerie smiled stiffly.
Beside Valerie, on the yellow-flowered couch in a bay of the overdecorated living room, was a plain young woman with red hair and very white skin. I sat on a hassock in front of the couch.
'You're Kate,' I said.
'Yes, sir.'
'And you are being stalked by a man named Kevin Shea,' I said.
'Yes, sir.'
'What's your relationship to him?' I said.
'We're not related.'
'Were you lovers?'
'Yes, sir.'
