'I wish to hire you,' she said.
'To do what?'
'To find out what happened to Walter Clive.'
'What can I do that the cops can't do?'
'You can report to me,' she said. 'And maybe you won't pussyfoot around the Clive family quite as much as the local police.'
'That may be,' I said. 'But if they don't want to talk to me, they don't have to.'
'They have shut themselves off, since Walter's death. They have shut me out. They have shut my son out.'
'Are you in Walter Clive's will?' I said.
She was silent for a time. I waited. She crossed her legs the other way. Which gave me something to do while I waited.
'Why do you ask?' she said.
'I'm a nosy guy,' I said.
She was silent again. I waited some more.
'I was supposed to be,' she said.
'And?'
'The attorneys tell me I'm not,' she said.
'How long were you with him?' I said.
'Eight years.'
'Did he say he'd take care of you?'
'Of course.'
'Do you feel there was chicanery?'
'God, don't you talk funny,' she said.
'It's not my fault,' I said. 'I've been sleeping with a Harvard Ph.D.'
She smiled. Her teeth were perfectly even and absolutely white. The effect was dazzling, even though I suspected orthodontic intervention.
'I've done that,' she said.
'Hopefully not with the same one,' I said.
'Hopefully,' she said.
'Do you think somebody doctored the will to cut you out?' I said.
'I don't know what to think,' she said. 'I don't mean to come off sounding greedy, but… I…'
She shifted a little in her chair and crossed her legs again. She seemed to sit up a little straighter.
'I am what would have been called, in more genteel times, a courtesan. I have been not only the sex partner but the companion and support of several powerful men, of whom Walter Clive was the most recent.'
'Did any of the others stiff you?'
'None of the others have died,' she said. 'But each made a financial settlement with me when our relationship ended. I know Walter would have done the same thing, if we had parted before his death. None of these arrangements were about love. But in each instance we liked each other, and we understood what we were doing.'
'Are you okay financially?'
'Yes. I am quite comfortable, and I shall almost certainly establish a, ah, liaison with another powerful and affluent man.'
'So hiring me is a thirst for justice,' I said.
'I want my son's inheritance.'
'You think Walter Clive should have left money to your son.'
'Our son,' Dolly said.
'Yours and Walter's?'
'Yes.'
'Does your son know this?' I said.
'Not yet.'
'Did Walter know this?'
'I told him. We agreed that Walter would undergo some DNA testing.'
'Did he?'
