'And what, exactly, did he want?'
'Follow the wife. Tell him who she saw.'
'Even another woman?'
'He wanted a full report.' Elmer smiled. 'Men, women, you know it could go either way.'
'Elmer, you sophisticated devil,' I said.
'Hey,' Elmer said. 'It happens.'
'Yes it does,' I said. 'You have any help?'
'Me? No. I, don't see no reason to split a fee when all I got to do is work hard, and get it all.'
'So you covered her day and night?'
'Picked her up in the morning, stayed with her until bedtime. Bedtime at home.'
I nodded.
'Now,' I said. 'I'm going to take a guess, and you tell me if the guess is on the money or not.'
'Yeah?'
'To make sure nobody got wind of it, you didn't report. He called you.'
'Yeah, that's right.'
'No phone number.'
'No.'
'Nothing in writing.'
'No.'
'That raise any flags for you?' I said.
'It did,' he said. 'It sent up a big flag that said, Elmer, you take that cash right down to the bank and deposit it in your account.'
'How'd he happen to come to you?' I said.
'He wanted the best,' Elmer said.
'But how'd he find that out,' I said.
E lmer squinted at me again.
'There's something going on,' he said. 'What is it? What's going down?'
I thought about it.
'Same guy who hired you to follow Ellen Eisen hired somebody else to follow another woman.'
'Maybe old Bernie's got a. . .'
E lmer stopped. He rocked back in his chair and pointed a forefinger which he jabbed at me gently.
'Old Bernie ain't old Bernie,' he said.
I nodded.
'So who the fuck is he?' Elmer said.
'Don't know,' I said.
'Then why'd you ask me to describe my guy?' Elmer said.
'Because I've seen Bernie.'
'He tell the other guy that he was that woman's husband?'
'Yes.'
'And you seen her husband too,' Elmer said.
'Yes.
E lmer sat some more, squinting. He still had his forefinger extended but now he was slowly making circles with it in the air. You could sort of track his thinking with it. The closer he got to an idea, the smaller the circles.
'This has got something to do with that company,' he said.
'You think?'
'Kinergy,' he said. 'Guy got killed out there.'
'You don't miss much,' I said.
'Can't. Not in this business. You involved?'
'I didn't do it,' I said.
'You got a piece of the investigation?'
