'So could we leave her here on the couch?' I said. 'With the bone, sneak into your bedroom, and reconsider the connection between libido and love? While, oblivious, she gnaws happily away out here?'
'We'd be fools not to,' Susan said.
22
G avin was waiting for me with two other guys in the hallway outside my office when I came to work in the morning carrying a large coffee in a paper cup.
'Spenser,' he said, 'we need to talk.'
'Sure we do,' I said.
G avin looked as chrome-plated and slick as he had the last time. The two men with him wore dark blazers and light gray slacks. On the breast pocket of each blazer the name Kinergy was spelled out in jagged script so it resembled a lightning bolt. Beneath the logo was the word Security. I unlocked the door and we went in. They came in after me and the last one closed the door. Gavin went to the client chair with arms. The other two men sat on the couch. It was Pearl's couch, but she wasn't with me, so I made no objection.
'Now,' Gavin said. 'We need to talk.'
'You mentioned that,' I said.
Carefully, I took the plastic lid off my coffee and tossed it in the wastebasket.
'We'd like to hire you,' Gavin said.
'You three?' I said.
G avin was not amused.
'No, no,' he said. 'Kinergy.'
'So what are these guys for, to carry the money?'
'Our pipeline division is encountering vandalism problems, and we would like to employ you to look into that.'
'Wow,' I said. 'Where are the problems taking place?'
'You'd be working out of our Tulsa office,' Gavin said.
'Tulsa,' I said.
'The pay would be ample and you'd be on full-time expenses. Everything first class. We have a very generous expense account policy.'
'Tulsa,' I said. 'To track down vandals.'
'And,' Gavin said, 'when you finish in Tulsa, there'd be other work. Southern California, for instance, or Vancouver.'
'You got any problems in Paris?' I said.
'We have an office in Paris,' Gavin said.
'Sacre bleu,' I said.
'What?'
'Excuse me,' I said. 'I speak so many languages . . .' Gavin obviously didn't know what I was talking about.
'So,' he said. 'You have an interest? You could pretty well name your price.'
'How about the Templeton Group, or Elmer O'Neill?' I said. 'What price did they name?'
'Excuse me?'
'I just wondered about your other hires,' I said.
'I'm sorry, we haven't hired anybody.'
'I was misinformed,' I said.
'So,' Gavin said brightly, 'you interested?'
'Nope.'
G avin was silent for a moment, his eyes behind the thick glasses getting narrow.
Then he said, 'Think about this, Spenser. This is a good deal for you. This is a chance to establish a long-term relationship with what may be the greatest company in the country.'
'You wouldn't know who killed Trent Rowley, would you?' I said.
'That is a police matter,' Gavin said. 'We are permitting the police to handle it.'
'So you haven't offered them a trip to Tulsa,' I said. Gavin's eyes were now so narrow it was surprising that he could still see.
'I am trying to conduct this meeting in a businesslike and professional manner,' he said. 'You do not make that easy.'
'Thanks for noticing,' I said.
