'Because I can't do anything for you.'
'That's right.'
'And you want the whole enchilada?'
'All of it,' she said. 'Everything the men want, and to get it I have to be better than the men and when I am, I get to rub their noses in it.'
'My God,' I said. 'A feminist.'
'Fuck that,' she said. 'I'm not doing anything for women. I'm doing it for me.'
'What can you tell me about Cooper?' I said.
'Wants to be senator, as a way of positioning himself to run for president.'
'Hell of a pay cut,' I said.
'His focus is upward and out,' she said. 'Trent and Bernie Eisen ran the place.'
'And now it's just Bernie,' I said.
'Yeah. But that'll change. Bernie hasn't got the cojones or the smarts without Trent to help him.'
'What's Cooper like?'
'God knows,' she said. 'He might even be what he seems. I don't know. Mostly he's an absentee landlord. Spends a lot of time in D.C.'
'He married?'
A dele smiled a little.
'Big Wilma,' she said.
'Big Wilma.'
'She's the wife he married in college and never should have. But he can't divorce her because if he runs for president the divorce will kill him.'
'You think?'
'Doesn't matter what I think. That's what he thinks.'
'He talks about this?'
A dele smiled and didn't say anything.
'To you,' I said. 'Under, ah, intimate circumstances.'
A dele continued to smile.
'Coop fools around?'
'I don't think Coop is ever fooling,' she said.
'Can you talk about Gavin?'
'Un-uh,' she said. 'I got nothing to say about Gavin.'
'Scared?'
'Prudent,' she said. 'Mostly he functions as Coop's bodyguard.'
'Coop needs a bodyguard?' I said.
A dele shrugged.
'He's very loyal to Coop,' she said.
'Do you know why Cooper needs a bodyguard?'
'No.'
I nodded. Adele poured me some more coffee. She was sitting with her legs crossed, and when she leaned forward to pour, her short skirt got much shorter. My devotion to Susan was complete. I noted it merely because I am a trained observer.
'You ever hear of Darrin O'Mara?' I said.
'Why do you ask?'
'His name keeps popping up,' I said.
She looked out the window for a time. Then she smiled.
'The corporate pimp,' she said.
'Ah ha,' I said.
'Is that what detectives say?' she said. 'Ah, ha!'
'I used to say things like `the game's afoot,' but people didn't know what I was talking about.'
'And `ah ha' is shorter,' she said.
'Exactly.'
