Butchers Hill

'Vegetable pad thai, sushi, chicken curry salad, smoked couscous, focaccia, pasta salad,' Jackie said. 'Eclairs for dessert.'

'Pad thai? Isn't that a fish thing? And sushi is a raw fish thing. I might have to eat both eclairs.' Tess peered into the empty bag. 'No wine?'

'We're working, remember? You can't afford to have any of the edges blurred.'

'What are we doing, anyway?'

'We're going to do an easy little telephone survey, not unlike something I'd set up for one of my clients. You take the Johnsons, A through M, I'll take Johnson N through Z. Then we'll move on the Johnstons. You check the current phone book, then cross-reference it to these pages I photocopied from a thirteen-year-old phone book. If the name doesn't show up on the photocopy, put an asterisk next to it, then move on. If it shows up, you call.'

'There are almost a dozen pages of Johnsons in the phone book. This will take forever.'

'Not once you control for longevity and location.' Jackie patted the county criss-cross. 'Remember, we know our Johnson-Johnston lived in North Baltimore County. Call only those listings that show up in the old phone book with an address in that area. That should narrow it down considerably.'

Tess was impressed, but determined not to let Jackie know it.

'So we're just going to call this people and say, ‘Yo, is Caitlin home?''

'No, because then there's a chance we'd get a Caitlin who's the wrong age, or whose parents don't fit the profile. Caitlin was the WASP name of choice for a while there. Instead, we say we're doing a survey about popular children's names, specific to the Baltimore metro area. In exchange for the person's time, tell them they might win a twenty-seven-inch color television in a drawing. Ask how many kids they have, what their names are. Then ask the ages. If we find a thirteen-year-old Caitlin, zero in, ask for the exact date of birth. By the time we're finished, we should have at least a few possibilities.'

'Assuming they haven't moved. Assuming Willa Mott was right.'

Jackie's world held no room for doubt. 'Let's not concede defeat before we've started, okay? Now eat your supper, then we'll start calling about seven-thirty so we won't catch people at their dinner tables.'

'You mean I finally get a chance to be a telemarketer and I'm not going to interrupt people while they're eating? They're going to know we're imposters.'

Jackie was setting up work stations for the two of them, arranging piles of photocopied phone lists alongside two maps, so they could cross-reference each listing. Apparently, she was going to work from her cell phone, while Tess would use her office phone. But two maps, Tess thought. Couldn't they share the map at least?

'Part of the reason I'm so good at what I do is that I don't call people at supper,' Jackie said. 'I also stop promptly at ten o'clock. People don't like to hear a phone ring after ten. They always think it's going to be bad news, and you never get past that first little buzz of fear they feel.'

Tess, who had started with the eclairs and planned to work backward to the couscous, didn't say anything. Her mouth was full.

Jackie had written a script, which she stuck to with almost grim determination, rattling off her lines into her cell phone. 'We're not trying to sell you anything…just doing a survey for a local publisher on Baltimore's favorite baby names…for answering our questions, your name will be entered into a raffle for a twenty-seven-inch color television set…May I ask what you and your husband do for a living? Do you have any children? Their names are? Their ages?…Thank you. Have a nice night.'

Tess tried to vary the pitch, partly to keep herself interested, partly because she didn't want to admit even to herself how clever Jackie's plan was. But she quickly learned it was inefficient to try the spiel extemporaneously and resorted to the script Jackie had made for her. But where Jackie had a talent for making each call sound fresh and spontaneous, Tess's voice became deader and deader as the evening worn on. How did anyone do this for a living?

By ten, Jackie's witching hour, they had worked through about half of the names. And Tess, despite her slow start, had ended up reaching a few more families than Jackie. They had found a five-year-old Caitlin, an eleven- year-old Caitlin, and even one thirty-two-year-old Caitlin, a woman whose parents obviously were ahead of their time. But not a single thirteen-year-old Caitlin, not in North Baltimore County.

'You may have a future at this,' Jackie said, studying Tess's list. 'If the private detective thing doesn't work out, you could always come work for me. Although then you really would have to ask people for money, and that's a different skill altogether.'

'Can I have a drink now, boss, as it's quitting time?'

'Sure, but I didn't bring anything like that.'

'We can always go down to the Korean's. He sells beer. ‘The Korean's.' Listen to me. I'm beginning to talk like everyone else on Butchers Hill.'

'I'm not much of a beer drinker,' Jackie said, wrinkling her nose. 'I prefer wine.'

'Now that's a problem. Mr. Kim stocks more kinds of Doritos than he does of wine. I know, we'll go over to Rosie's Place. It's around the corner from here.'

'Aren't these neighborhood taverns kind of rough?'

Tess laughed. 'Not Rosie's. You'll understand when we get there.'

From the outside, Rosie's looked like any of the corner bars in East Baltimore. A neon sign advertising Budweiser on tap, a pair of porcelain fisherman in one window, two of the Marx Brothers in the other, Harpo and Chico. The inside was nothing more than a long bar, with a television set turned to some sitcom, and a set of pale green booths along the far wall.

'People are looking at us,' Jackie whispered to Tess as they seated themselves in a booth. 'Is it because I'm the only black woman in here?'

'Well, you're better dressed than everyone else. They don't see a lot of Chanel suits in Rosie's. But they probably don't see many interracial couples, either.'

'You mean…?'

'You were quick to notice it was all-white, but you missed it's all-female as well,' Tess said. 'Can you imagine a more tolerant group than working-class lesbians? I think I'll have a mixed drink, after all, something different. You know what I want? A mint julep.'

'Do you think they have white wine?' Jackie was still whispering.

Tess whispered back. 'Of course they have white wine. They even have decent white wine. But have a julep with me. The bartender makes the syrup from her own mint plants, which she grows out front. They're fabulous.'

The juleps were served in ten-year-old Preakness glasses, commemorative cups used at the track, usually with a vile concoction of vodka, grapefruit juice, and peach schnapps known as black-eyed Susans. The bartender at Rosie's was wise enough to keep the glasses and avoid the drink.

'Spectacular Bid, Sunday Silence,' Jackie read from the side of the glass. 'You know, I've never even been to a horse race.'

'It's fun, as long as you keep it in perspective.' This batch of juleps was syrupy, and served over so much cracked ice that it was like a snowball with an alcohol kicker. 'You can't go to the track expecting to win, not unless you're willing to do the time to become a real handicapper. I got lucky my first few times out, hit an exacta and a dollar triple, total beginner's luck. Then I got cocky and thought I could make real picks, began trying to calculate speed figures and use the past performance charts in the Racing Form. I lost every time. Now when I go, I think of it as an interactive entertainment, like a play in which I have a vested interest in the outcome.'

'A kind of performance art.'

'Exactly. I make goofy bets, but educated goofy bets. If it's not too crowded at the betting windows, I like to watch the post parade, pick out the horse who looks like he's ready to run a good race.'

'How can you tell a winner, just by looking?'

'Well, as I said, nothing's foolproof. But I like the ones whose ears are straight up, and look kind of prancey. My favorite race of all is the very last one on Preakness Day.'

'Isn't that the Preakness?'