Stone Junction

Anyway, Doc Putney challenged me about the scar, but he did it all wrong. He said, ‘You don’t have a scar, Jennifer.’

So I stood up and turned around and lifted the grey smock over my head. I wasn’t wearing anything else. I like my body close. Nakedness is one of my highest powers. I don’t mean the foxy chick-trick of turning slowly, arms crossed, lifting with a little wriggle and then dropping a dress on the floor. I’m not good at being sexy. But I know how to be naked, so naked you can’t even see my body.

Doc Putney must have almost swallowed the pencil he’s always chewing on because he kind of croaked, ‘Jennifer, put on your clothes.’

I told him, ‘Look at my scar.’ I reached back with my right hand and touched it so he’d know where to look.

The Doc got agitated. ‘There is no scar,’ he said, hitting every word like he was talking to a child. I don’t even talk to Mia like that.

I stood there so naked I could feel the scar begin to glow. Finally he came around his desk and picked up my smock and handed it to me. He looked in my eyes – with more courage than I thought he had – and said with real gentleness, ‘There is no scar. Put on your dress now. Please.’

The ‘please’ intimated what a glance at his crotch confirmed – he had a serious hard-on.

‘I showed my scar,’ I told him. ‘Let me see your cock. Let’s play, Doctor.’

I couldn’t resist. Scared him though – reminded him he was a doctor. Compromising Situation with a Female Patient.

‘No,’ he said. ‘This session is over.’ And he walked out. It was more of a controlled bolt. At the door he turned and said, ‘You should write about your feelings toward men.’

Depends on the man, Doc. And me.

Before he even opened his eyes, Volta could tell by the ring that the call was the inside line. Probably Smiling Jack or Ellison. He picked up the receiver without enthusiasm. ‘Allied Furnace Repair.’

‘Glad you gave it up and got some sleep.’ It was Jack.

‘I didn’t give it up. He called.’

Smiling Jack waited. ‘And?’

‘I don’t know. More exactly, he doesn’t know. I think the Diamond overwhelmed him. He said he’d call back.’

‘Where is he?’

‘He didn’t say. Sounded like a phone booth, so I’m assuming he’s on the road and moving.’

Smiling Jack said nothing for a moment. ‘Since you didn’t call, I guess we’re playing him loose. Or letting him loose.’

‘I think it’s fair for now,’ Volta said. ‘Not that we have much choice.’

Jack sighed. He hated to deliver bad news. ‘We have a choice now. They’ve got his cover, everything but the truck’s make and license plate number.’

Volta sat up in the chair. ‘How?’

‘You’re not going to believe it.’

‘I believe everything that happens.’

‘The president himself – though rumor has it the pressure came from his wife, through her astrologer – insisted they call in that weirdo Dredneau. According to a reliable source, he fucking deduced it from the plunger mark on the ceiling.’

‘That’s an astonishing deduction.’

‘Yeah,’ Jack agreed, ‘I thought so. Of course, I don’t have much skinny on this Dredneau, except he dresses out of the nineteenth century, has a certain dramatic flair, and evidently knows his shit. Sounds like your kind of guy.’

Volta was thinking. ‘That’s an impossible deduction. Change the code right now. Damn – I should have done it a month ago. Keep the frequency rotation, though.’

‘If we’re piped, might as well pour shit in their ear, huh?’

‘And I think we should have a go-between ready with Daniel. He hasn’t said so directly, but he doesn’t trust me.’

‘Wild Bill.’

‘He’d be my choice, too, if we’d heard from him in the last five months.’

‘I’ll do it,’ Jack said. ‘Or Dolly.’

‘Thanks, Jack, but we need you for Dredneau, and Dolly for Shamus, though he seems to have broken contact. Let’s gamble. How about Charmaine? She has a hook in him somewhere.’

‘I thought you said a go-between, not a persuader.’

‘A go-between can take many roles. Not knowing which may prove appropriate, why not provide for diverse