He handed her a glass and caught her looking at him. You look good, she said again.

Thanks, he said, and the fact that he didn‘t try to aw shucks it off told her that Kurt had come to a certain sense of his own worth. It was good to see. When did you move into the new office?

Remember I told you about that case last year?

The banker?

Yeah.

A moneymaker, was it?

He held up one hand and rubbed finger and thumb together. Turns out I‘m a natural-born peeper.

Private investigator, she said.

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I found most of the embezzled funds and we got a percentage. I got a lot of referrals after that, too, and I could see on the expression of clients‘ faces that it was time to trade up.

She hooked a thumb over her shoulder. Agrifina?

Found her at Bean‘s.

She was on the street?

He nodded. Fresh in from Chuathbaluk, on the run from a home life she won‘t talk about. Their eyes met. I could relate, and she seemed clean.

She sure does.

He grinned again. Yeah, she‘s seen a lot of Lauren Bacall movies. He hesitated. I gave her a clothing allowance.

So? I gave you one, too, if you remember. She raised her glass. Here‘s to all the richest murder suspects walking in your door.

Hear, hear. They drank and he put his glass down. What can I do for you, Kate? How are you with industrial espionage?

You‘re kidding. He leaned forward. Tell me.

She told him the whole story, leaving nothing out. At the end, she handed him the phone number Allen had listed, the three Social Security numbers, and her cell phone number. I need anything you can get me and I need it fast. I‘m especially interested in anything you can dig up on Allen. Gammons, yeah, but not as urgent. How fast?

End of the day if possible, tomorrow if not. My phone doesn‘t work in the Park. He grimaced. I can call in a few favors.

She drained her glass and got to her feet. Please do. And you‘ll be billing me at the usual rates. He was about to protest and she said, I‘m working for Jim. Oh well, that‘s different, then, he said.

They shook hands, and she left with the warm feeling that here at least was a quarterly shareholder dividend being put to good use.

• • •

From Pletnikoff Investigations it was only an elevator ride and a block‘s walk to the offices of the district attorney. Ten minutes later she was having the stuffing hugged out of her for the second time that day by Brendan McCord, a large, untidy man with a mop of red hair and a tie that invariably announced what he‘d had for breakfast. Again she told her story, and asked him to run what little she had on Gammons and Allen through every database he had access to. They hadn‘t called her Two-source Shugak for nothing back in the day.