“How many times?”

“Maybe… twice. Yeah, twice, the second time she got me in trouble, marching back into the service bay like she owns it, asking for me. No one goes back there except us specialists.”

“Like an operating room,” said Milo.

“What?”

“You guys are like doctors working on patients, bosses want to keep it under control.”

“You got that, I am like a doctor,” said Hatfield, holding up blackened hands. “Some of the other guys are more like butchers.” Crooked smile. “If the clients knew what went on back there.”

“So Katrina dropped in twice.”

“Dropped in is exactly right, I never invited her, she just dropped in. The second time she brought me lunch. Some sort of vegan shit, noodles, whatever. I told her forget it.”

“By then the relationship was fading.”

“There was no relationship. Too much drama.”

I said, “But for two, three months you put up with it.”

“That was ’cause of all the you-know-what. And no way there was ever gonna be any relationship because I was married.” Massaging the band of pale skin.

I said, “Did your divorce have anything to do with Kat?”

Hatfield laughed. “Hell, no. It had to do with we got married when we were seventeen, had four kids in four years, and got sick as shit of each other. She took ’em all and went back to Columbus.”

“She know about Kat?”

“None a her business.” He grinned and rubbed a knuckle. “It ain’t like Kat was the one and only.”

Milo said, “You’re a player.”

“I work hard, she got nothing to complain,” said Hatfield. “Support her and the kids and bust my ass to do it. If I want a little play, no one’s gonna tell me different.”

“Did you ever meet any of Kat’s friends?”

“Nope, and she never met any of mine. It was all—”

“You-know-what.”

“’Zactly.” Hatfield dropped his cigarette to the asphalt, ground it out slowly. “You ain’t gonna tell me what she did?”

“She’s missing.”

“Missing? So what? She was always missing.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’d booty-call her and she’d be nowhere. Few days later, she’d booty-call me, brag about how she was in Mexico, Hawaii, whatever. Brag about how she met some rich guy and he paid her bills while she was there, she’s eating lobster and snow crab and filet mignon and not paying a dime for any of it. When she got like that, I knew it was gonna be trouble.”

“How so?”

“She’d be expecting shit. Y’all really think something happened to her?”

“She’s been gone over a week.”

“Big deal. She just gets up and goes.”

I said, “Do you ever get to drive the cars?”

“Huh — yeah, all the time, for testing.”

“Short spins around the block?”