"So let's see if we can find out where the Children Lex schooled--public, private, whatever."

Esperanza frowned. "You mean like college?"

"Start there, yes. Not that siblings go to the same school, but maybe they did. Or maybe they all went to Ivy League schools. Something like that. You might want to start with high school. It's more likely that they all went to the same one."

"And if I don't find any record of him in high school?"

"Go back even further."

She crossed her legs, folded her arms. "How far?"

"As far as you can."

"And what good will this exercise in futility do us?"

"I want to know when Dennis Lex fell off the radar screen. Did people know him in high school? In college? In grad school?"

She did not look impressed. "And assuming I somehow manage to find, say, his elementary school, what exactly is that going to do for us?"

"Damn if I know. I'm grasping at straws here."

"No, you're asking me to grasp at straws."

"Then don't do it, Esperanza, okay? It was just a thought."

"Nah," she said with a wave of her hand. "You may be right."

Myron put his palms on his desk, arched his back, looked left, looked right, looked up, looked down.

"What?" she said.

"You said I may be right. I'm waiting for the world as we know it to end."

"Good one," Esperanza said, standing. "I'll see what I can dig up."

She left the room. Myron picked up the telephone and dialed Susan Lex's number. The receptionist transferred the call, and a woman identifying herself as Ms. Lex's secretary picked it up. She had a voice like a steel-wool tire over gravel.

"Ms. Lex does not see people she doesn't know."

"It's a matter of grave importance," Myron said.

"Perhaps you did not hear me the first time." Classic Battle-ax. "Ms. Lex does not see people she doesn't know."

"Tell her it's about Dennis."

"Excuse me?"

"Just tell her that."

Battle-ax put Myron on hold without another word. Myron listened to a Muzak version of Al Stewart's "Time Passages." Myron had thought the original was Muzak-y enough, thank you very much.

The battle-ax came back with a snap. "Ms. Lex does not see people she doesn't know."

"I've been thinking about that, but it doesn't really make sense."

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, at some time she must see people she doesn't know--otherwise she'd never meet anybody new. And if we follow my logic, how did you ever get to see her for the first time? She was willing to see you before she knew you, right?"

"I'm hanging up now, Mr. Bolitar."

"Tell her I know about Dennis."

"I just--"

"Tell her if she doesn't agree to see me, I'll go to the press."

Silence. "Hold." A click and then the Muzak came back on. Time passed. So, mercifully, did "Time Passages," replaced by the Alan Parsons Project's "Time." Myron nearly slipped into a coma.