“I think about Ferragamos a lot. Today, before that thing with Johnny I was picturing this great pair. It has a nifty bow on the side, real small and cute.” Nicole was dressed in a shiny silver jumpsuit with a wide, white belt. She wore cowboy boots with metal rivets on the side. Her hair was teased up high. Rune noticed that her scalp was slightly red from where Traub had grabbed her.

“I love shoes. I have about sixty pairs. I don't know. They calm me down. For some reason.”

“Sixty?” Rune whispered in astonishment.

“That was one difference between Shelly and me. I spend everything I make. She put it all in mutual funds and stocks, things like that. But, hey, I like clothes. What can I say?”

“I saw a couple of your films. You looked like you were really turned on, really into it. And you were just faking?”

Nicole shrugged. “I'm a woman; I've had lots of practice faking.”

“You must think about something other than shoes.”

“Well, there's technical stuff to worry about. Am I at the right angle, am I looking at the camera, did I shave my underarms, am I repeating the same words all the time?”

“Who writes the dialogue?”

Nicole glanced nervously at the camera. She cleared her throat. “We make up most of it. Only the thing is, you'd think it'd be easy. You just look at the camera and talk. But it isn't like that. You kind of freeze up. You know what to say, the words and all, but the how to soy it part, that's what's so hard for me.”

Rune said, “You sounded okay to me. And I've seen a couple of your films.”

“Yeah?” Nicole turned her face, glowing with purple and beige makeup, toward Rune. “Which ones?”

“Bottoms Up. And Sex Wars. Oh, and Lusty Cousins.”

“That was an old one, Lusty Cousins. Kind of a classic. I got mentioned in Hustler. I have to say I was kinda happy with the way it worked out. I rehearsed that one for a week. Shelly made us.”

Rune glanced outside into the empty corridor.

“Did Shelly ever write plays?”

“Plays? Yeah. That was another one of her hobbies. She'd send them out and they'd come back with a rejection letter.”

“Did she ever have anything produced?”

“Naw, I don't think so. But one she wrote a few months ago was supposed to be real good. Some theater was interested in it.”

The Haymarket Theater, Chicago, Rune bet, recalling the note on the copy of the play in Tucker's office.

“Delivered Flowers?”

“Yeah. I think so. That might have been it.”

“You know what it was about?”

“Naw.”

Rune said, “I interviewed Danny Traub. I was talking to him about Shelly.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And he said that he really loved her. That they were this like team.”

“Danny said that?”

“Yep.”

“He's lying,” Nicole said.

“That's sort of what I thought too.”