Archie felt Ginger lift her head from his foot and he glanced down to see that her triangular ears were upright and angled toward the door. He was putting down the newspaper when he heard the first knock.

It was Susan. She always knocked the same way: two short knocks, with a pause, followed by three short knocks.

“I know you’re in there,” she called through the door.

Ginger stood up and trotted to the door and then stopped and looked expectantly back at Archie.

Archie tightened the belt around his terry-cloth robe, got to his feet, and followed Ginger to the door.

He hadn’t planned on letting Susan in. He was going to stand his ground, and explain that it was Saturday morning and no one had been disemboweled or beheaded and he wasn’t working. But she had a way of circumventing the best of his intentions.

She pushed past him and headed for the kitchen. She was wearing a silver skirt that looked like it was made from tinfoil, black tights, black Converse sneakers, and a red hooded sweatshirt, unzipped, over a black tank top. Ginger, whom Susan sometimes walked, pranced along at her feet, panting happily. “Do you have any coffee?” Susan asked.

Archie closed the door behind her. Susan was already getting a mug out of the cupboard. “Help yourself,” he said.

Susan’s clothes smelled like cigarettes. Archie had noticed it the moment he’d opened the door. Susan smoking cigarettes this early in the morning was never a good indicator.

He watched as she poured herself the last cup of coffee from the pot and then stooped down to pat Ginger on the head.

“Happy birthday,” she said in Archie’s direction. “I forgot your present.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Archie said.

Susan straightened up and looked at him. She held the mug between her hands and blew on the coffee. Her eyes were red and her mascara was smeared. She looked like she’d slept in her makeup. “Leo’s not answering his phone,” she said. “We had an argument last night. He left. This morning I went by his place. He didn’t answer the buzzer. And I fucking leaned on it,” she added. “If he’d been home, he would have answered.”

Archie wanted to ask what the argument was about, but he didn’t. “Do you have a key?” he asked.

She glanced away. “No.”