He shook his head and went over behind the marble desk and sat down the way a very old man would sit and he looked at the little picture again. He said, “You know what’s weird? It’s like there’s a piece of me out there that I don’t know and have never seen. It’s like I can feel him, like there’s this other self, you see?”

I nodded. “The boy may not feel that way. Your ex-wife almost certainly won’t.”

He got up and walked over to the pinball machine and then to the video game and then to the Wurlitzer. He would stand, then move, then stand again, as if he didn’t quite know what to do with himself or where he should be or how to say what he wanted to say.

I said, “Just say it.”

He turned and his face seemed faraway and lost and hurt. “I just want to say hello to my kid.”

I nodded. “I don’t blame you,” I said. “I’ll help you find him.”

The world’s third most successful director took a deep breath, then said, “Good. Good.” He came across the room and shook my hand. “Good.”

Chapter Three

Three

The black secretary stuck his head in the door and told Peter that someone named Langston needed to see him on the stage right away.

We trooped down out of his office and back into the real world of aliens and oil barons and people who looked suspiciously like studio executives. Patricia Kyle and Peter Alan Nelsen and I walked together, with Dani sort of drifting behind. Somewhere between Peter’s office and the soundstage, Nick and T.J. reappeared, Nick giving me tough whenever I looked at him. Had me shaking, that guy. Make you turn in your license, a guy like that. I looked at Peter Alan Nelsen, instead. “What was your ex-wife’s name?”

“Karen Nelsen.”

“Not her married name. What was her maiden name?”

“Karen Shipley. That cop we talked to, Ito, he said you’re big with the martial arts. He said you took out some killer from Japan.”

I said, “What’s your son’s name?”

“Toby Samuel Nelsen. I got the Sam from Sam Fuller. Great director. You ever been shot?”

“I caught some frag once.”

“What did it feel like?”

“Peter, let’s stick to the information about your ex-wife, okay?”

“Yeah, sure. What do you want to know?”