“Christ, I never visited. She came here.”

“Maybe you’ve got records.”

He stopped all the moving around and looked at me with the kind of look they give you that tells you that the lights are going off behind their eyes. Getting The Big Idea. He said, “Maybe I should deal direct with Peter on this. We might be getting a little personal here, you know, and he might appreciate keeping it in the family, as it were.”

I pointed at the phone. “Sure. He’s at the Paramount office now. Give’m a call and tell him that even though he’s trying to find his ex-wife and his kid, you’re foot-dragging because you want to suck after some kind of deal. He’ll like you just fine for that”

He said, “Hey, I’m doing a favor here, right? I’m trying to help here, right?”

“Quit being small-time and tell me what you know, Oscar. You’re coming across like a chiseler.”

“I look like I’m rolling in it here? I wanna help. I wanna do what I can. But, hey, Peter Alan Nelsen gives you the nod, my friend, you’re made in this town.” Peter Alan Nelsen, spitting a green M&M on Donnie Brewster.

“Sure, Oscar.”

He worked it through some more, trying to get a fix on what was real and what wasn’t and what he could get if he played it right and how much it could cost if he played it wrong. He said, “Listen, Elvis, I help you out here, you tell Peter, okay?”

“I’ll tell him.”

“You promise?” Like we were in fourth grade.

“I promise, Oscar.”

“Hey, I wanna help. I wanna do anything I can for Peter Alan Nelsen.” Nothing like sincerity.

“Where did Karen live?”

“I’m thinking.”

“Look in your files.”

“Christ, I’m supposed to keep files on people forever?”

“Returned checks. Tax information.”

“Nah.”

“Correspondence. Maybe an old rolodex.”

“Christ, I keep all that stuff I’d be buried in paper. We’re talking a lifetime ago.”

“Okay. Maybe there’s something else.”

“I’m thinking.”

“You know any of her friends?”

“No.”

“How about family?”

“Unh-unh.”

“Boyfriend?”

He shook his head.

“Did she say if she was thinking about moving away or taking a trip?”

His brow knotted and his face clenched and he hit the side of his head a couple of times with the heel of his hand. Worried that he wouldn’t be able to come through and trying to shake something loose.

I said, “Man, you two were really tight.”

He waved his hands. “Hey, we never had no big heart-to-hearts. One day she just wasn’t around anymore. I thought she dropped me. You know, went to another agency. I didn’t hear anything from her and I tried calling the place she lived, but she was never around, so after a while I figured that’s it.”