“I’m not bartering, I’m offering you a freebie on that girl whose face was on the news. Everyone knows when the cops can’t I.D. a victim they’re screwed. For Sturgis to put her face up on TV, he’s screwed blue and I just might know who she is.”

“I hope you do, Gretchen, but I can’t be your middleman.”

“Why not?”

“I owe you undivided loyalties and you owe me no payment other than what we already agreed upon.”

“Now you’re being a stiff.”

“Now I’m being your therapist.”

“It’s not payment, it’s a bonus.”

“Look at it this way,” I said. “If I had a patient who owned a jewelry store, I wouldn’t take a Rolex for my services.”

“Why not?”

“It’s wrong.”

“I don’t see it,” she said. “I think you’re being a total stiff.”

“Be that as it may.”

“You have no desire to hear what I have?”

“I’m sure Lieutenant Sturgis does.”

“I don’t want to call him,” she said. “I can’t stand him.”

The meeting between her and Milo had lasted all of twenty minutes. Frosty, but not conspicuously hostile.

“It’s up to you, Gretchen. See you in a few days.”

“I tell you I might know how to I.D. a dead girl and you don’t give a shit?”

“What you and I do isn’t about me.”

“Period.”

“Period.”

“So now I need to call that rude fat fag, personally,” she said. “Man, you should work for the IRS, talk about a bunch of rigid morons. Speaking of which, I need to talk to you about something else, yeah, it’s back to me, me, me, can I have another appointment for me, me, me? Sometime when Chad’s in school and before Bunny gets here and starts to run my world?”

“Let’s talk right now.”

“Only if you charge me, Mr. Ethical. Gretchen learned from her previous profession: Only chumps give freebies.”

“You advanced me a lot of money,” I said. “Let’s consider it a draw on your account.”

“Ka-ching ka-ching—hey, what if I don’t live long enough to get my money’s worth out of you?”

“What’s on your mind, Gretchen?”

“Is your phone secure?”

“Far as I know.”

“Hmm … yeah, why would anyone give a shit about a shrink? No offense. Okay, it’s about those sub-scum suck-ass parasites aka the IRS. When they nailed me on that tax bullshit, part of the deal was I’d pay back everything I’d supposedly evaded. I liquidated all kinds of shit, lost all of my real estate.”

“But …”