“Pete, even Tug wouldn’t argue. You know, I heard something this morning on the news about a bomb going off. But I was listening with half an ear and bombs are always going off somewhere. I’m freaked out.”

“You’re not allowed. One of us has to remain sane.” He paused. “I know I’m running on empty. So what the hell. Keep going until the engine block cracks. Does any of my stuff help you make headway at your end?”

“I do have some news. Nothing dramatic.”

“Thank God.”

“Yeah, thank God is right. You have your pad with you?”

“Yep. Shoot.”

“First, Milligan,” Marge said. “I’ve been looking into her finances. Because if she’s connected to Yalom, it has to be through business. I’ve been asking myself, what could she be after?”

“Cheap, undeveloped land with diamond potential that she could sell to VerHauten at a great price.”

“Almost. I think she’s after cheap, undeveloped land with diamond potential period.”

“She wants to develop it herself?”

“Why share the profits with VerHauten?”

“Where is she going to get the capital to develop a diamond pipe?”

“Let’s take it one step at a time,” Marge said. “First, where is she going to find cheap, undeveloped land with diamond potential? I started checking into diamond companies not associated with VerHauten. I called up your ex-father-in-law, Jack Cohen the lawyer, and he referred me to his broker.”

“Barry ‘The Deal’ Orblatt?”

“You know him?”

“Jack’s been investing with him for years.”

“Is he good?”

“Put it this way, Marge. Jack’s still working for a living. Did Orblatt tell you anything?”

“Yes, he did. There are a lot of African diamond companies not controlled by VerHauten. Mind you, none of them are big time. But some of them have turned a profit.”

“Are any of them undervalued?”

“That’s the trouble. The profitable ones are selling shares at market value. Even the ones that look slightly undervalued are still selling much higher than book value. You know what book value is?”

“The total assets remaining if you liquidated the company.”

“You know your finance. Now the real, real, real cheap companies are in fact not undervalued. Because they haven’t produced a damn thing except red ink.”

“So there is no free lunch.”

“Maybe not superficially. But when you dig deeper, some interesting things pop up.”

“Such as?”

“A little birdie dropped Milligan’s tax forms for the last two years in my lap.”

Marge’s contact didn’t sound like a snitch, more like one of her ex-beaus. Quickly, Decker ran through his mental Rolodex of Marge’s formers. “Ah, the birdie who worked at Health Alliance?”

“You’ve got a good memory for birdwatching.”

“What did tweetie pie tell you?”

“You know, Pete, it’s amazing. Feed a computer a Social Security number, it spits back a life history. There is no privacy in the electronic age.”