“They make colorful ones in the little dispensaries,” Berger’s shadowy face said as it looked at the Baggie. “Ones that aren’t transparent.”

Lucy dropped Jet Ranger’s job well done into a trash barrel. She said, “Hope you haven’t been waiting long. He’s not a city boy. Must have had a real grass yard with a white picket fence in an earlier life. His name’s Jet Ranger, as in the first helicopter I ever owned. Jet Ranger, meet Jaime. He doesn’t know any tricks, like shaking hands or high-fives or hovering. He’s pretty simple, aren’t you, boy?”

Berger squatted to rub Jet Ranger’s neck, not seeming to care that her long shorn mink coat spilled around her on the dirty sidewalk and she was blocking foot traffic. People detoured around her in the cold dark as she kissed the top of the bulldog’s head, and he licked her chin.

“That’s impressive,” Lucy said. “He doesn’t like most people. Funny thing about living with an asshole. I don’t mean me. Whoever owned him before me. I’m sorry,” she said to her dog, petting him and touching Berger’s shoulder as she did. “I shouldn’t openly discuss your painful and private past or use the word owned. That was rude of me. I don’t really own him,” she said to Berger. “In fact, I have to pay him a considerable sum to let me feed him, pet him, take him out, sleep with him.”

“How old?” Berger asked.

“Not sure.” Lucy massaged Jet Ranger’s spotted ears. “Not long after I moved here, I was leaving the West Thirtieth heliport after flying in from Boston, and saw him trotting along the West Side Highway. You know that panicky look, when a dog’s lost? He was limping.”

Lucy covered Jet Ranger’s ears so he wouldn’t hear the rest.

“No collar,” she said. “Obviously dumped out of a car, probably because he’s old, got bad hips, half blind. You know, not fun anymore. They usually don’t live past ten. He’s probably pretty close.”

“People suck,” Berger said, getting up.

“Come on,” Lucy said to her dog. “Don’t be upset by Jaime’s coat. I’m sure every one of those poor little minks died of natural causes.”

“We should have the passwords soon,” Berger said. “Maybe that will help explain the rest of it.”

“I don’t know what the rest of it is, since I barely know the first of it. We’re just getting started,” Lucy said. “But there’s enough for me to be worried about my aunt. And I’m worried.”

“I got that when you called.”