“Thank you,” Dink said. He reached for the business card. “Oh, do you mind if I keep this? It’s my last one.”

“Not at all,” she said.

Dink walked down the hall and let himself into a handsome, walnut-paneled room filled with leather-bound volumes. He took a seat in one of a pair of wing chairs at a front window overlooking the grounds.

A couple of minutes passed, then a middle-aged woman in whites entered the room, followed by Parker Mosely, who was dressed in his own clothes—a blue blazer and khaki trousers.

“Mr. Fisher?” the woman asked.

“Yes, Parker’s father asked me to come and see him.”

Parker looked at him questioningly, then caught on.

“When you’re done, if you’ll just pick up the phone by the door and dial zero and let us know, I’ll come back for Mr. Mosely.” She left the room.

Dink and Parker shook hands, half embracing.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Parker asked.

“Sit down, and I’ll tell you.”

They took the wing chairs by the window. “How are they treating you?” Dink asked.

“They’re about finished treating me, I think,” Parker said. “I pretty much snowed them from day one.”

“Have you seen Carson?”

“She’s in the women’s wing, but I see her at meals. We’ve had lunch together a couple of times.”

“How’s she doing?”

“She doesn’t look so hot. Coming down off a cocaine habit is a little raw, if you know what I mean. I’m glad I never used it much.”

“Carson has an addictive personality,” Dink said. “Some people are just made that way.”

“Yeah, I know. How the hell did you get out of that farm place?”

“Two ways. I snowed my keeper, and I turned twenty-one. The keeper took me to a movie in the village, and I took a hike and picked up my car from the place you left it. Thanks, by the way.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“I came into my trust from my mother when I turned twenty-one,” Dink said, “and I’m well set up now. I snowed my dad, and he let me use a really nice apartment his firm owns. And guess who I’m having dinner with tonight?”

“Who?”

“Vanessa.”

“You dog. Fuck her once for me, will you?”

“I’d be delighted. If you see Carson, better not mention Vanessa.”

“Yeah, they’re, like, second-best friends, or something. Why did you come up here? It could be dangerous for you, you know. That cop that questioned me acted like he was going to make the world fall on you.”

“I figured that out,” Dink said. “They’re going to do nothing to any of us, because it would get Herb Fisher’s name in the papers, and his clients wouldn’t like it if their lawyer got charged with rape. It’s not dangerous, believe me, and I’ve got plans, sort of, for Mr. Fisher.”

Parker smiled. “Tell me.”

Dink leaned in. “Here’s what I need from you.” He had just finished telling Parker what he wanted when there was a knock at the door, and a woman came in. Dink and Parker stood.