Page 81 of The Hard Way

Odin dribbled in a tiny bit more scotch while I tried not to laugh.

It was right then that we heard it—the harrumph of a throat clearing. I nearly spit out the booze.

Margie stood at the door, staring, lips parted. At first I thought it was the scotch-drinking the was the problem. Was there a rule about alcohol in the living room? Then, slowly, Odin removed his hand from my head, and I realized the insane picture we presented. Me lying with my head in Odin’s lap and my feet on Thor’s lap. Zeus kneeling in front of me showing me a computer. Odin dribbling booze into my mouth. It was positively Hedonistic.

“Oh, hi,” I said.

“Hi,” she said.

Thor shut the phone book, smiling breezily. “Just verifying a few names and addresses.”

“Yeah.” I sat up with some difficulty. “Verification. It can get a little tedious.”

She nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t buying it.Verificationhad gone a long way for us, but it looked like we’d just found its limit.

“Did you have a nice evening out?” Zeus broke in.

She plastered on a smile and nodded again. “Very nice.” She waved at the group of us. “Well, I’m glad one of those directories came in handy. I keep them around for my older guests, but…”

“It’s been very handy,” Thor said, face like a mask.

She smiled uncertainly and bid us goodnight.

Thor poked me in the thigh. “It can get a little tedious?”

“What? I was trying to…I don’t know. Show how hard we work. How diligent we are.”

“Dude, you made it sound like, ‘Our work as insurance adjustors is so boring we have to have group sex.’”

“You think that’s what she thinks?” I looked up at Odin, who just kind of sparkled down at me. “Oh my god. She must think I’m a total sex maniac with a harem of men!”

“She’d be right, goddess.”

I hit him, and he grabbed my hand and bent down to kiss me.

“Not here!”

“I think the jig is up,” Thor said. “Let’s go through the rest. There are only a few more.” He proceeded to read more names in a quiet voice. Nothing sparked anything for me.

“So we only have Chas. I don’t know…”

“What about your sister?”

“What about her?”

“Would she know?” Zeus asked. “Your ear isn’t to the ground anymore, but hers is.”

I checked the time. Nine at night. I hated to involve her, but Thor was right. He always had sensible ideas like that. “I’ll call her.”

We put the phone books back in their place in the bookshelves and headed up to our room. My guys gave me privacy while I called Vanessa. I told her just that we had a lead that the nickname or initial of the person who’d helped Hank wasZ. “If our theory is right, he did criminal things to help Hank, like the harder criminal things, not the amateur-hour stuff. I’ve been trying to think ofZguys. At first I thought about Mark Zebold, but I found out about his business.”

“Can you believe it?” she said. “It’s amazing!”

I asked her about a few others. She didn’t think any of them were likely to be involved, and she couldn’t come up with any leads, either.

“Fuck,” I said. “Now what?” Somehow it was even more depressing to have had that burst of optimism earlier and then lose it than it had been to have no hope at all.

“Wait,” she said. “I don’t know guys like that, but I totally know who would—Lexy Coventry. We used to work together at McDonald’s, and she’d totally tell me. Her man is, like, the worst guy. He’s not aZ, but she’s constantly complaining about him and his friends. And I see her all the time at the feed store. That’s where she works now.”

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