Timothy Hallinan - Everything but the Squeal

’Tm taking care of her for a friend,” I lied. Woofers pranced from me to Jessica and back, groomed and immac-late in the morning light, the perfect dog for the perfect neighborhood where everything could be found in the white pages, and happy to be the center of attention. I found myself hoping that Birdie missed her more than she missed him.

“Jessica,” I said, “I don't mean to be rude, but I don't actually recall asking you to come over. And do Annie and Wyatt know where you are?”

“Oh, don't be a grump. Of course they do. And wait until you see why we've come. When you write the story of your life, I want credit. Jesus, Morris, come in , won't you? You can't spend your whole life hovering. And close the door.”

Morris did what he was told, muttering something when he turned his back to pull the door shut.

“Say what?” Jessica said. “And tuck in your shirt.”

“I said I get some credit too,” Morris said, blushing horribly and fiddling behind his back. At least the blush filled in his zits.

“Fine, fine,” Jessica said dismissively. “But me first. What's her name?”

“Woofers.”

She wrinkled her nose. “That's terrible. Can't we give her a different name?”

“You can call her Gladys for all I care. What's everybody claiming credit for?”

Jessica looked slyly at Morris and then back at me. “This,” she said, pulling a creased and slightly damp piece of paper out of her belt. She opened it and smoothed it on the floor in front of me, and Woofers, sensing my attention the way a cat can, sat on it. I picked her up and dropped her to one side, eliciting a compassionate squeal from Jessica.

I'd seen the printout before, but not quite in this form. It now looked like this:

Record 1. (April 88-October 88)1. 3088 Compton Blvd., Bellflower, CA 90266 (213) 555-12962. 4 yrs3. Turkey (code name?)4. CURRENT5. ORDERSa. Fingers, 1200 orders, last order 1000 (September 13)b. Parts, 2800 orders, last order 2300 (September 13)c. Paper, 4000 orders, last order 3300 (September 13)d. Drinks, “A” category (no change) (September 11)6. SPECIAL ORDERSa. Page 188, upper right, January 88 (April 22-April 27) JX6b. Page 217, center right, June 87 (May 17-May 22) CP1c. Page 217, center right, January 88 (May 23-May 29) UId. Page 202, upper left, June 87 (unavailable) BXe. Page 226, upper right, January 88 (July I-July 11) BXf. Page 226, upper right, January 88 (July 12-July 18) UIg. Page 217, center left, January 88 (October 1-October 10) BX

“Page numbers?” I asked. “Says who?”

“It's a book,” Jessica said triumphantly. “They're all in a book. It comes out every six months.” Morris took a tentative step forward, eager to put in an introvert's one cent's worth.

“What book?” I asked.

The phone rang.

I waved them into silence and picked it up. “Hello?”

“Mr. Grist?” It was Jane Sorrell. She was trying to push beyond a whisper, but without much success.

“Mrs. Sorrell. What's happening?”

“She's not back,” Jane Sorrell said in a rigid monotone. “She's not back and no one has phoned. She was supposed to … she was supposed to be back last. .” A ring clacked against the mouthpiece, and she made a sound like a retch. “No one has … has. .”

“Please, Mrs. Sorrell. Hang on to yourself. It isn't over yet.”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “yes, it is. They've got her, they've killed her, I'll never see-”

“I don't think they've killed her,” I said. She made crumpled, wispy little sounds into the other end of the line. “She's too valuable to them. They're not going to kill her unless they have to.”

Jessica and Morris exchanged wide-eyed stares. Even Woofers was watching me, her brown eyes alert and sympathetic.

“Valuable?” said a new voice, a tougher voice. “What do you mean, valuable?”

“Aurora, is that you?”

“Who else would it be, Donder and Blitzen?”

“Aurora, take care of your mother. I think I know where Aimee is.” I didn't, but I knew how to find out.

“You do?” she said skeptically. “I'll believe it when you bring her home. So what's so valuable?”

“Listen,” I said, gesturing toward Jessica to give me the pad and pencil next to the computer, “give me the address where you sent the money.”

“Mom?” Aurora said. Jessica grabbed the pad and handed it to me, yanking a pen out of the bouquet in the pocket of Morris’ shirt. He had about eight left.

“I don't know,” Jane Sorrell said. She sounded wet.

“Of course you do,” Aurora said authoritatively. “You wrote it down.”

“Where is she?” her mother asked me.

“Here. Here in L. A. Have you got the address?” I clicked Morris’ pen a few times. Different-colored tips kept coming out.

“We know she's in L.A.,” Aurora said. “Haven't you got anything new?”

“That'll have to wait,” I said. “What's the address?”

“I don't know why we shouldn't just call the cops,” Aurora said.

My hands were perspiring, and I tucked the phone between neck and shoulder and wiped my palms on my pants. “Don't. Believe me, don't.”

“Why not?” Aurora's voice was challenging.

I tossed a mental coin. Like most mental coins, it landed on its edge. “Because some of them may be in on it,” I said.

There was a long, tense silence.

“How do we know that?” Aurora finally asked.

“You don't. You can't. Hang up,” I said. “Hang up and call them. But if you do, don't ever call me again. And whatever you do, don't give them my name.”

“You could be manufacturing business,” Aurora said. “We call the cops, we don't need you.”

“Aurora. You don't really believe that.”

She exhaled noisily into the phone. She could have been blowing her nose. I remembered that she was just a little girl. “Mom,” she said after drawing a deep sigh, “give him the address.”

“I've got it,” Jane Sorrell said shakily. “Do you have a pencil?”

“Go.” I'd decided on the red point.

“Eleven-six-eighty-six Altham Street. Los Angeles.”

“Zip?” The red point wrote blue.

”Nine-oh-three-five-two. ’ ’

“Airport,” I said.

“What?” I couldn't tell which one it was.

“That's near the airport. I'll call you.”

“When?” Aurora said.

“When I've got something worth telling you. Good-bye.” I hung up. Airport. That was a long way from Hollywood.

Morris was regarding me as though I were some newly ambitious life form that had just crawled ashore. Anything with the word “killed” in it was outside his frame of reference, as it should have been. Jessica was trying to look nonchalant. “People are dying,” I said. “What's the book?”

Jessica looked at Morris. “Remember in Mrs. Brussels' office?” she began.

“You already won the laurel wreath,” I said. “Spare me the play-by-play. Wait,” I said, suddenly recalling the agent's agitation. In my excitement I snapped Morris’ pen in half and four ball-point-pen barrels scattered to the points of the compass like a literary multiple-warhead missile. “The Actors'Directory .”

“U.r.,” said Jessica, beckoning to Morris, “means upper right.” He handed her the book and she pried it open. “Recognize him?”

She put the book on the floor and pointed to a photo in the upper right. It was her tennis player, the one she'd described as “Cute.”

“Yeah,” I said. “So?”

“Mr. Kale, right?”

“Right,” I said, suppressing an urge to strangle her.

“So he's middle left, in the center of the left-hand page. Look upper right.”

A little girl beamed up at me. Kimberly Winter , it said under the photo, Age: 11. “Oh, Jesus,” I said. “Sure. I should have thought of it.”