Inherit the Dead

as her loving husband, no matter what she says, and you swallow anything she dishes out as gospel. No wonder you had to quit the force.”
    Perry was cool. Let the drunken fool ramble on. Maybe he’d say something else he shouldn’t. “Your wife—your ex-wife—flashed nothing. She’s worried about her daughter.”
    Something flared in Loki’s eyes, sadness or disbelief or weariness, but it didn’t last long. Then a sound from the back diverted him, and he quickly added, “But hey, don’t feel bad. I figure you talked to that local politico my little girl is hanging with these days?”
    “So you know about that?”
    “A little birdie told me.”
    “A little bird named Lilith?”
    “Lilith?” Norman laughed. “She hates me. Tried to turn my daughter against me.”
    Wouldn’t take much, thought Perry.
    “She pretends to be Angel’s friend . . . ”
    “And she’s not?”
    Norman swigged the last of his drink.
    Perry injected steel in his voice, said, as Norman began to build another lethal drink, “I need you to pay attention, sir.”
    Norm whirled round, fire in his drink-fueled eyes, spat, “Pay attention to what ?”
    Perry’s hands balled into fists.
    Another sound came from the back bedroom, like . . . a giggle?
    Perry asked, “Am I interrupting something?” Then a thoughtoccurred. “Is Angel here?” On his feet as he asked, his whole body poised for confrontation.
    “What? No way.” Norman handed Perry a cut-glass tumbler, the water close to the brim, said, “Galway crystal, from the home country, make you feel right at home, Paddy.”
    Perry put the glass down, had to count to ten. Was this jerk trying to avert him from all sorts of stuff? Was this drunk act maybe just that, an act? He said, “I really need you to focus.”
    Norman did an exaggerated eye tightening, said, “Finding Angel’s car is no big deal. I know my daughter. Six years that girl lived with me—if I’d a hot nickel for every time she left that car, I’d be building an extension to this beach paradise. She’s fine.”
    “How can you be so sure?” Did he know where she was?
    Norman shook his head, and for another brief moment there was something on his face other than a boozy grin. Sadness? Anxiety? Perry wasn’t sure.
    Perry said, “I took meetings with her former boyfriends, the mechanic and—”
    Norman shook his head, all traces of sadness gone, butted in. “The grease monkey, now you want a suspect. Jesus, hello, did you see the state of his nails ? I mean, come on ! So okay, we can’t all afford manicures but a little pride, is that too much to ask, I mean, is it?” And he looked, pointedly, at Perry’s nails, which were chewed, and emitted a “hmph”: the words I rest my case hovering over their heads.
    Perry’s fury was close to exploding. “If you have reason to believe any of those persons of interest might—”
    He was cut off again by a roar of contemptuous laughter. Norman said, “Persons of interest ? I mean, did you actually speak to them, interest ? They’ve got to be two of the dreariest muthah’s on the planet; man, if you think they are of interest, I’d hate to meet who the fuckyou think is boring.” And paused, reeling a bit. Then said, “Don’t take it too personal, some of us are born to serve.” He fixed his eyes on Perry, and for a moment, the cool lawyer of old was present. He said, “You come barging in here as if you know something. Boyfriends? What do you think they’re going to tell you?”
    Before Perry could answer, Norman continued. “Angel’s mother, my ex, she started a big brouhaha, dragging you in. Damn that Julia, had to go and—”
    Perry tried to see what the guy was hiding. “The other day you—”
    “Look, if I know my Angel, she’s out having herself a time, and that’s all. Being her daddy, ain’t no day at the Mardi Gras—you get some kin of your own someday, you’ll be feeling me,” he drunkenly sneered. The condescension hovering like napalm, the whole gig of parent vs. the poor childless bollix at play.
    Perry snarled back, “I have a daughter, she’s fifteen years old, so, you know, I can feel you.”
    “Yeah? Is she missing?”
    Loaded. Norman had surely been looking into his past.
    Perry, a straight shooter, even when it was to his detriment, said, “She’s with her mom.”
    Norman sneered, “ Her mom, what? You couldn’t keep it in your pants, that it?”
    Perry had a second of darkness, then he had Norman by the