Rescue

enough not to show the dirt.
    Zoe turned slowly at the couch, tapping it with a nail while saying, “Care to start with a drink, John?“
    I figured she might be like any salesperson, having to repeat a customer’s name frequently at the beginning of a pitch in order not to forget it by the end. “No, thanks.“
    Zoe frowned, sinking into the love seat across the coffee table while I took the couch. “What’s going on?“
    I said, “I don’t get you.“
    “Mack calls me yesterday with this ‘urgent’ request for a Sunday matinee, and I was free, so what the hell. But you’re not in a hurry. You’re not even nervous, and you’re not so bad-looking you couldn’t do well enough on the straight wherever you’re staying. You feel like cop, but you’re not from Vice, because they wouldn’t go to the trouble of driving a hundred-fifty miles to Key West and twisting Mack’s arm into giving me up. So, what’s going on?“
    I was impressed. “Intuition play a big part in your business?“ I
    “In any business. What’s going on?“
    “I need to talk with you. I’ll pay your hourly rate for it“
    A small smile that showed wrinkles at one corner of her mouth. “My hourly rate?“
    “Mack mentioned five hundred.“
    “Let’s see it, sugar, just so it doesn’t intrude on our conversation later.“
    I took out ten fifties and passed the bills to her.
    Counting them, she said, “You know, you’d be surprised how many guys just want to talk, nowadays.“
    “I’m sorry?“
    “The clients. The old days, a condom was something they remember as a kid moving from their old wallet to the new one they got at Christmas or Hanukkah, and they loved my M & M routine.“
    Zoe stopped, so I said, “M & M?“
    “Yeah, you know, like the candy ad? ‘Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.’“
    I nodded.
    She said, “But now, a lot of them are scared shitless of AIDS, so they set something like this up, then spend most of the time asking me just to kind of talk to them, maybe touch them here and there the way they don’t get—or don’t get off on—back home. And it’s not just dirty talk, either. Some of them want to know whether I am or not.“
    “Am or not what?“
    “Part black. Or lesbian.“ The eyelids went to half-mast. “How about you, sugar?“
    “I’m neither.“
    The smile again. “All right. So you’re not so interested in me. What do you want to talk about?“
    “A couple of questions about your situation here. Confidential?“
    “You mean, do I have television cameras or hidden mikes running on you?“
    “Yes, but more how confidential would somebody think their visit here would be.“
    Zoe drew her legs up under her, rolling her shoulders a bit against the back of the love seat. “You’re not from Miami, but you a cop from anywhere?“
    “No.“
    “You realize that if you are, even Internal Revenue, anything you try to stick me with goes up the entrapment
    chimney?“
    “If I’m not a cop, I probably don’t know that, but it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.“
    The smile, intriguing when she wasn’t just putting it on.
    “ Pretty confidential, then.“
    “This place, you mean.“
    “And coming to see me. There’s the cameras in the lobby and on the elevator, but that’s it. I don’t do any off-the-street stuff, just referrals. And the guy I rent from here takes cash and is real happy about it.“
    “How about the doorman downstairs?“
    “Leo? Ex-prison guard from Jersey. I saw him break a guy’s arm once, nearly took it off at the shoulder.“
    “And he’s on your payroll?“
    “I’m not big enough for employees. Let’s just say he’s a security consultant.“
    I thought about my talk with Sergeant Whit Tidyman and smiled.
    Zoe said, “You have a nice smile, John.“
    “Likewise. I want to talk with you about a referral Mack sent your way.“
    “I don’t talk with one customer about another.“
    “Confidentiality.“
    “Right. It’s, like, a rule of mine.“
    I said, “There’s a good reason you should make an exception here.“
    “Which is?“
    “I think the customer’s involved in the disappearance of a little boy.“
    A disgusted look. “I don’t do perverts. Not if I can spot them, anyway, and I usually can.“
    “I’m not sure sex has anything to do with the little boy being taken. I just need to find out anything I can use toward finding Eddie and bringing him back.“
    “Eddie.“ Zoe played with a tassel at her ankles.