Shallow Graves

joined in, just out of phase with the first. Lindqvist made no move for either, Yulin jumping for both.
    While her partner covered the calls, Lindqvist said to me, “If you want to confer with us, this isn’t a terrific time. We’re on the phone quite a lot during business hours.“
    Yulin hung up with identical promises to call back.
    “That’s okay. I’d rather talk to each of you separately anyway.“
    Lindqvist watched me while Yulin watched her. I was beginning to see why the agency was Lindqvist/Yulin rather than Yulin/Lindqvist.
    She revived the smile. “Fine. Let’s start with me. Come on in.“
    I followed her into the large front office. In addition to a desk with computer, calculator, and fax, there was a long conference table and six chairs in one corner. The office was decorated in blue and yellow: mg, walls, blinds, even furniture. The bay window behind the chair that Lindqvist took offered a 180-degree view of Newbury bustling with foot traffic below us.
    As I chose a seat across the desk from her, Lindqvist said, “I’ve never been investigated before. How does it work?“
    “I’m not investigating you, Ms. Lindqvist.“
    “Sure you are. And I can understand it. I just want to be helpful.“
    Sure you do. I took out my pad. “We can start with your first name.“
    “Erica. Full-blooded Swede, though you’d never know it to look at me.“ She pointed to an old sepia photo in a frame on the corner of her desk. It showed a man with a handlebar mustache and a little boy with a mop of pale hair, both in homespun clothes. “That’s my grandfather and his grandfather, Mr. Cuddy—by the way, is it all right if I call you ‘John’?“
    “If you’d like.“
    “Fine. Why don’t you use ‘Erica’? A little easier to say than the hard ‘v.’“
    “Okay,“ I said, kind of liking the way she’d taken charge of the conversation. Sometimes you learn more by letting the other side ask its own questions.
    “Well, John, my grandfather was in retailing, but his grandfather was an immigrant from north of Stockholm . Came over on the boat and made his way west to Minnesota , even fought Indians, believe it or not. Funny, I never thought much about Indians in Minnesota , as opposed to maybe Montana or the Dakotas . But that’s what he had to do, and quite a lot, too. You ever see A New Land ?“
    “No.“
    “It’s a movie with Max von Sydow and Liv Ullman, all about that time. Terrific piece of work, but then I don’t suppose you need my Swedish heritage for your report.“
    “Probably not. What I could use is some background on Mau Tim Dani.“
    “Background.“ Lindqvist shook her head. “That’ll be tough.“
    “Why?“
    “You know much about how the business works, John?“
    “If you mean modeling, no.“
    “Actually, I meant agenting, but let me give you a little orientation about both. George and I run this agency. We’re both called ‘directors,’ but basically that means we’re both like vice-presidents when there’s no one president.“
    “With you so far.“
    “I do the pitching, the rain-making, getting new accounts from ad agencies or the advertisers themselves. George does the booking, matching the right models for the right jobs. Sometimes it’s like a little of both. An ad guy will see our book and say, ‘How about Sandy on page ten, I like her. Can you send me her composite, maybe her mini-book?’ “
    “Now you’ve lost me.“
    “Okay. The composite, that’s kind of like a brochure on the girl herself. Just a fold-over glossy piece, with a couple of photos of her, her measurements and specialties. The mini-book, that’s a more substantial... scrapbook of her, kind of. Quite a lot of photos, some tear sheets.“
    The “quite a lot“ seemed to be Lindqvist’s catchphrase. “What are tear sheets?“
    “Ads actually run in Sunday supplements or whatever. We tear them out, put them in the mini-book so the ad guy or the client can see she actually is a professional.“
    “You represent only female models?“
    “Oh, no. We’re a full-service agency here. Male/female, fashion, corporate. Print as well as runway.“
    “By runway...?“
    “Fashion shows for designers or boutiques. They’ll hold them as a luncheon, invite the big-spenders off their mailing lists. We’ll supply the girls, who show the clothes off on the runway, then walk through the crowd during lunch, let the ladies see how nice the merchandise looks up close on a beautiful