Wicked Prey

around, Letty waved at her, and Carey called, “I’ll be right back,” and she headed down toward the bathrooms. Letty ambled over to her office as she watched her go, and when she was sure that Carey was in the bathroom, she stepped into the office and pulled Carey’s purse out from under her desk.
    Carey never had any idea how much money she had or what she’d spent it on. She was one of those people who believed that if she had checks, she must have money. She made a good salary, and her husband was rich, so money, at least the kind you spend during the day, meant almost nothing to her: Letty popped the purse and took a peek into Carey’s billfold. Must be a thousand dollars in fifties, Letty thought. She took two of them, decided that the thickness of the currency seemed not at all diminished and took two more. She put the billfold back in the purse, put the purse back as she’d found it, and ambled back out of the office and over to the people she’d been talking with earlier.
    When Carey came back from the bathroom, she called, “Let’s do it,” and Letty went to join her.
    * * *
    THE SKATERS were gathering in Mears Park in St. Paul’s Lower-town, an area of older brick warehouses converted to lofts and condos and small, marginal businesses. Letty pointed them out and Carey looked them over, from the front seat of her SUV, and then said, “You know, you do have a natural eye for this. I told your dad that last night.”
    “Maybe I’ll be an economist,” Letty said. “TV is starting to seem so superficial.”
    Carey made a rude noise and said, “Let’s get a truck over here. You go get your friends lined up.”
    * * *
    CAREY CALLED a Channel Three van, and let Letty out to talk to the skaters while she took her SUV to a parking garage up the block. Letty got her cell phone out and called Juliet Briar: “Where are you?”
    “Still at home. Randy’s sleeping,” Briar said.
    “Tell him that a guy called for a date, and that you’ll walk down,” Letty said. “I got some money.”
    After a moment’s silence, Briar said, “Okay.”
    “Call me when you get out.”
    * * *
    THE LEADER of the skate gang was named Marv, a burly, cheerful busted-faced guy with a shaven head and jeans so old that they looked like paper. He was wearing a T-shirt that said, “Mathews Solocam, Catch Us If You Can,” that was washed thinner than the jeans.
    He held out a fist and they bumped knuckles and he said, “How are you, babe?”
    “Don’t call me babe,” Letty said, but she said it with her happy face, and she asked, “So who’s who?”
    There were seven guys and one girl among the skaters, and all of them desperately wanted to be on television. As Marv introduced them, Letty kept looking at the girl, with her dry, underfed, feral face, thinking that she was the one; but she had to keep Marv and the others happy, too. A management problem.
    After the introductions, she said, “Listen, we’ve got a van coming with a camera. I’ll want to talk to Marv, and then to Jean, because she’s a girl, and we don’t have that many girl skaters, and then maybe whoever . . . but I’d like to see some runs, if you got anything that’s good.”
    One of the kids, a too-tall teenager with a bandaged hand, said, “We were jumping barrels . . .”
    “That’s terrific, that’s great,” Letty said. “Why don’t you guys get set up with the barrels and we’ll get shots of you skating, and then I’ll do a couple of quick interviews.”
    * * *
     
    CAREY CAME back and Letty explained the situation to her, off to the side, and said, “Take a look at Jean’s face. Isn’t that a great face?”
    Carey looked at her, then said, “You really are going to be good at this. That’s a great face.”
    The van showed, and the kids gathered around the cameraman, whose name was Mike, not really believing that it was going to happen. So the kids did their tricks and Mike even lay on the ground behind a trash barrel that they were jumping and had a kid jump over him, which got everybody laughing.
    Briar called and said, “I’m out, I’m walking down the hill.”
    Letty: “I’m doing an interview in Mears Park. You know where that is?”
    “Yeah. I can come there.”
    Letty did a quick stand-up with Marv and a longer one with Jean, then they all bumped knuckles and the skaters took off. Letty did a couple of shots alone, putting up some background, and then she saw Briar standing on the sidewalk,