She shrugged. 'Lucas Worley is a piece of shit. He sells dope because he likes it. He likes the people, he likes the scene. He says that it's a step up from practicing law.' She looked tired. 'Maybe he's right.'

I said, 'Hey!'

She looked at me.

'I'll tell you what I told Rossi. Don't give up. The good part of the. system outweighs the bad. We just have to fix the bad.'

Anna Sherman got out of the car, closed the door, then looked in at me. She said, 'This conversation never happened. If you say it did, and if you say I gave you Worley, I'll deny it and sue you for slander. Is that clear?'

'Clear.'

She walked away without another word. I opened the glove box and found a plain white sheet of notepaper with Lucas Worley's address written in anonymous block letters.

CHAPTER 27

I stopped for roses. I bought a dozen red long-stems, plus a single daisy, then went to a wine shop I know for a bottle of Dom Perignon and an ounce of Beluga caviar. While the clerk was bagging the champagne I used their phone to make a reservation at Musso & Frank for eight o'clock. When I was off the phone, the clerk grinned at me. 'Special date?'

'Very special.'

He laughed. 'Are there any other kind?' Cynic.

I drove home hard, hoping that I would get there before Lucy and Ben. I did. I put the flowers in the refrigerator and the Dom Perignon and three flute glasses in the freezer. The Dom Perignon was cold, but I wanted it colder. I hard-boiled an egg, minced an onion, then minced the egg. I put the egg, the onion, and some capers in three little Japanese serving plates, covered them with Saran Wrap, then arranged the plates on a matching tray with the caviar and put the tray in the refrigerator next to the flowers. I put out Carr's Table Water Crackers, then phoned Joe Pike and told him about Lucas Worley. Pike said, 'You think he might know something?'

'I think he might, or, if he doesn't, he might be able to help us find someone who does.'

How do you want to play it?'

I told him.

Joe was silent for a time, then said, 'How about we bring in Ray Depente? Ray would be effective on a guy like Worley.'

'You think?'

'Ray could get a corpse to talk.'

I told him that would be fine. I told him that I would meet them outside Worley's place early tomorrow, and when I was done, Joe said, 'Is it going any better with Lucy?'

'Not yet, but soon. I'm about to turn on the charm.'

'Why don't you try working it out, instead.' Mr Sensitive.

I hung up, then ran upstairs to finish getting ready. I shaved, showered, put on a jacket and tie, then ran downstairs and took the Dom Perignon out of the freezer. I wanted it cold, not frozen.

When Lucy and Ben pulled into the carport I was waiting at the door when they came through with shopping bags from Saks and Bottega Veneta and Giorgio and Pierre Deux. Lucy looked tired until she saw me, and then she looked surprised. I held out the flowers. 'My God, you're beautiful.'

Ben smiled so wide I thought his face would turn inside out.

Lucy looked at the flowers. She glanced at me and then the flowers again, and then back to me. Her hands were still full of shopping bags. 'Oh, a daisy.'

I put the shopping bags on the dining room table, then opened the Dom Perignon. I poured apple juice for Ben. 'We have champagne. We have caviar. Then we will have dinner at Musso & Frank.'

She said, 'The restaurant in Hollywood?'

'Dashiell Hammett fell in love with Lillian Hellman there.' I gave her a glass of the Dom Perignon. 'It was a love that changed their lives, and endured for as long as they lived.'

Lucy seemed embarrassed. 'You're being so nice.'

I said, 'Ben. Would you give your mother and me a moment alone, please?'

Ben giggled. 'You want me to amscray?'

'Yes, Ben, I want you to amscray.'

Ben amscrayed into the living room. When the TV came on and Agent Mulder started talking about something that ate five human livers every thirty years, I took the flowers from Lucy and put them aside. I put aside her champagne glass, too, and held her upper arms and looked into her eyes. 'You have two more nights in Los Angeles. I want those nights to be easy for you. It's okay with me if you'd like to move to a hotel.'

Lucy stared at me for ten heartbeats, then shook her head. 'I'm exactly where I want to be.'

'I know that you're having trouble with your ex-husband. I know that he has a problem with you and Ben staying here. I want you to know that I'll support you in anything you want to do.'

Lucy sighed, and glanced toward the living room. 'Ben.'

'Don't blame Ben. I am a detective, Lucille. I know all and see all.'

'Darlene.'

'Does it matter?'

She sighed again, then leaned forward to rest her forehead against my chest. 'Oh, Studly, there is so much going on right now. I'm sorry.'

I put my arms around her and held her. 'You don't have anything to be sorry for.'

She looked up and her eyes were rimmed red and wet. 'I feel like I've ruined our time together.'

'You haven't.'

'I've let him intrude, and that's not fair to you or to me. I didn't tell you, and that is not the quality of honesty that I want in our relationship.'

'You were trying to protect me.'

She stepped back and looked into my eyes as if she were searching for something faraway and hard to see, something that she feared might change even as she saw it.

'There's so much going on right now. You just don't know.' She took a breath, then let it out. 'I really need to talk about this.'

'Then let's talk.'

She took my hand and led me out onto the deck into the cooling night air, with the last breath of day fading in the west. She held my right hand in both of hers and said, 'There are things you need to know.'

'I don't need to know anything about you, Lucille.'

'I'm not going to tell you deep dark secrets about myself. I don't have any secrets.'

'Shucks.' Trying to lighten the moment with a little humor.

Lucy frowned and looked away. 'These are things I need to say as much to help me get them straight as for you to be aware of what's going on. Do you see that?'

'Okay.'

She looked back. 'There are things happening between me and my ex-husband that I should've told you about, but didn't.'

I nodded, letting her talk.

'Not because they're secret or because I wanted to keep anything from you, but because I resent the intrusion and did not want these things to impact upon our time together. I did not want him to share this time with us.' The other presence. 'But I let him get to me, and he has intruded and that is not fair to either me or to you and I apologize.'

I started to tell her that she didn't have to apologize, but she raised a hand, stopping me.

I sighed. 'Okay. I accept.'

'I'm not asking for advice. I'm an adult, I'm an attorney, and I will handle this. Okay?'

I nodded.

'I mean, God, I'm paid to advise other people, am I not?'

I nodded again. Getting a lot of nod practice tonight.

She said, 'Richard has moved back to Baton Rouge.' Richard was her ex-husband. He'd been living in Shreveport for the past three years, and, in the time that I'd known Lucy, she'd mentioned him exactly twice. He, too, was an attorney. 'I've encouraged Ben to develop a relationship with his father, but Richard has taken it beyond that. He phones me at my office,- he drops around my house unannounced; he invites himself to outings that I've planned with Ben,- he's resurrected his friendship with a lot of the people at my firm. He has systematically reinserted himself into my life, and I do not like it.'

'You feel invaded.'

She made a brief, flickering smile. 'Studly, I feel like Normandy Beach.'