I said, “Sexual favors for a fee. Sounds like something else.”

He refused to be offended. “Everything has its price, Doctor. She was simply doing, thirty years ago, what a sexual surrogate would do today.”

I said, “You didn’t just pick her for her personality.”

“She was beautiful,” he said. “Likely to stimulate.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Oh?” He sipped his coffee, said, “Tepid,” and rapped his spoon on the table three times. The waiter appeared out of the darkness with a fresh pot. I wondered what else was concealed out there.

He drank the steaming liquid, looked as if someone had poured acid down his throat. It took several moments before he tried to speak, and when he did I had to lean forward to hear: “Why don’t you tell me what you’re driving at.”

“Her sterility,” I said. “You picked her because you thought she was unable to bear children.”

“You’re a very bright young fellow,” he said, then raised his cup to his lips again and hid behind a cloud of steam. “Leland was a very squeamish man- that was part of his problem. Not having to worry about taking precautions was a point in her favor. But a minor factor, a bit of messiness that could have been dealt with.”

“I was thinking of something a bit messier,” I said. “An heir born out of wedlock.”

He drank more coffee.

I said, “Why’d you think she couldn’t conceive?”

“We did background checks on all the girls, had them undergo complete physical exams. Our research revealed that Linda had gotten pregnant several times during her youth but had miscarried almost immediately after conception. Our doctors said it was some sort of hormonal imbalance. They pronounced her incapable of bearing children.”

Animal husbandry in reverse. I said, “How’d she do with old Leland?”

“She was marvelous. After a few sessions he was a new man.”

“What were his feelings toward her?”

He put down his cup. “Leland Belding didn’t feel, Doctor. He was as close to mechanical as a human being could be.”

Ellston Crotty’s words came back to me: Like some frigging camera on legs. I remember thinking what a cold bastard he was.

“Even so,” I said, “patients and surrogates usually develop some sort of emotional bond. Are you saying none developed between them?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying. It was like tutoring- learning French. Leland received her in his office; when they were through he showered, dressed, and resumed his business and she went about hers. I knew him better than anyone and that wasn’t much- I never felt I had access to his thoughts. But my guess is he saw her as another of his machines- one of the more efficient ones. Which isn’t to say he disparaged her. Machines were what he admired most.”

“What about her feelings toward him?”

A moment’s pause. A fleeting look of pain. “No doubt she was impressed with his money and power. Women are drawn to power- they’ll forgive anything in a man but helplessness. And she also saw his helpless side. So I’d imagine she viewed him with a mixture of awe and pity, the way a doctor might regard a patient with a rare disease.”

He’d framed his words theoretically. But the pained look kept pushing through the charm-façade.

I knew then that Linda Lanier had become more to him than a harem girl on assignment. Knew I couldn’t touch that.

“Theirs was purely a business arrangement,” he said.

“Cozy, until brother Cable stepped in.”

The façade slipped another rung. “Cable Johnson was despicable. When he and Linda were adolescents he sold her to the local boys for money- she was fourteen or fifteen. That’s how she got pregnant all those times. He was pure filth.”

One procurer damning another.

I said, “Why didn’t you consider him a risk factor when you set Linda up as a surrogate?”

“Oh, I did, but I thought the risk had been dealt with. At the time I hired Linda, Johnson was locked up at the county jail for theft- facing a stay at the penitentiary as a repeat offender. He was dead-broke, unable to come up with ten dollars’ bond on a hundred-dollar bail. I obtained his freedom, got him a job at Magnafilm at an inflated salary. The idiot didn’t even have to show up for work- the check was mailed to his rooming house. All that was required on his part was staying away from her. A very generous arrangement, wouldn’t you say?”

“Not compared to a piece of the Belding fortune.”

“The fool,” he said. “There wasn’t an iota of a chance of his getting a penny, but he was a compulsive criminal, couldn’t stop conniving.”

“Enter Donald Neurath, M.D. Fertility expert and meal ticket.”

“My, my,” said Vidal. “You’re a thorough researcher yourself.”

“Was Neurath in on the extortion scheme?”

“He claimed not, said they presented themselves as a married couple- poor, childless Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. He insisted he hadn’t been fooled, had sensed something wrong about them and refused to take her on as a patient. But Johnson convinced him, somehow.”

“You know how,” I said. “A trade. The porn loop in exchange for hormonal treatment for Linda.”

“More filth,” he said.

I said, “Still, Neurath knew too much. You had to finish him off somewhere out in Mexico- not far from here, I’d bet.”

“Doctor, Doctor, you give me too much credit. I’ve never finished off anyone. Donald Neurath drove down here voluntarily, to offer information. He owed money to loan sharks, was hoping for payment. I refused. On the way back, his car broke down- or so I’ve been told. He died of exposure- the desert does its damage quickly. As a medical man, he should have been more prepared.”

I said, “Is that how you connected him to Cable’s scheme?”

“No. Linda came to me saying she could no longer work with Leland. Bearing a to-whom-it-may-concern note written on Neurath’s stationery. In it he claimed she’d contracted some sort of vaginal infection. At first, I didn’t suspect anything. Everything looked bona fide. I gave her ten thousand dollars’ severance pay, and wished her well. Later, of course, I put it all together.”

“How did Belding react to her leaving?”

“He didn’t. By that time he was feeling his oats, testing out his newfound confidence on other women. As many as he could get his hands on. Eventually, he began to flaunt it.”

Belding’s transformation from recluse to playboy. The timing fit.

“What happened next?”

“Nearly a year later, Cable Johnson called me. Informed me I’d better meet with him if I knew what was good for Leland. We met at some tawdry downtown hotel, Johnson drunk and gloating like a top dog, strutting around, very proud of himself. He told me Linda had given birth to Leland’s babies. He’d taken her to Texas to do it; now they were back and ‘the squeeze was on.’ ”

Vidal raised his coffee cup, thought better of it, and put it down. “Oh, he thought he was a smart one. Had it all figured out. Cuffing my shoulder as if we were old friends, offering me cheap gin from a filthy bottle. Singing rude limericks and saying that now the Johnsons and the Beldings were going to be kinfolk. Then he told me to wait, left the room, and came back a few minutes later with Linda and his little gifts.”

“Three gifts,” I said.

He nodded.

Triplets. All that hormonal tinkering doing strange things to the egg, increasing the chance of multiple birth. Common medical knowledge today, but Neurath had been ahead of his time.

“Port Wallace’s sole claim to fame,” I said. “Jewel Rae, Jana Sue. And poor Joan Dixie, born blind, deaf, paralyzed.”

“The pathetic little thing,” he said. “Some sort of brain damage- the place he dragged Linda to was primitive. Joan almost died at birth.” He shook his head, closed his eyes. “She was so tiny- not much bigger than a fist. It was a miracle she survived. Linda carried her around in a basket, kept cooing at her, massaging her limbs. Pretending her twitches were voluntary movement. Pretending she was normal.”