Mister X Part 18

Pearl made the connection, put the phone to her ear, and said h.e.l.lo, all the time moving toward the door.

"Pearl?"

Her mother, all right.

"Reception's better outside," she said to the dead-eyed stares she was getting.

"Did you say something, Pearl?" her mother asked.

Fedderman grinned. The others simply looked at her. Pearl went out the door.

Outside in the morning heat, she said, "I'm pretty busy, Mom."

"It's never busy here in nursing home h.e.l.l, Pearl."

Her mother insisted on referring to Golden Sunset a.s.sisted Living as a nursing home. Pearl had become tired of contradicting her. Absently wandering along the sidewalk toward Amsterdam, it occurred to her that cell phone reception outside the office really was noticeably better.

"Pearl?"

"I'm here, Mom, but I can't talk long. I'm interrogating a suspect. You're breaking up some anyway."

"Can't talk long? Is one of the criminal element more important to you than your own mother, dear?"

"You know better than that."

"But do you you, dear?"

"Did you call for a-"

"Yes, for a reason. His name is Yancy Taggart."

Huh? How could her mother know anything about Yancy? Know Yancy even existed? How could her mother know anything about Yancy? Know Yancy even existed?

"I speak, as you know," her mother said, "of the fancy shmancy Yancy. The man, so called, you've been wasting your time with instead of spending it with a fine man like Doctor Doctor Milton Kahn, or even your mensch policeman Captain Quinn, who is-" Milton Kahn, or even your mensch policeman Captain Quinn, who is-"

"He's not a captain any longer, Mom. He's not with the NYPD."

"Not exactly and precisely, but still-"

"How did you find out I was seeing Yancy?"

"Not from a little bird, dear. Mrs. Kahn, Milton's aunt here at the nursing home, as you know, has a sister who has a half sister who has a daughter who frequents a lounge where the Yancy lizard does his womanizing. She saw your photograph during one of her visits here at the nursing home and recognized you from when she saw you at another lounge with the Yancy lizard."

Pearl was furious. "It's n.o.body's business where I was or who I was with, especially not the business of this niece twice removed or whatever the h.e.l.l she is."

"No, dear. Mrs. Kahn's sister's half sister's-"

"I don't give a d.a.m.n, Mom!"

"Don't use abusive language, dear. Did it make you feel better? Did it?"

No, it didn't. "Yancy's not a lizard. He's a lobbyist!" "Yancy's not a lizard. He's a lobbyist!"

"Well, dear, if you would look in the dictionary-"

"If Mrs. Kahn would look in the dictionary, she'd find the definition of busybody!"

"But facts are facts, dear, whatever their source, and it seems to me that it's my motherly duty to at least make you aware that the Yancy lizard you're going out with sees other women."

"I see other men, Mom."

"But sequentially, dear. Sequentially. There are rumors about the Yancy lizard, some of them bordering on the perverse, if you understand my meaning, which, while only speculation at this juncture, might in all honesty turn out to be true, so you might take a step back and reconsider your relations.h.i.+p."

"By 'speculation' you mean guessing," Pearl said. "I'm not in the guessing business." Quinn's words. Quinn, d.a.m.n you! Quinn's words. Quinn, d.a.m.n you! She hated it when men got inside her mind, especially Quinn. She hated it when men got inside her mind, especially Quinn.

"I'm in no way accusing anyone of anything in any way improper, Pearl, but a mother knows things because a mother knows, and there is a motherly duty to make a daughter aware, and to-and I'll come right out and say it-warn a daughter when a s.h.i.+p, figuratively speaking, is about to smash apart on the rocks of romance in a sea so rough-"

Pearl broke the connection and turned off her cell phone.

Couldn't help it.

Pearl had walked faster and faster while talking and wandered far. When she returned to the office, Vitali and Mishkin were gone. Quinn and Fedderman were at their desks.

"Your mom doing okay?" Quinn asked.

Like you care!

"You look angry, Pearl," Fedderman said.

Pearl didn't bother to answer. She was was angry, at her mother, at Mrs. Kahn, at Mrs. Kahn's...whatever she was. At Fedderman, at Quinn, at all men. angry, at her mother, at Mrs. Kahn, at Mrs. Kahn's...whatever she was. At Fedderman, at Quinn, at all men.

At all men!

What did she really know about Yancy?

She stalked over to the Mr. Coffee and poured herself a mug of the steaming brew, muttering to herself.

"Say what?" Fedderman asked, overhearing but not understanding.

"I said there's nothing wrong with lobbyists," Pearl said, adding powdered cream and stirring violently enough to slosh coffee over the cup's rim.

Quinn and Fedderman looked at each other, puzzled.

"We're all G.o.d's creatures," Fedderman said.

Pearl fixed him with a look, and he smiled slightly.

Saving his life.

31.

They'd had s.e.x. Pearl stood at the window in Yancy's apartment that overlooked the park across the wide avenue. The bedroom was cool, but she could feel the sun's heat radiating from the windowpane. The sun was about to set, and the park was gilded. She watched foreshortened people walking on the sidewalks almost directly below, some of them couples. In the park, two kids on skateboards were terrorizing pedestrians on the winding path.

Pearl had the white linen sheet from the bed draped around her toga style. Behind her, Yancy still lay in bed. Something in the Times Times had caught his interest, and he was staring at it raptly, not paying much attention to Pearl at the moment. Nothing like the attention he'd paid her until ten minutes ago. had caught his interest, and he was staring at it raptly, not paying much attention to Pearl at the moment. Nothing like the attention he'd paid her until ten minutes ago.

She turned away from the window and looked at Yancy and his nude, tanned body. He appeared younger than his supposed age, still lean and muscular. And G.o.d knew he had the endurance of a young man. Still, he displayed the experience of an older man. She smiled. Yancy was a man full of contradictions, but they made for quite a lover.

How could she trust a man like this?

You took the leap, now live with it. Stop being a cop all the time.

He folded down a flap of newspaper and glanced over at her. No reading gla.s.ses. Young eyes. Or maybe Lasik.

Pearl being observant, a cop.

What's he so avidly reading?

"You look inquisitive," he said. "Anybody ever tell you that you resemble a little terrier when you look inquisitive?"

As a matter of fact they had, but Pearl didn't see it as something Yancy had to know.

"I was just wondering what interested you so in the paper."

He laid the Times Times open over his lower body as if he were modest, which he wasn't. "This Carver character," he said. "A guy stops killing years ago then suddenly starts up again. Is that normal for serial killers?" open over his lower body as if he were modest, which he wasn't. "This Carver character," he said. "A guy stops killing years ago then suddenly starts up again. Is that normal for serial killers?"

"Not much is normal with people who sequentially kill other people." Sequentially, dear. Sequentially. Sequentially, dear. Sequentially. "Or with obsessive people who have more than one s.e.x partner at a time." "Or with obsessive people who have more than one s.e.x partner at a time."

He looked at her oddly. "We both agree on that, Pearl. But you're a cop, difficult as I find that to believe, and I thought you might have some insight into the criminal mind. Killers' minds."

"I'm not a cop anymore, Yancy. Private investigator."

"You don't look like a private d.i.c.k, sweetheart. C'mon over here." He beckoned with his right hand, sunlight glinting off his gold ring.

"Think about wind power, Yancy."

"I'll take that for a yes."

She had to laugh, but she moved no closer to the bed.

"I couldn't help noticing something about you," she said.

"That would be my third t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e?"

"No, your hair."

"You mean the way it never seems to get messed up? It's trained that way. Took years. I've been combing it the same way since I was twelve and wanted to get in Amy Dingle's pants."

"I bet you were a terror at twelve."

"Amy Dingle would say so."

"But that's not what I meant about your hair. I noticed it's naturally black and you dye it white."

"Oh, sure. That's so I look older. Lobbyists who are gray eminences get taken a lot more seriously. Gotta play the role, Pearl."

"Live a lie, you mean?"

"No. Live a version, is all. But you could call it a lie. Play your lie well; that's where the honored roll."

"I don't think that's the exact quotation."

"It is if you're golfing, Pearl."

"Which I am not."

"It's an inexact world."

"Yancy, you are the most nimble liar I have ever met."

"You make me blush."

"Not so anyone would notice."

"Make me bulge, I mean."

"That I notice."

Still she moved no closer to the bed.

"Do you happen to know anybody named Kahn?" she asked.

"Sure, Dr. Milton Kahn."

That rocked her back a step. "Where do you know him from?"

"Met him yesterday. He sat down next to me at a bar and struck up a conversation. Introduced himself. Warned me about you."

Huh?