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about six inches from Lightning Bolt’s shoulder. He seemed pleased with what he saw, and she escorted him out the front door without taking any money. She adjusted the clock on the “Be Right Back” sign to return in forty minutes then began dragging a heavy blackout drape across the front wall, eclipsing even the front door.
    “You pull that across every time you leave?”
    “You think all that expensive equipment was just waiting for me when I showed up? No point in tempting any window shoppers with thieving on their minds. Also, I have clients who need to feel secure when I’m working on certain areas of the body.”
    “I noticed that guy you were working on didn’t pay you,” I said.
    “Touch-ups are free,” she said.
    I suggested a place down the street that made pita pocket sandwiches. Audrey put an enormous purple bag over her shoulder.
    “So how do we get out of here?”
    Audrey lifted the drape from the floor and looked at me as if I was an idiot. I took it from her and held it above my head while she walked under it. Once outside, I asked if she used her shoulder bag to deliver newspapers in her spare time, but she appeared too distracted to acknowledge my joke or give me more than a one-word response to any other attempts at small talk. Her energy seemed to change while I picked out the ingredients for my sandwich. After we sat, she said, “You got something against meat?” She took a bite of her chicken sandwich.
    “Only when it’s cooked,” I said, and she surprised the hell out of me with a spasm of laughter that brought her close to spitting out her food. When I was sure she didn’t need the Heimlich maneuver, I laughed with her.
    “That Milly you mentioned was getting payments from Snooky,” I said.
    “She worked for him?”
    “I doubt it.”
    “What was the money for?”
    “That’s what I’m trying to find out, which brings me to ask one more time: can you remember anything specific he said about why Milly was nervous?”
    “I have nothing for you,” Audrey said and the tone of her voice told me she meant it. She took another bite of her sandwich and stared at a point in space above my head. Then she said, “Are you happy, Jules?”
    “I’m ecstatic.”
    “Why did you pick this career?”
    “Why do you care?”
    “If you’re going to keep popping up in my life, you’ll become a character in my story, and I need to learn about you. Why did you pick this career?”
    “Just make something up.”
    “That question ticks you off.”
    It did for some reason. “I like puzzles, mysteries, figuring things out—being my own boss. And I guess I wanted a different kind of life.”
    “Different from what?”
    “Different from what was expected.”
    Audrey returned her gaze back into space then said, “But can’t this kind of work be dangerous?”
    “I suppose. How did you meet Snooky?”
    “My father got his name from a financial consultant who likes to work with professors.”
    “Your father’s a professor?” I wondered what Daddy thought of his little girl’s career.
    “Yeah, but he doesn’t teach anymore. He became disillusioned with my generation, and now he’s just an administrator at the University of Illinois at Chicago, giving him more time to dabble in real estate.”
    “What kind of real estate?”
    “I don’t know.”
    This was news. I thought Snooky’s legit clients were all shop owners. “Can you get this consultant’s phone number for me?”
    Audrey reached into her shoulder bag and handed me a business card for Linda Conway, Personal Financial Consultant . I thought it strange that her office was in a university building. “My father got a vacant office for her to use in exchange for being a guest lecturer at the business school.”
    I put the card in my pocket and wondered what the tax-paying public would think of this arrangement. We ate in silence until she said, “I have to get back,” and wrapped what was left of her sandwich in a couple of