Ellington's face was ashen, and his tongue vainly tried to moisten his lips. With a huge sigh of my own, I suggested that maybe Cynthia could come out of her latest predicament in fair shape with a good lawyer.

"With a good lawyer." His voice sounded distant and soft.

Karen coughed politely. "Maybe that's what you need, Mr. Ellington."

He studied her in silence to the point where she began to blush and fidget. "You were with my son."

"I worked at Bravo, yes..."

His eyes hardened. "I mean, you were with my son." Her blush blossomed and she glanced at me. "He was trying to get you to break up the marriage." Karen nodded. "Yes... well, Lawrence was never one for following the right road. Ironically, I had hoped he might succeed, considering. I hope there was nothing promised for your efforts because he won't be seeing a dime out of anything now. As a matter of fact, the minute our case is resolved, the board will be drafting a resignation for him to sign. A hard lesson in collateral damage."

"Sir," I began again. "Mrs. Wyatt is expected to pay Dever's debt. Your son told me she has had her allowance stopped and her other funds frozen. That will leave her in grave danger from Bonducci. Karen and I, as I explained, are now part of that business because of Reg Devers. If it was just a question of going to the police we would, but we have nothing to prove any of what happened. Until everything had been investigated we would be either jailed for our own protection or left where we are now, except the reason for removing us would be more pressing."

Ellington listened attentively but another part of his mind was replaying a previous meeting. "My granddaughter, unfortunately, has made her own bed. I'm too tired to keep cleaning up after her. I'm not sure what you think I can do... or want to."

"Well after what you've said, I guess not much." I looked at Karen and shrugged my disappointment. "I guess we're going to need a really good lawyer as well."

Ellington considered us both with a curious look. "How involved are you both, really?"

"To our necks." I replied.

"When the chips are down in business, deceit is always employed. There's no room for moral convictions if your career is chasing the dollar." Ellington looked at both of us and I felt a proposal coming on. "How are your moral convictions, Mr. Wallace?"

"Day to day."

"Well how about this day?"

"Loose. Very loose. Are you suggesting something?"

"It's a gamble... a dangerous one, but it can be effective. You've heard the best defence is offence, right?"

"Yes." I smelled a scheme coming. "We'd be grateful for any help."

"Hmmm... are you a good poker player, Mr. Wallace? A confidant swagger?"

I flashed on all my fantasies about the hard-nosed private eyes, and then all the boobs I'd made and swallowed. "I uh- yes, I think I am." He cocked an eyebrow and leaned closer, telling me exactly what he was thinking.

Ellington watched the couple leave and wondered if he had set something in motion that might be regrettable.

●○●○●○●○●

Rory entered the hotel room with a bag of groceries and some of his booze from the bar and immediately went into a Death of a Salesman, routine. Karen stared at him as if he was a nut job, and I rolled my eyes and held up hands in surrender.

"Nobody appreciates talent." He complained, setting his load on the tiny kitchenette table.

"On the contrary," I offered. "Show us some and we'll prove it." I dropped my phone on the table.

"What's new, anything?" Karen asked.

Rory began unpacking the bags. "You still have a watchdog across the street, but other than that, all's quiet. I don't get why he's just sitting out there."

"Let's be thankful." I said. "At least he didn't see us come back so our secret escape route is safe."

He tossed me a bag of chips and handed one to Karen. "Junk food is good for the soul." I tore mine open and chomped a handful. Karen set hers aside and picked up a bottle of her Life-on instead.

"What happened with Ellington?" Rory asked.

I swallowed the chips and snorted. "You gotta hear this. This is so rich I'm getting cavities."

"We-e-ll, tell me tha-a-t about this then."

Karen stopped sipping her drink. "Is that—?"

"Don't!" I yelled. "Don't ever guess who he thinks he's doing. Just ignore it."

"Easy to tell he's my friend, eh?"

"Kennedy." Karen said.

I groaned and Rory punched the sky with a huge grin on his face. "Eh? Eh? Whadda ya say now, Christopher?"

"Nothing. I was going to tell you about Ellington." Rory waved a hurry-up sign. "He wants us to meet this woman named Nicole Kirkland. Apparently - and get this Nicole was also getting it on with Jarmon Wyatt."

Rory gaped. "At the same time as..." He rolled his eyes toward Karen. He sounded offended.

Karen sucked her teeth and went to a chair by the window. "You guys. Is that relevant?"

"Not really," I said, regaining the conversation.

"What?" Rory fanned the air with his hands.

"Jarmon was seeing this Nicole at the same time I was supposed to be seducing him." Karen muttered through clenched teeth.

"Wow!"

"Rory, for cryin' out loud."

"Sorry, Karen. So how does this enter into anything?"

"She's going to say she was with Jarmon and she has pictures to prove it. And she'll say she has pictures of Cynthia, Smithee, Devers and Bernie. We are going to pretend that she has the whole gang on record at the Dunbar on one day or another."

"Pretend? Who'd believe that? How would she get pictures, and why would she even bother? This sounds pretty lame to me. Who even knows her besides this Jarmon character?"

"Smithee knows because Lawrence Bravo was suspicious of Jarmon's daily schedule after Karen complained that she couldn't reach him a number of times, and he made Smithee check it out. And because she was the uhm- other woman..." I glanced at Karen and received her icy glare, "she can legitimately prove she was at the Dunbar and knew the players."

"My head is hurting. Why is she doing this?"

Karen looked at me and I blinked several times, at a loss. "We aren't sure. Ellington set it up so I guess for some reason she's going to do it for him. The point is, if we can bluff Bernie with the threat of pictures, we might get enough distance to let Houseman uncover the goods and nab the baddies."

Rory glanced at Karen. "You hear this dialogue? The goods? Nab? Baddies?" She nodded and rolled her eyes. "Okay, so how does this work?"

"Ellington is calling us as soon as he puts her in the picture. Karen and I will just follow her lead." I shrugged. "He didn't really say what we'd be doing at first."

He rubbed his head and started pulling faces that I knew were going to lead into a series of impressions, so I got up and went into the bathroom, locking the door and leaning on the counter for a long period of musing. Rory was right. The whole thing sounded lame. If Ellington weren't such a high profile success story I wouldn't be listening to any part of something like this.

Then again, Wallace Wonderful, private eye, couldn't come up with anything. When I came out, Rory and Karen had their heads together and she was laughing happily.

"Did I miss something?"

"You should hear his Bette Davis," she choked. It's a riot.

"I've heard it and I'm glad we're all concentrating on the problem."

"Problem solved, Mr. Christopher," Rory began, in his best Charles Laughton voice, handing me my phone. "Your Mr. Ellington called and Miss Kirkland is on board and will be happy to meet with you in her condominium at Eleven Stevens Park Drive."

"Let's go and see her, Chris." Karen was up and eager to act. Rory received a pat on the back for his contribution, then she fluffed her hair and gathered her purse.

"We can't just traipse out the front door remember. Our friend across the street? We need to repeat the distraction we used to get back in here."

"Leave him to me, mathter." Rory loped to the door, dangling one arm and sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth.

"Hey wasn't that Ig—?"

"Karen! I asked you not to encourage him." What was it with these women? Nora had acted exactly the same. I took her arm and we went down the fire stairs to the lobby, waiting behind some tourist folder stands as we watched Rory distract our watcher.