‘I thought you told me once that your father was a mortician. Somewhere in Pennsylvania.’
‘He was, so I also learned a lot about makeup at my daddy’s knee. Photography was his sideline – yearbook photos and weddings, mostly. Sometimes I was his assistant. In both jobs.’
‘I came to the right place,’ Billy says, smiling.
‘You did.’ But Bucky isn’t smiling back. ‘Don’t you get that young woman hurt, Billy. And if you do, don’t come back here because the door will be closed to you.’
Before Billy can answer, Alice comes back. In her white blouse, blue skirt, and knee-socks she looks very young indeed. Bucky seats her in the chair and tilts her head this way and that until the muted morning light is shining on her face to his liking. He’s using Billy’s phone to take the pix. He says he has a Leica and would love to use it, but that would be a little too pro. Klerke might not register that and be suspicious, but then again he might. TV and movies are a big part of his business, after all.
‘Okay, let’s get this party started. No big grin, Alice, but a little smile’s okay. Remember what we’re going for. Sweet and demure.’
Alice tries for sweet and demure, then dissolves in a fit of giggles.
‘Okay,’ Bucky says, ‘that’s fine. Get it out of your system, then remember that the man who’s going to be looking at these is a fucking pedophile.’
That sobers her up and he goes to work. For all his pre-shoot fussing, the actual photography doesn’t take long. He shoots sixteen or eighteen of Ponytail Alice in various outfits （but always, even in the boatneck dress, with the lowtop sneakers）。 He shoots a dozen more of Barrette Alice and finishes with a dozen of Alice Band Alice. He makes three sets of eight-by-tens on his color printer so they can each look at a stack. Bucky tells Billy and Alice to pick half a dozen they think are the best and says he’ll do the same. At one point Alice cries out in a mixture of glee and dismay, ‘Jesus Christ, I look about fourteen in this one!’
‘Mark it,’ Bucky says.
When they’re done, they have all agreed on three of the shots. Bucky adds two more and tells Billy to email those five to Giorgio. ‘He’s pimped for the nasty old lizard before, so he’ll probably know whether or not Klerke will bite.’
‘Not yet,’ Billy says. ‘I’ll do it once we’re on the road and headed to New York.’
‘What if Klerke tells Giorgio he’s not interested?’
‘We’ll go anyway and I’ll find a way in.’
‘We will,’ Alice says. ‘You’re not leaving me behind in a motel this time.’
Billy doesn’t reply. He thinks it’s a decision he’ll make when and if the time comes. Then he thinks of what Alice has been through, and what Klerke has done to girls even younger than this one, and realizes it might not be his decision to make.
8
That night he calls Nick for the last time. ‘You still owe a million-two.’
‘I know and you’ll get it. Our friend paid off. As far as he knows, you’re dead.’
‘Add another two hundred thousand. Call it a bonus for the shit you put me through. And send it to Marge.’
‘Frank’s mother? Are you serious?’
‘Yes. Tell her it’s from me. Tell her to put it toward Frank’s care. Tell her I did what I had to, but I’m sorry.’
‘I don’t think your apology will cut much ice. Marge is …’ He sighs. ‘Marge is Marge.’
‘You could also tell her that what happened to him ultimately comes back to you, not me, but I don’t really expect that.’
There’s silence for a few seconds and then Nick asks about the rest of what Billy’s owed. Billy tells him exactly how he wants it handled. After some discussion Nick agrees. Does that mean he’ll actually do it if Billy isn’t around to make sure? Billy has his doubts, because he has no idea how long Nick’s gratitude at being spared will last. But he intends to make sure his wishes are carried out, because he has no intention of dying in New York. It’s Roger Klerke who’s going to do the dying.
‘Good luck,’ Nick says. ‘I mean that.’
‘Uh-huh. Just see that Frank is taken care of. And the other thing.’
‘Billy, I just want to tell you—’
Billy ends the call. He has no interest in what Nick wants to tell him. The books are balanced. He and Nick are done.
9
Billy is ready to go early the next morning, but Bucky asks him to wait until ten o’clock because he has an errand to run. While he does it, Billy visits the summerhouse one final time. He takes the picture of the hedge animals off the wall and carries it to the end of the path. He looks out over the gorge for a minute or two, across to the place where the reputedly haunted hotel once stood. Alice thought she saw it, but Billy sees only a few charred remnants. Maybe, he thinks, the site is still haunted. Maybe that’s why no one’s rebuilt on it, although the location looks prime.