“We’ll have to think of something else for you,” the man said.
“I think I’ll go to Santa Rosa.”
“Yes, that would be one plan. Although, of course, we’re not sure that Isabelle is actually there. She could have gone anywhere. She could still be right here. All Jane said was that she hadn’t seen her in a while.”
“But it sounds like … I’ll bet she went home to Santa Rosa.”
“Mm.”
He took a sip of wine, possibly to hide a smile. Why would he be smiling? Marion stood up and thanked him for making the call.
“Sit down, dear,” he said. “You don’t want to go back to Santa Rosa. It’s a Podunk town—people talk. You’re much better off in the big city. We can arrange things here that would be difficult, if not impossible, in Santa Rosa. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
She did understand. Bradley had once asked her exactly the same question, and she was fast. Sitting down again, accelerated by the wine in her, she landed unexpectedly and tilted sideways.
“You don’t have to be embarrassed,” the man said. “I’ve had this house for fifteen years, and there’s nothing I haven’t seen. So why don’t we speak frankly, you and I.”
The thing was growing in her, and it was Bradley’s. This was the fact she couldn’t get around. She didn’t want to have the thing inside her. It reminded her of the boy who’d answered the door at his house, the horror of Bradley having children, the horror of his marriage, the horror of what she’d done to herself.
“Perhaps you’ve missed a monthly,” the man said. “Perhaps more than one?”
She affirmed it with a whimper.
“How many?” he said. “Surely not more than two—you’re skinnier than a post.”
She shook her head.
“I like a skinny pretty little girl,” he commented in a throatier way. “And you are definitely that.”
She could sooner have recited the Koran than raise her eyes to Isabelle’s former landlord. Except for the ticking of a clock on the mantel, the house was silent. She was certain that no one but the two of them was in it.
“Luckily for you, I can help you,” he said. “I happen to know just the man—he’s very good. Tip-top hygiene. Nice office. Complete discretion.”
She was breathing either far too fast or not at all. The man’s words came from a distance and receded further as he spoke them. “Do you have a hundred fifty dollars? That would include the twenty-five for me. And, let’s see, today is Thursday, isn’t it. We could have you good as gold again by Saturday night.”
She heard wine being poured.
“Do you have a hundred fifty dollars?” he said.
The question came through clearly. She indicated that she didn’t.
“How much money do you have?” He waited for a response and got none. “Marion, do you have any money at all?”
The answer must have been obvious. She heard him leave the room and return, felt the heat of him as he crouched by her. “I know how frightened you are,” he said. “You’re terribly frightened. Understandably frightened. You’ll feel better if you take these.”
He opened one of her clenched hands and pressed two tablets into it.
“It’s only Seconal. It’ll help you sleep.”
She felt the heat of his hand on her knee.
“I imagine you’re wondering if I can really solve your problem. I suppose I could give you references, but the other girls I’ve helped may be reluctant to talk about it. The way I see it, you’ll just have to trust me. I’ve run an honest business here for fifteen years. I never take anything I haven’t paid for, and I never give a girl anything she hasn’t paid for. That’s the rule in this house. Everything here is quid pro quo.”
By bodily reflex, she removed the hand that was creeping up her leg. As soon as she let it go, he put it back.
“I’m going to Palm Springs for the holidays,” he said. “If you’ll stay with me until then, we’ll have you good as gold by Christmas. That is a solemn promise. A mere eleven days. If I may say so, the terms are rather advantageous to you. Luckily for you, you’re just my kind of girlie. Very, very much my kind of girlie.”
Her feral intelligence understood perfectly well what he was proposing. To agree to it, all she had to do was not stand up and leave. She raised her hand and put the two pills in her mouth. Her arms felt too short to reach for her glass, so she chewed them.