Deadly Beloved(111)

“You’re sure you know what you’re doing?” John Jackman said again. “You haven’t lost it all somewhere along the line? You aren’t about to get me in some kind of trouble I won’t be able to get out of?”

“I’m taking the next logical step. We have to find Patsy MacLaren.”

“Who doesn’t exist.”

“We have to find her anyway. And the best place to start is with the last person who saw her alive.”

“Which Patsy MacLaren are we talking about here?”

“There’s only one,” Gregor Demarkian said.

The elevator opened at Julianne Corbett’s floor. The hallway felt too cold and too wet. The carpet under Gregor’s feet seemed to squeak when he moved, the way cheap carpets do when they’ve been saturated. John Jackman had his umbrella tucked under his arm, the way British bankers did in Walt Disney movies.

The hall smelled as if someone had just walked a very hairy and very wet dog through it. Gregor got to Julianne Corbett’s door and went in without knocking. Tiffany Shattuck sat at her desk, reading another bridal magazine, chewing gum. Gregor was willing to bet anything that Tiffany did not chew gum when Julianne Corbett could see her.

John Jackman came into the office waiting room and closed the door behind him. Gregor cleared his throat. Tiffany Shattuck looked up and dropped the magazine.

“Oh,” she said, pushing the gum around in her mouth and trying to pretend it wasn’t there. “Mr. Demarkian. Ms. Corbett said you were coming.”

“I believe we have some kind of an appointment,” Gregor said politely.

Tiffany turned her back to them and made heaving motions that indicated she was getting rid of the gum. Her bridal magazine was open on the desk, to an article on the perfect champagne toast. Did people really read articles like that? Gregor wondered. He supposed they must. The magazines were everywhere. They seemed to be successful. Tiffany turned back to them and smiled, her gum gone.

“I’ll go right in and tell her you’re here,” she said.

Tiffany could have announced them on the intercom. Gregor didn’t say so. Instead, he pointed to the bridal magazine.

“Are you getting married?” he asked.

Tiffany looked confused. “You mean now? Am I getting married now? I mean, I’m not engaged to anybody at the moment or anything, but I hope to be someday. If I meet somebody. If you know what I mean.”

“Of course,” Gregor said.

Tiffany looked down at the bridal magazine. “I just like these magazines,” she said. “They’re always beautiful. And there’s never anything in them to get you upset. If you know what I mean.”

“No,” Gregor said.

“Well,” Tiffany said seriously. “You know. About poverty. And violence. That kind of thing. And AIDS. Even the fashion magazines talk about poverty and violence and AIDS these days. But the bridal magazines don’t.”

“Oh,” Gregor said.

“I’ll just go get Ms. Corbett,” Tiffany said. “I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to be kept waiting. She told me to tell her as soon as you got in. She’s very concerned about what’s happening to Ms. Parrish.”

Tiffany Shattuck hurried off. Gregor began to pace back and forth across the waiting room. There were posters on the walls now that hadn’t been there a couple of days earlier. Somebody, probably Tiffany Shattuck, was making an effort to make this place look permanent.

“What was all that talk about the bridal magazines?” John Jackman asked. “Don’t tell me your Patsy MacLaren is getting married again.”

“No, of course not,” Gregor said. “It wasn’t anything. Donna Moradanyan is getting married. Marriage is on my mind these days.”

“I think if you told me that Patsy MacLaren was off someplace getting married right this minute, I’d go out and shoot myself,” John Jackman said. “I like it better when I know what you’re up to.”

Tiffany Shattuck came back through the inner door and walked up to the open reception window, smiling.

“Ms. Corbett says you’re to come right in,” she told them. “She’s all ready for you. Just step around that statue thing that’s in the way. I haven’t had a chance to move it yet.”

The “statue thing” was a plaster copy of Justice, blind and with scales, almost half as tall as Gregor was. Gregor wondered where it was supposed to go. He also wondered who was supposed to move it. Tiffany didn’t look strong enough. John Jackman stuck out a toe and kicked the thing, as if it were personally responsible for the mess the current criminal justice system was in.