"And you just moved in. Your phone's only been hooked up, what, two weeks?"

Wanda said, "Three." She was hugging herself now, as though she were cold.

"Three," Roland Dimonte repeated. "So how did Valerie get your number, Duane? How come some woman you don't know has your brand-new, unlisted number in her date book?"

"I don't know."

Roland skipped skeptical and moved directly to absolute disbelief. For the next hour he continued to hammer Duane, but Duane stuck to his story. He never met her, he said. He didn't know her. He never spoke to her. He had no idea how she could have gotten his phone number. Myron watched in silence. The sunglasses made it harder to read Duane, but his body language was all wrong. So was Wanda's.

With an angry sigh Roland Dimonte finally stood up. "Krinsky?"

The Pad looked up.

"Let's get the hell out of here."

The Pad closed the pad, joined his partner.

"I'll be back," Dimonte barked. Then pointing at no one in particular he added, "You hear me, Bolitar?"

"You'll be back," Myron said.

"Count on it, asshole."

"Aren't you going to warn us not to leave town? I love it when you cops do that."

Dimonte made a gun with his hand. He pointed it at Myron and lowered the thumb/hammer. Then he and the Pad disappeared out the door.

For several minutes no one said anything. Myron was about to break the silence when Duane started laughing. "You sure showed him, Myron. Tore him a whole new asshole-"

"Duane, we need-"

"I'm tired, Myron." He feigned a yawn. "I really need to get some sleep."

"We need to talk about this."

"About what?"

Myron looked at him.

Duane said, "Pretty weird coincidence, huh?"

Myron turned toward Wanda. She looked away, still hugging herself. "Duane, if you're in some kind of trouble- "

"Hey, tell me about the commercial," Duane interrupted. "How did it come out?"