O'Boyle said, "I thought you quit smoking?"

Mitchell leaned over the desk to get a light from him. "I started again. You listen to the whole tape?"

"Twice."

"Well?"

"I think you're being blackmailed."

"How much do I owe you so far?"

"Mitch, you're in fairly serious trouble."

"Fairly serious. What's really serious?"

"Tell me how you met the girl and started seeing her. Everything."

"I met her in a bar-"

"Wait a minute, I want to get it down." O'Boyle moved the tape recorder closer to Mitchell and turned it on. "Okay."

"I met her in a bar, a little over three months ago."

"What bar?"

"I forgot the name. One of the topless go-go places down on Woodward."

"What were you looking for, some action?"

"Jim, you want me to tell it? I was out with Ross. Once a week I take him to lunch, and I try not to make it a Friday, because he starts his weekend with the first martini. But it was Friday. I pay the bill, we're walking out, it's only two clock, I'm thinking, thank you, God, I did it. And he says, 'I don't feel like going back. Let's stop someplace and have a tightener.' "

"So you stopped at the go-go bar."

"We stopped at four of them. Nice sunny afternoon we're doing the topless tour. The last place, she's sitting at the bar. Ross sees her, pats her on the ass thinking she's one of the go-goers and tries to move in."

"What kind of shape were you in?"

"Not bad. I just had beer."

"So you sat down with her?"

"Ross did, I sat next to him. He begins with the usual bullshit about his forty-two-foot boat and his place in Canada. Pretty soon he's dropping the news that he's president of Wright-Way Motor Homes and how would she like to go up north in one this weekend. You know, that ski lodge he's got an interest in.