my thing.”
“You really didn’t have to put on a demonstration for
me. I don’t have any doubts about your abilities.”
Pookie glanced at me.
“Not for you,” she corrected. “For them . . . the folks
watching here on the street. It was my way of announcing
MYTH-NOMERS AND IM-PERVECTIONS 159
that you’re covered now and they should keep their dis-
tance.”
That possibility had never occurred to me.
“Oh,” I said. “Well, I guess I should stick with my
business and let you handle yours.”
“Agreed,” she nodded, “though I’ll admit the way you
do business puzzles me a bit. Sorry, but I couldn’t help but
overhear your dealings there.”
‘ ‘What? You mean my insisting on a contract? The reason
I pushed for it there and not for our deal is that it was a
long-term investment as opposed to a straight-forward pur-
chase of services.”
“That isn’t it.”
“What is it then .
little more generous
is …”
the contract terms? Maybe I was a
than I had to be, but the situation
I broke off as I realized the bodyguard was staring hard
at me.
“What I meant,” she said flatly, “was that before I put
money into a business, I’d want to know what it was.”
“You heard him. It’s a wholesale/dealer operation.”
“Yes, but what’s he selling?”
I didn’t answer that one because I didn’t have an answer.
In my eagerness to do J.R. a good turn, I had completely
forgotten to ask what kind of business he was starting!
Chapter Seventeen:
“Bibbity . . . bobbity …”
—S. STRANGE, M.D.
BRIGHT AND EARLY the next morning, I launched into the
next phase of my search for Aahz. The Butterfly had con-