MY BRAIN kept turning over, and not getting anywhere, just slipping its clutch. I drove on down to Pacific Highway, into an all-night gas station. I looked up Vivette Lyselle in the book, and dimed the pay phone. . . . Shona answered with a shaky, “Hello?”
“This is Dick.”
“Who?”
“How many d***s do you know?”
“Oh, you mean Joe.”
“You on the extension phone?” I asked, putting all the meaning I could into it.
extension“Oh. No, it’s all right, Miss Lyselle went out.”
Of course I had been pretty sure the blonde in the mink was Vivette Lyselle.
“Oh? Where’d she go?”
“The fire department called up. A fire at the store and she went down to see about that.”
“Say, Shona. Do you know of a big red-headed guy mixed up in this deal in any way at all?”
“A red . . . no, I don’t.”
I hung up. I
