Page 52 of Near Miss

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I talked to Reggie. He told me why you were there. He said you might know the names of the people Trench and Bozo were interested in.”

She shook her head. “No one told me their names. Bozo just gave me a description of the man he wanted me to watch. He called him ‘the attorney.’ ”

“Can you givemehis description?” That would be better than nothing.

“Are you a detective?”

“Trench was related to a... friend. I’m helping find out what happened.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“The description?”

“Of the man? Or do you want descriptions of the women who were with him, too?”

“All of them, please.”

When Korolev arrived at his apartment that evening, a list of green Bentley owners in the city was waiting for him. This wascourtesy of a woman who worked at the Department of Motor Vehicles, another “friend” of the family.

The list wasn’t long and included driver’s license photos of as many of the owners as possible. Korolev initially had high hopes of finding a match to one of Candy’s descriptions among them, but it was not to be. Most of the vehicles were owned by corporations, and none of the private owners resembled the people Candy had seen.

Korolev called the Bean Counter’s office.

“Hello, Leon,” Lauren answered. “What can I do for you?”

She was the only one in the organization that called him by his childhood nickname, something he usually hated, but not when she did it. “How is my favorite executive assistant?”

“Tired. Hungry. Dying for a drink. But I assume that’s not why you called.”

“It could be,” he teased.

“Leon, you know I don’t like it when you tease me like that,” she said, clearly liking it. “What can I do for you?”

He told her what he needed.

“That should be possible,” she said. “Can you hold, and I’ll check?”

“For you, anything.”

“If only that were true.”

It was more than three minutes before she came back on the line and said, “I’m told you will have the information by tenamtomorrow, latest.”

“Come on, Lauren. You know my deadline. You can’t do better than that?”

“If I could, I would. But what I believe you wanted to say was ‘Thank you, Lauren. I appreciate your help.’ ”

“Thank you, Lauren. I appreciate your help.”

“As you should. But if you really want to thank me, you can buy me a drink.”

“I would love to show my gratitude by buying you a drink.”

“What a lovely idea. Meet me in an hour. Nubeluz at the Ritz. I assume you know it.”

“I know it.”

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