The Gentlemen's Hour

115

“Hello, lover boy,” Becky says, grinning at Boone.

“Hello, Becky.”

“Who did you come to see?” she asks. “Do you have an appointment, or is this a spontaneous booty—”

“Okay, okay. Is she in?”

“This is your lucky day.” She buzzes Petra, who comes out to the front desk. He follows her to her office and tells what he’s learned about Paradise Homes, LLC. She says, “So Paradise Homes could be on the hook for all that money?”

“And the next question is—who are Paradise Homes?” Boone asks. “It’s a limited partnership. Who are the partners?”

“I can track that down from here,” she says.

“Aren’t you busy on the Blasingame case?”

“Nichols is our client, too,” says Petra. “Besides, there’s nothing much to do now except wait for Mary Lou to decide how she wants to go.”

Turns out Petra’s quite a keyboard jockey. Sits with a cup of tea in one hand, the mouse in another, and rocks. It takes three hours, but she comes up with the answer. She leans back and points to the monitor.

“To coin a phrase,” she says, “Jesus Christ.”

It jogs Boone’s memory.

In Blasingame’s office, when he was interviewing him about Corey.

“That punch? First time in his life that Corey ever followed through on anything.”

The phone buzzed and it was the pretty receptionist, Nicole:

“You wanted me to remind you that you have a meeting with Phil at the site?”

No, Boone thinks. It couldn’t be.

Could it?

Bill Blasingame is the chief partner in Paradise Homes.