The Venus Fix

Ninety-One

“She’s not home and she’s not at her office. But she’s got an appointment there in an hour which she hasn’t called to cancel,” Butler reported to Jordain a few minutes later, over the speaker phone in his car.

“What about her cell phone?”

“Her assistant won’t give it to me without a subpoena. Want me to work on that from here?”

“Where’s the assistant?”

“In the office-1 Washington Square Park North.”

“We’re still in the neighborhood-we’ll go over there and get it ourselves. What does Dobson teach?” Jordain asked as he swung the car around and headed back south.

“Don’t you know who she is?”

“Yes, she’s a feminist. Noisy one. I just asked what she teaches.”

“Women’s studies. She’s more than just a noisy feminist. She’s a brilliant writer who-”

“You ever read her, Butler?” Perez interrupted.

“Is this a real question, or are you giving me shit?”

“Real question. Quick, we need to know as much as you can tell us. What’s happened to her recently? What makes her angry? What’s she been fighting lately.”

“Her daughter died last June. Overdose.”

“Accidental?” Perez asked.

“So the report says, but that’s based on Dobson’s statement. A few months before that, she lost a large civil court case and was fined six hundred thousand dollars-”

“We’re here. Is there anything else I need to know?” Perez picked up the phone and stayed on it while he got out of the car and followed Jordain down the street toward Dobson’s office.

“I’m reading…wait…yes…shit…the lawsuit’s a little close for comfort,” Butler said. “Dobson hired a computer genius to hack into Global Communication’s database. She got the e-mail addresses of all the women who worked for them and wrote offering to help them find legitimate work.”

“We know that. Stay close by. I’ll let you know if we need any backup.”

“Perez, you know the lawyer who handled the case for the porn company was Alan Leightman’s wife, Kira Rushkoff? That means…”

But he’d already hung up on her.