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The young valet returned with my drink. While she placed the proper whiskey glass on the table next to Olo’s tea setup, I noticed that her name tag read CAOIMHE.

“How do you pronounce your name?” I asked.

She smiled and said, “It’s Irish. Cweevah is what they say back home.”

“Lovely.”

When Caoimhe left us, Oliya said, “You can’t really help yourself, can you, boss?”

“Help what?”

“If there’s a pretty girl anywhere around, you just have to knock on her door.”

I wanted to deny it, to say that I was just being friendly. But I knew that this was not true. So I said, “She doesn’t have to be all that pretty.”

Olo laughed and even slapped my knee.

“Tell me about the job,” I said.

“It’s a simple bodyguarding gig. The client is a man named Piermont Fell—”

“The Oklahoma oilman?”

“That’s him.”

“He wants you as a bodyguard?”

“For his girl toy, Clarice Bowe.”

“I’ve heard the name.”

“She’s a film actress. Usually gets killed in the first twenty minutes of the movie.”

“Huh,” I grunted, thinking about how Greta Hammett named herself. “Somebody stalking her?”

“Piermont Fell.”

“I don’t understand. Isn’t he the one that hired Star Shield?”

“He is. But you see, Mr. Fell, her senior by forty years, is the boyfriend, but he can’t come with her on this shopping spree. So he wants somebody standing next to her to be like, if you put a vinegar-soaked piece of bread on a pot of simmering greens.”

“And why do you put vinegar-soaked bread on a pot of anything?”

“It keeps the flies away.”

“Oh. So you follow her into the toilet so she don’t hook up in there?”

“Only we won’t be able to do that because I will not be the one with her—you will.”

“Me?”

“They’re very sloppy over there at Star Shield. They gave me an electronic ID with nearly full access.”

“They don’t have a probationary period for new employees?”

“Not for girls, I guess. Anyway, I can get into most of the rooms there, and I believe I can jimmy into the high-security areas. I’ll just give you the made-up ID I threw together and you can follow Clarice into the ladies’ room. She’s staying at the Four Seasons down the block from here.”

“Oh. So I do your job, and you do mine.”