She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them. "Is that how you pick up women? It's the most novel approach I've ever heard."

She was amazing. Unfazed by the circumstances, even laughing at me in a very pleasant way. I took her picture and the letter from her father out of my suit coat and handed them to her.

Her brow pinched as she read the letter, and her mouth curved into a scowl. "Bastard," she said.

"Sorry."

"No, not you. Him."

"Your father."

She nodded. "How did you come by these?"

"That is the part that takes some explaining. May I?" She nodded again, and I sat on the bed beside her. Then I told her how I'd been hired by Madame Tzeil to retrieve the lighter and how I'd killed the lady in self-defense. I couldn't believe I was confessing it to her.

"And all you have to do to call the dogs is flick the lighter?" she asked, incredulously.

"Well, you're here, aren't you?"

She rubbed her arms. "So it appears. How come you didn't leave me asleep on the dog? You could pretty much have had your way if you did."

I didn't answer that. "Why's your old man got you locked up?"

"His reasons. They make about as much sense as your story. He inherited that old witch."

"Family heirloom?"

"She came with my mother. A bruja. You know the word? He used her to guard his little kingdom."

"He believes in that stuff? Witchcraft?"

She aimed a manicured finger at the saucer-eyed dog. "Don't you?"

"I hadn't put a name to it. Go on. He hired her to put the whammy on his enemies."

"Oh, much more than that. She told the future to warn him of trouble before it became trouble. That way he was always one jump ahead of everybody. She told him he would have a daughter. Told him what schools to send me to."

"Told him? What about your mother?"

She smiled crookedly. "She hates me. She's hated me since I was little. You know, fathers and daughters-sometimes they're close. He lavished a lot of money and attention on me. Not so much on her. Her career was over, her looks were going, and they were all she had. Too much sun made her a lizard on the outside, too."

"I'm glad you're not bitter."

She laughed. "Not much, no. She's the one who made him lock me up. The bruja claimed that I was going to fall in love with someone who would destroy his empire. I was away at school when this happened." She waved the note. "So all of a sudden my mother shows up and says my father isn't well and needs me back home. She enjoyed that performance, I'm sure-luring the competition into her web, which is exactly what she did. As soon as I was inside the walls of the house, I found out it was a prison. They'd prepared a room for me, a very nice room, but still one I couldn't leave. Servants, massages, pedicures, but no freedom. Over a year now. She comes to gloat every day. I've only seen him twice." She fought the urge to cry. I reached for my handkerchief, but she mastered herself, bowing her head. "He threw the bruja out, though, for making him do this to me. I know he despises my mother, too. But it didn't stop him from doing it. His power's more important to him than I am."

"So"-I cleared my throat-"the guy you were in love with, did they nab him, too?"

Her right hand slowly slid from her knee and down her leg to cover my hand. She raised her head, gazing with an incredible, wonderstruck look. "They told me he was a soldier. I hadn't met him yet."

I leaned closer, my hand on her arm, circling her, pulling her to me. The kiss lasted an hour. Maybe two.

I felt her breath warm on my ear. "I thought you were a dream."

"I know you are," I answered. "Nothing can be real and feel like this."

"Let me show you how real it is." She drew away gently and reached up to untie the straps of her gown.

The dog barked.

I was lost in a sexual fog and didn't want to emerge, especially for some prudish Hound of the Baskervilles. But I looked, in time to see him leap through the doorway. The hair prickled on the back of my neck. He wasn't barking at us.

"Janine, stay here." I got up, switching gears with the greatest of reluctance, but intuitively certain there was something wrong.

I charged through the front room, out into the hallway. I peered into the stairwell, but there was nothing. The hound had disappeared. I headed down the stairs, alert at each landing, expecting God knew what. I reached the street, opened the front door cautiously, and eased out onto the stoop.

The street was dead. Maybe, I tried to tell myself, maybe the dog had just needed to take a pee. I turned to go back inside, and saw the big blue "X" chalked on the door. I stepped down to the sidewalk to look at it, trying to make sense of it.

In that instant tires squealed up the block and headlights flashed against a building, turning the corner. I jumped back against the wall and ducked into the alley.

Three black cars came roaring up the street and drew up two buildings away. Half a dozen shapes climbed out. I heard someone say "This is it!" Then four of the shapes ran up and into the building. The other two stayed on the sidewalk beside the middle car. The goons were gone for maybe ten minutes. But by then one of the two beside the car had already spotted something else. "Hey, lookee there!" He was pointing at the building next to mine.

The door of the middle car opened. I'd expected Kildragon. Instead, it was a woman's silhouette that climbed agitatedly out and marched in my direction. She stopped at the next building, fists on hips, while the two bodyguards ran to catch up. Then she marched toward me again, and I drew back and crouched low behind a trash can.

"Maldito sea! It's on this door, too," I heard her say. I peered over the can at the furious harridan. "Go and fetch me Kevin this instant," she told one of the guards, and he ran off. She stuck a long cigarette in her cruel mouth. The remaining guard fumbled for a match and then, with hands as big as her head, lit her smoke. She glared at him in the light of the match. As Janine had intimated, she was thoroughly reptilian. She turned from him and started pacing. "I cannot believe this, can you, Stevie? The idiota manages to follow this damn dog all the way here, and then does he go in and plug the son of a bitch who's running it? No, he puts his mark on the door like-like El Zorro-and comes back to get the rest of us so we can see. He had him trapped."

The gang of thugs came marching up the sidewalk. The one named Kevin was easy to pick out. Despite his size, he looked terrified, and the others were keeping a respectful distance.

"Quiubo, Kevin? Did you find your mark?"

He glanced at the door of my building. "S-somebody's come along and marked all the doors same as me, Senora."

"A soldier, maybe? A soldier-boy who's right now having my Janine because someone else wanted to show off how clever he is?"

"I marked the door," Kevin pleaded.

"Which door is that, please?"

Kevin looked around at the buildings behind him, and the one past mine. "I'm not sure, Senora."

Madame Kildragon drew a deep breath. "De acuerdo. Let's say, you followed the puppy and somebody followed you."

"But the dog was in your house."

"Si, I've heard this story two nights now. A dog is in our house, a dog we don't own, that's as big as you, Kevin. A ghost that walks through walls."

"That old lady-"

"Shut up!" She struck him in the mouth. "That old lady," she parroted. "Of course, that old lady! Who else could be doing this to us? But you left them alone, you idiot. You left them alone together!"

"I'm sorry, Senora," Kevin whined. "You said-I thought the best thing was to get you. Please don't kill me."

She shook her head. "You listen to this?" she asked the others. She made a claw and gently raked her nails down Kevin's cheek, pausing to dab one finger in the blood on his lip. "I'm not intending to kill you, Kevin. I need for you to do something for me. If you do it, then maybe I never kill you. That's fair, isn't it?"

Kevin laughed shrilly, and started babbling thanks and promises that, whatever she wanted, he would do it. The others decided he was safe to be near again. They patted his shoulder. His buddies. They were happy they didn't have to shoot him. They went off together to get the cars. The senora and Stevie remained. She stared up at my building with those serpent's eyes, and for an awful moment I thought she could see Janine way up at the top. Then she said, "What I want to do, Stevie, is take care of that little puta once and for all, and her fat father, too. I want the whole world-todo lo posible-before I die. They slow me down." The guard said nothing, even as she slid her hand under his jacket and across the front of his trousers. "You and me, we take care of them. Uno a uno."

The cars pulled up. The two of them got into the middle one, and they all drove off.

I exhaled and started to rise. My shoulder bumped into something, and I turned to find the face of that monster dog right beside me. I crashed backward into the trash can. The dog watched me stoically. It opened its mouth a little, and a large chunk of blue chalk dropped to the sidewalk.

The dog had saved my life. I hadn't told it to do that.

I led the way back upstairs. Janine was still on the bed, still sexually radioactive. I told her what had happened, what I'd overheard.

"I have to go back," she said.

"Are you crazy? They know you've been here."

"My father doesn't know about her. I have to warn him."

I sat beside her and took her by the arms. "Why would you think he'll believe you? This is the man you said had locked you away because his empire's more important to him than you are."

"And she means to steal it from him."

"She means to do a good deal more than that. Help me out here. Look at this reasonably. You're going to go back into the hornet's nest, and maybe I won't be able to get you out again. I won't let you-"

She put her fingers to my lips. "Shhh," she said, and kissed me. "You have that big dog and his brothers. They can find me anywhere, can't they?"

I glanced at the dog, and he nodded. I wanted to kick him.

"Please, let me go back for one more day," she insisted. "I'll try to warn him. If he won't listen, then at least I tried. The way I feel about him now . . . there were years when . . . "

"He's your father. All right. One more day."

She wrapped herself around me and kissed me with her soul.

For her I could wait a lifetime. I only hoped I wouldn't have to.

The dog knew his part. He stood and came over beside US.

She said, "Pick me up, darling," and I obeyed, taking one final kiss before placing her upon his back. What else could I do?

Afterward, as the sun came up, I tried not to imagine what might be happening in the Kildragon house. I wanted to believe that she would warn her father, he would see the truth of her warning and lock his wife away instead, and Janine would be set free-wanted to believe but failed. I knew that to send the hound in broad daylight would prove disastrous. Even if they weren't waiting for him, he would be about as inconspicuous as a fire engine. Besides, I'd promised her the day. I might go crazy, but I wouldn't go back on my word.

I spent a couple hours cleaning my revolver, placing it on my hip, making sure I could get to it quickly. Then I set off for my office.

Once there, I hung out in the lobby, waiting my turn for Elroy's services. I sat in the chair with the cracked seat, with my feet on his homemade box and, while he buffed my shoes, I filled him in as best I could on the situation. He never batted an eye, as if magical hounds and bags of boodle were common events in his life.

When I'd finished, he asked, "What you expectin' if they come take you away?"

I shrugged. "I'm not sure. I just wanted somebody to know."

He nodded sagely. "You git carried away at night, I won't be here to help noways."

"They carry me off at night, I think you can have my office. I'm not likely to be coming back."

"Yeah. Las Hadas to L.A. what Diddy-Wah-Diddy be to hell."

I paid him a twenty for the shine. If I got through this, I figured I'd ask the dogs to give him his own shop.

Nobody showed up the rest of the day. No one called. I played at least three different kinds of solitaire, and lost every game. I went out and brought some Chinese food back to the office, bought an evening paper, too. The ribbon in my fortune cookie read: "You have a delightful personality and are liked by everyone." I laughed, wondering who'd gotten my fortune. I think I read the paper front to back, even the obits and the classifieds, and when I was done I couldn't tell you what had happened that day. The lighter in my pocket weighed more than the USS Coral Sea.

I didn't go home. The one thing I was counting on was that even if Kildragon stationed people on my street, by bringing Janine here we'd elude them.

I waited until eleven. I should have waited longer, but I couldn't.

The hound set off, and I started pacing the floor. He was swift but that journey took years off me. I must have stuck my head into the hallway a dozen times. Everybody was gone. The whole building was silent as a grave.

Finally, I heard his claws clicking in the hail. The door opened and he walked in. I thought for a second there'd been a mistake, but I saw those dark red toenails and I knew the only mistake was that I'd let her go back.

They'd shaved off all her hair. There were circular bruises at her temples and dried spittle on her chin. Her eyes were darkly ringed, almost sunken into her skull. She was encased in a heavy canvas straitjacket, the sleeves joined together into a single strap that ran up between her legs. That's all she wore.

I was afraid to touch her, afraid to lift her from the dog for fear she would wake up and not know me. How could they do that to their own daughter?

Finally, it became intolerable to stand staring and not do something. I touched her face, kissed her. I didn't have a couch to put her on, only a couple of chairs and the desk.

I bent down and lifted her, and something sprinkled to the floor. I looked down at a pile of dust like cornmeal. The straitjacket was leaking. Stupid with grief, I stood there following the trail of it leading across the office and under the door. I knew what it meant, but I couldn't think.

They kicked the door open as I turned to set her on the desktop. I had her in my arms in the first crucial seconds. I slid her away from me and went for my gun, but the two lead gorillas slammed into me before I could draw it. A fist drove straight into my eye. Something else punched my belly hard enough to wrap my liver around my spine. I dropped, still trying to stay up on my knees, and another blow rang like a buzz saw into the side of my head. I hit the floor chin first and lay there, barely aware of angry voices all around me, someone screaming, shots fired, and the clicking of dog's claws skittering away. 1 thought, I should have just asked him to save us.

Impressions remain of being tossed around, of a car and streetlights sparkling; like being driven home drunk. Eventually I would sober up and realize I'd fallen in love with a dream. Then Bing Crosby started singing between my ears: "Have you ever seen a dream walking?" and I started to laugh, it was so funny. Someone socked me unconscious. They might have hit me twenty or thirty other times that I can't recall.

Somebody threw ice water on me to get my attention. I was tied to a chair. My jacket was gone, as was my gun. My left eye wouldn't open past a squint. There seemed to be a boulder in front of it. It hurt to breathe, and I was pretty sure I had broken ribs and missing teeth. I focused on the figure of H. W. Kildragon. He had his sleeves rolled up, and his knuckles were bloody. I ran my tongue inside my mouth, tasting nothing. I knew I was in for it, and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

"I guess," I wheezed, "this means you're rejecting my marriage proposal."

He stepped up and slapped me. I played with the solar system awhile.

When I saw him again, he was smoking a cigarette, sitting in a chair, staring at my medals in their little frame. I wondered who had taken those from the wall in my office.

He looked as cool as you please. Janine had been wrong about the old man. There had never been any good old days, just days when she was too small to see the poison through the wrapper. Nobody sweet and kind would marry a Gila monster like the senora. Maybe she was feeding him a line about his daughter and me, maybe he knew perfectly well what was happening but couldn't bring himself to confront his wife and was taking it out on me; whatever, he'd passed the point where I was curious about his perspective on anything. All I wanted right then was a Bofors gun and enough time to pepper him into stew meat.

Someone behind me grabbed hold of my head and jerked it up.

Kildragon exhaled smoke and dropped the medals. "Soldier-boy," he said.