Pitt worked a fly-in, fly-out schedule. Two weeks in the altiplano at the mine. Then a week in Lima raising h.e.l.l. Among other things.

"That's all you know," I said. I crossed my arms and stared down my nose.

"My dear boy, I a.s.sure you it is."

I went to the door and opened it. "Thug dude. Hammer back?"

Shanti bent his yellow-and-scarlet frame into the room. Sergio looked up at the man through a haze of hair. "What's it for?"

"New trick you, uh, might enjoy," I said.

"Oh, darling." He nodded to the bulldozer. "Let him have it."

I took the hammer, closed the door and walked over to the cabinet. With both hands I smashed the hammer down on the padlock. The latches ripped from their flimsy moorings and crashed at my feet.

The office door opened. I dropped the hammer to the floor and flung open the cabinet's plywood doors. Strong hands encircled my wrists and drew my elbows back at a painful angle.

Inside the cabinet, five shirts dangled from paper-shrouded hangers, draped in dry cleaner's plastic. Five suits of various shades of gray jostled for s.p.a.ce. At the bottom, a pair of black shoes, a tin of shoe polish, a dirty rag. A tie rack spat fistfuls of colorful silk.

Sergio poked at a hole in my filthy brown sweater. "Looking to improve our wardrobe?"

"What are you afraid of?" I asked. "Since when do you use bodyguards?"

"I've told you what I know," he said. "Now get out."

Shanti frogmarched me to the door.

"Be sure to check behind the suits," I said. "You'll find it worth your while."

A vase beside me shattered, spilling a dozen plastic birds of paradise at my feet. A hairbrush bounced off my shoe. "b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. I'm going to have to move them now."

"Move what?" I asked. "Good help hard to find?"

A sharp hiss of breath. Sergio said, "Let him go."

Shanti released my arms. He put his palms together, bowed. "Forgive me," he said. "Peace be unto you. I'll be outside if you need me."

Sergio ma.s.saged the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. He sighed. "I'm sure you will."

I returned to the cabinet, pushed the shirts and suits out of the way. Venetian blinds fluttered and whirred, as Sergio sought escape from the prying eyes of his employees. The back of the cabinet had no obvious cracks.

"Must you do this?" he asked.

"I can break it if you want."

He felt under the pile of silk. A b.u.t.ton clicked. The back of the cabinet slid down.

To one side, a variety of d.i.l.d.os and b.u.t.t plugs. A Fleshlight. Hanging from one hook, a small whip; on another, a cat-o'-nine-tails. A third hook sat empty. I lifted the cat. From each of the nine ends hung a twisted spike of barbed wire. Dried blood and chunks of gore caked the spikes.

"Something missing on that hook," I said.

"On back order. Are we satisfied?"

I studied the empty s.p.a.ce. Blood stains marred the plywood where another implement had hung. "Tell you what," I said. "Be bad enough, I might just use this on you."

Sergio shuddered. "Don't say that."

I lifted the cat, slashed it down on his desk with a loud crack. Sergio jumped across the room. Slammed the door shut as Shanti began to enter.

"Not now," he wailed. "Don't come in unless I call you, understand?" He locked the door, rested his weight against the frame. The blinds crackled.

I held the cat to my nose. It smelled of blood and sweat and s.e.x. I stifled the urge to vomit. "You were telling me why Pitt resigned."

Sergio lifted a trembling hand to his lips, wiped a strand of saliva from his chin. "He sent me a note, you see," he said, not looking at me. "Pitt did."

"Still got it?"

His open palms trembled in front of him, a saint beseeching the empty heavens for salvation. "I don't understand what it means."

I lifted the cat in the air. "You got it or don't you?"

His head twitched sideways, unable to look away from the cat. "No," he mumbled. "I threw it away."

"What'd it say?"

His entire body spasmed now, his eyes fixed on those barbed spikes. "My dear boy, I don't understand what it means. Or didn't. Not at the time. I swear. Some rubbish about ending his guilt."

Ending his guilt... Was BDSM Pitt's solution? Had he changed his mind? Hard to believe. If that was his answer, he was barking up the wrong tree. Still...

I pointed to the cabinet, the empty hook.

Sergio pressed his knees together, like he had to go to the bathroom. Confessed with a jerk of his head. "He stole my favorite cat."

"Stole it? Why would he bother?"

"These cats are handmade in a factory in Tibet by Buddhist monks. They are rare, and exceedingly valuable."

"So?" I said. "Pitt's got money. You know he does."

"Online purchases can be traced. You know this as well as I do." He glared at me. "So much more subtle than you. At least he picked the lock. Broke in when I was gone."

"But pain is not his scene. You know it's not. How can you be sure it was him?"

Sergio said nothing, swung his head from side to side. I cracked the cat on his desk again.

The little man hopped like a puppet on a string. "How could I possibly? It was only when he disappeared that I knew."

"Knew what?"

He bit his lip. His eyes darted around the room, looking for some escape from his perversion, finding none.

I lifted the cat again. "Knew what?"

He tiptoed across the room, leaned into me. G.o.d, what a smell. He'd shat himself. The stink made me choke. He whispered into my ear, "Bat guano."

"Bat-"

"Shh!" He clamped a hand over my mouth.

I held up an open palm, nodded. He withdrew his hand. I mouthed the words: Bat guano?

"Yes," he whispered.

"What about it?"

"Go ask Ambo."

I slashed the cat down on the desk, the metal frame booming with the impact. "I'm asking you, slave."

"Oh G.o.d, oh please." A t.u.r.d slid from his pant leg onto his shoe. He pressed his palms together between his thighs. "I'd tell you if I knew. I swear I would."

"What else?"

"Pitt was involved. He was key."

"Then it wasn't you who made him vanish."

"Me?" His face exploded in outrage. "I'm a businessman who dabbles, not the other way around."

"The dabblers are the best," Pitt had said that day on the beach, the ocean waves rolling into sh.o.r.e, as though to punctuate his point. "You pay them with the thrill. They're desperate for action. You give them less than what they want. Keep them hungry. Wanting more."

"I see." I put the cat on his desk. He eyed the blood-encrusted barbed wire.

He said, "One thing more."

I raised my eyebrows.

"The whole plan fails without him."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Ambo's looking for him."

"Is he now."

"Since a month ago."

A month ago. A month head start. Hadn't even mentioned it to Lynn. And if he didn't want his mother to know... The thought erupted in my brain. Pitt had gone rogue. I walked to the door, unlocked it.

"Wait!" he screamed, dialed down the volume mid-word. He picked up the cat and held it out.

I said, "Any idea where to find him?"

"Ask his wife. She might know."

For the second time that day I did a double take. "His what?"

"Five years, four kids. House in San Isidro. Didn't you know?"

"You're s.h.i.tting me."

Sergio shrugged, bounced on his toes, the cat held out in one hand. A second t.u.r.d stained his other shoe. "Maybe you don't know your friend as well as you thought."

My mouth hung open. I stared at the wall. His wife.

Unbidden, Sergio set the cat down and scribbled on a sticky note. The pen clattered on the desk. He slapped the yellow square to my chest.

"The address."

I read it. Closed my mouth. Peeled the note off my sweater and shoved it in my pocket. I opened the door.

"Wait!" Sergio pawed at my elbow and pointed at the cat on his desk. "You promised," he whispered.

I thought about it. Give him a whipping. What he deserved. But what about me? What do I deserve? I can't even save myself. How was I supposed to save him? I'd punished myself for a year now. Three times over I'd burned my body from neck to toes. How much was enough? When will I have paid the penalty? The rest of my life? Tomorrow? Next week, next year? Will I ever be free to live again?

"No," I said, loud enough for the cubicle-dwellers nearby to hear, "I won't give you a b.l.o.w.j.o.b. That's disgusting."

The door clicked shut. The bodyguard and I ignored each other. I walked toward the exit. Through the gla.s.s wall I heard the slashing sound of leather and metal on flesh, followed by a soft, high-pitched groan. Two overweight expatriate engineers discussing basketball scores sat up straight, frowned. It was the sound of pain. Of well-deserved punishment.

Or was it merely m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.tic pleasure?

FOUR.

I stared at the address Sergio gave me. Three stories of moldy stone cast menacing shadows on the sidewalk below. A pair of gargoyles hissed their disapproval from above. Black mildew crept down from the gutters. I rang the doorbell.

I'd stopped off at an internet cafe to look up bat guano. There'd been a war over the stuff. In the 1880s. Apparently it made great fertilizer. Farmers paid big money for it, before they invented the synthetic variety. Peru and Bolivia fought Chile, some dispute over tariffs. That was back when Bolivia still had a coastline. Although what a war over bat guano had to do with Pitt, much less his wife, was beyond me.

A woman in a niqab answered the door. Black silk covered her from head to toe. Only her eyes were visible. I looked at my yellow sticky note, then at the address. They were the same. I crumpled the note. Sergio had been a real bad boy this time.

"Sorry," I said in Spanish. "My mistake." I turned to go.