Zero History

filigreed instrument Inchmale had used before.
“What happened after you left with Milgrim last night?” Hollis asked her.
“They followed us. Probably picked up by the other car, the one that faked us into the
alley. Figured out which way we were heading, got ahead of us, dropped the guy with the
bandaged head, and another one. They waited for us, got behind us, followed us.
Clueless. I stopped and bought some clothes, pretended we were changing our look.”
“There was something open?”
“Street clothes. For their benefit. Then we headed for the subway. When I saw that they
didn’t intend for us to get on the subway …” She shrugged.
“Heidi—”
“In the head,” said Heidi, tapping the roots of her bangs with a forefinger, in an
inadvertent little salute. “It’s bone. His head was probably sore already …”
“Milgrim’s in trouble for that. They’re blaming him, apparently.”
“Your boyfriend’s hired Ajay. What’s that about?”
“Milgrim. It’s complicated.”
“It’s got Ajay over the moon. Gave notice at his bouncing job.”
“Bouncing?”
“Security at some pervy club.” She looked around at the evening crowd. “Now he’s
gone all Secret Squirrel on me. So have you.”
“Come to Tucson with us,” said Inchmale to Hollis, suddenly appearing, in his way,
from behind what she thought of as his exterior asshole. “Get some sun. Mexican food.
You can help in the studio. George likes you. Clammy, amazingly, doesn’t hate you. I
don’t like the weather around Bigend now. It’s all on the label. You can have associate
producer credit. Let Bigend reach whatever critical mass he’s headed for. Be elsewhere.
You can bring your boyfriend, of course.”
“I can’t,” said Hollis, reaching across the hassock and the tray with the Bunnykins
service, to give his bony knee a squeeze, “but thanks.”
“Why not?”
“Garreth’s trying to straighten out the trouble with Milgrim for Bigend. They have an
agreement, and it involves me. I’m with Garreth now. It’ll be okay.”
“As a middle-aged human of reasonably sound faculties,” said Inchmale, “I must
inform you that it may well not be ‘okay.’ ”
“I know that, Reg.”
Inchmale sighed. “Come and stay with us in Hampstead.”
“You’re going to Tucson.”
“I’m the decider,” said Inchmale. “Haven’t decided when to go yet. And there’s the
business of convincing Clammy and the others.”
“Is Meredith around?”
“Yes,” said Inchmale, as if not entirely pleased by the fact. “She distracts George, and is
entirely concerned with her own agenda.”