Free Joe Pitt 1 - Already Dead by Charlie Huston

frame her face and accent her ivory neck. Her ivory neck. I take a large
     swallow from my drink and lean back in my chair.
    --Have you taken a look in the mirror lately, Ms. Horde?
    --I said you should call me Marilee.
    --Yes you did. Have you taken a look in the mirror lately, Ms. Horde?
    --Yes.
    --What would you say is your neck of the woods?
    I look down at myself, the old suit, rumpled shirt and scuffed shoes that I dug up for the
     occasion.
    --And what would you say was mine? And would you say, based on this, that I am the man for
     your kind of job?
    She puts her drink down on the table.
    --Actually, I would say this is exactly why you are the man for my job, Joseph. You see, my
     daughter has run away again, and I believe she is to be found in
    
    
     your neck of the woods.
    She leans in, close to me.
    --As you put it.
    The cocktail waitress comes by and Marilee orders us another round.
    This is taking too long. I figured blackmail. I figured drugs. I figured this woman would
     have some nasty little problem that needed to be swept up. I never figured missing
     children. I never figured Marilee Ann Horde.
    The Hordes are one of New York's original families, one of the few dozen that make up
     Manhattan's
    
    
     true society.
    
    
     Their money came from the usual sources, oil, timber, and rail, but these days they're
     better known for their biotechnology holdings and HCN, the Horde Cable Network. Marilee
     Ann Dempsey's family was more than a few steps down the food chain, quite a bit more I
     gather. But she apparently made up for it with style enough to draw the attention of Dr.
     Dale Edward Horde, the only son and heir to the house of Horde, as well as founder and
     CEO/ Chairman of Horde Bio Tech Inc. They've been married for fourteen or fifteen years
     and are one of those Manhattan couples who get plenty of publicity, but all skillfully
     crafted and honed. No Page Six blurbs for the Hordes. What it all means for me is that I
     can't shine this on. I have to find the damn kid, which means I have to sit here and
     listen to the whole story instead of being out looking for the carrier. So our second
     round shows up and I try not to be too fidgety while I listen to her.
    She's leaning back now, holding her drink in her lap with her right hand, occasionally
     stirring the ice with her index finger.
    --Amanda has done this before. As a small child, she's only fourteen now, but as a very
     small child she frequently hid in closets or in the garden until someone found her. A way
     of getting attention. Not that she lacked, but she enjoyed scaring us. She would do it in
     public places as well, museums, stores; just disappear. At first we would panic and search
     high and low. When we realized it was a game to her, we resolved to wait her out, wait for
     her to get bored or lonely and come out of hiding. But she didn't. I once spent an entire
     day in Bergdorf's wail ing lor her to come out, and she never did. She stayed hidden
     inside a rack of dresses until we found her just after the store had closed. But she never
     ran far, Joseph, just somewhere hidden so
    
    
     she
    
    
     could watch us look for her. Then last summer she ran away for real. Not all that far as
     it turned out, but farther than before. When we first noticed her missing we were a bit
     surprised, my husband and I. It had been some time since she had last played her little
     game. But then we realized she was truly missing. We searched the town house, we had our
     Hamptons house searched, as well as the Hudson River estate. After two days there was no
     sign. We thought she might have been kidnapped. We called the police, but no one got in
     touch with us about a ransom and, frankly, the police were little help. Eventually, after
     some days, we hired a private investigator my husband has had occasion to employ. He found
     her almost two weeks later. She was living in the East Village ,
    
    
     camping