Free Family Honor - Robert B Parker by Parker

line?"
    "Something like that."
    Julie laughed.
    "You've never bought the adult party line yourself, Sunny."
    "And my mother certainly has tried to sell it to me."
    "So maybe you and, what's her name, Millicent, are a good
match."
    "I've got to be better than Pharaoh Fox," I said.
    "Who?"
    "The gentleman who represented her," I said.
    "Her pimp."
    "Yes."
    "You know, there's one thing you ought to remember," Julie
said. Her voice dropped a little as she shifted into her professional mode.
"Some women rather like being whores, if the circumstances are not too
degrading. They like the physical sensation, they like the easy money,
they like the semblance of male attention."
    "What's not to like?" I said.
    "A lot, as you well know. But in many cases, these women
are able to distance themselves from the actuality of their situation."
    "And," I said, "in some cases they're lesbians."
    "The ultimate manipulation of men," Julie said. "Do you
think  Millicent is a lesbian?"
    "I have no way to know," I said.
    "It would explain some things," Julie said.
    "Can't work that way," I said. "Find the explanation and
fit the circumstances to it. It's got to be the other way around."
    "Well, you can keep the possibility in mind."
    At the other end of the loft, Millicent, still in her
shorts and tank top, dragged herself out of bed and went into the bathroom.
    "I better hang up now," I said. "My guest will be wanting
breakfast."
    "Breakfast? It's twenty of one in the afternoon."
    "She's been working nights," I said.
 
    CHAPTER 16
"You got some coffee?" Millicent said.
    "Cups in the cupboard," I said. "Coffee in the green canisters.
The one with the dot on the top is decaf."
    Millicent looked at the coffeemaker and the canisters
and me.
    "I don't know how to make coffee," she said, the way you'd
explain to an idiot that you were unable to fly.
    "I'll show you," I said.
    "Whyn't you just make it for me," she said. "You're the
one who brought me here."
    "It's better if you don't have to depend on someone to
make your coffee," I said. "See, the filter goes in here, then the coffee,
and the water here."
    She watched me, radiant with contempt, as I made the coffee.
"Next time you can make it," I said.
    "Sure," she said.
    While the coffee brewed, she sat on a stool at my kitchen
counter and stared at nothing.
    "Do you want the paper?" I said.
    She shook her head.
    "Would you like something to eat?" I said.
    She made a face. When the coffee had brewed I poured some
in a cup and handed it to her.
    "You got cream and sugar?" she said.
    "The sugar's right there in the bowl, the spoons are in
the drawer right below where you're sitting," I said. "Milk's in the refrigerator."
    She didn't move. I didn't move. Finally she got up and
went to the refrigerator and got some milk. I went back to reading a book
by Vincent Scully. The loft was quiet. Rosie got up from where she had
been lying on my feet and went over and looked up at Millicent in case
she might be going to eat something.
    "Is that a dog?" Millicent said.
    "That's Rosie," I said. "Rosie is a miniature bull terrier."
    "Does he bite."
    "She does not," I said.
    "I hate dogs," Millicent said.
    "How endearing," I said.
    "Huh?"
    "It's fun sharing," I said.
    She looked at me a little suspiciously.
    "Well, I do. They don't do anything. They just hang around
and eat and poop all over the place."
    "Actually," I said, "that's not true. Dogs are naturally
rather careful where they poop. It's why you can housebreak them."
 
"Well, I don't like them anyway," she said.
    "Because they don't do anything useful?" I said.
    "I don't know, why are you always asking me stuff? I say
something and you want to talk all about it."
    "And you don't," I said.
    "No."
    "Then why do you say it?"
    "Say what?"
    "Stuff you don't want to talk about?"
    "I don't know."
    We were quiet. She got up and went and got more coffee
and brought it back and added milk and sugar and sat back on the stool.
Rosie never moved from the position she