Fifteen

I hear what you're thinking: it's not going to work. (I told you I was slightly psychic). But I have a knack for pulling off the improbable.

I figured a situation with stakes this high required a personal visit. Gary worked at a rundown movie store selling stolen videos. He didn't actually steal them, and he denied they were stolen, but the video store bar codes on the DVD discs and video tapes gave it away. Besides, how else could he sell new releases for half price - before they were released?

Gary was helping the police with their enquiries when I arrived so I kept a low profile at the back of the store until they left.

'Trouble?' I asked.

'Huh? Oh, nah. They were just fishing. What dragged you out of cyberspace?'

I shrugged. 'Nothing special.'

Gary moved a stack of DVD's from a back shelf to the counter and started peeling off Blockbuster labels. 'You've got something cooking, I know that beady little look in your eye.'

I grinned. 'I might have a date. '

'A date?' Gary almost knocked his movie stack over.

'Yeah, it's not that surprising.'

'Pft,' said Gary. 'Sure it's not. Hooker's don't count as dates you know.'

And I thought I had a smart mouth. Gary and I got into these bonding insult-banter contests far too often. The practice was making him good.

'I showed her a picture of you and told her you were coming down tonight. She offered me a freebie.'

Gary wet a rag with metho and cleaned a disc. 'Nice. So what's her name?'

'Nina. She's a friend of Lisa's.'

'No way. Hey, did you get my message?'

Can you say manipulate? 'Nah, I haven't checked them yet.'

Gary stopped wiping. 'Mike is sure Lisa is getting product from another supplier. He's ropable.'

'Why?' I tried to sound casual. 'Did she oversmoke his smallgoods?'

Gary guffawed all over his clean DVD and had to wipe his spit off it. He loved smutty jokes - er, obviously. 'She's been going out a lot and stuff. I don't know. I mean of course she's playing around.'

'Yeah. Poor sap.' I slid one of his cleaned DVD's - "The Whole Ten Yards" over the counter and checked out the cover for pictures of Natasha Henstridge or Amanda Peet. There weren't any, which like the film, was mildly disappointing.

'So what's this Nina like?' asked Gary.

'Invert Lisa and you've got Nina.'

'Eeeewwww,' said Gary.

I put the movie back into the pile and shook my head. 'Not literally.'

'Oh!' exclaimed Gary, almost knocking over his metho bottle. '

'What?'

'He found a condom wrapper at their place. It wasn't one of his.'

I leaned closer. 'What, Mike did?'

'Yeah!' said Gary, excitement shining on his face.

Pangs of jealousy reared their green little heads around me. 'No way.'

Sixteen