The Picture Ranch 71

'So you don't know anything about what happened?' Eleanor G blew some smoke into the air. The sky was turning as red as her lipstick.

'No more n'you,' Henry said.

'That could still be quite a lot, Henry.' I wished she'd let me in on some of it.

'I guess you know who,' she went on, 'and why, and what. The damage'll tell you how, and y'know, we're all standing right here, so that's all of them. I reckon you do know pretty well as much as me.'

Which was a damn' sight more than I did. So to make myself feel better about that, I asked Henry who was in the ambulance.

'My sister, she came over from Malibu to mind the store, while I was at the doc's. We ain't got nobody but us.'

I put a hand on Henry's shoulder, but he shook it off. 'Just go away, Fisher, just go away.'

'We need to use your 'phone, Henry,' Miss G dropped her cigarette and ground it into the sidewalk with the sole of her shoe.

Henry pushed me off the threshold and went inside, Miss G followed and Henry tried to shut the door behind her, but it was hanging by just one hinge and I pushed it aside. Moose followed me.

The place looked like a tornado had blown in the front door and spent a long time trying to find the rear exit. The 'phone booth was still intact, but very little else was. I caught Eleanor's eye,

'Schulz? Surely not.'

'Sure as eggs is eggs, Fisher.'

Moose cleared his throat, 'Some eggs is chickens' and some is snakes'.'

Whether that meant we'd be paying Schulz a visit soon, I didn't know. Moose started picking up the furniture that wasn’t smashed and piling up everything that was, Henry tried to help, but he still looked like the guy who’d found out the truth about the light at the end of the tunnel. I said to my client, 'Call the number, Eleanor.'

She raised an eyebrow and said, 'I think that’d better be you. I don't think many ladies ring that number.' She handed me the business card and I dialled Encino 666.