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the fifteen minute intervals between Mother’s calls. At least, that’s been my experience in the past. What do you think?”
    Easy took the envelope from his coat pocket. “First question,” he began.

V
    H AGOPIAN CAME STRIDING INTO the place out of the yellow noon, grinning, a scuffed black briefcase jammed under his arm. Sitting opposite Easy, he asked, “Well, what do you think?”
    Easy set his glass of dark beer down on the table. “About what?”
    Rings jiggled under Hagopian’s eyes and he made an open-handed gesture at the large dim room. “This restaurant. How’s it strike you?” Hagopian gestured again and there was a slapping sound behind him. “Oops. Sorry, miss.”
    The naked cocktail waitress smiled. “De nada, man.”
    “Very high class,” said Easy.
    Hagopian swung the briefcase up and plopped it on the table. Folding his hands over it, he said, “You don’t think much of the ambience?”
    “The ambience is okay,” said Easy. “What I can see of it. These naked broads keep getting in the way.”
    A lean, platinum blonde, naked and dusty with faintly glowing body powder, approached their table and handed them menus. “Welcome to Mama Bare’s Nude Café. Oh, hello, Hagopian.”
    Hagopian blinked and wrinkles rippled on his high forehead. “Mercedes, I didn’t know you were working here.”
    The blonde shrugged with her whole body. “It’s surprising to me, too. After all those nice notices I got in Hedda Gabler. ”
    “Mercedes is with the San Fernando Valley Ibsen Workshop Playhouse,” Hagopian explained to Easy. “Very gifted.”
    “Would you like a drink before you order, Hagopian?” asked the naked girl.
    “What are you drinking, Easy?”
    “Beer.”
    “No, I don’t feel in the mood for beer. Do I?” Hagopian’s eyes widened and he looked around the domed room. There were about thirty people having lunch. “What’s that guy with the earring having?”
    Mercedes frowned. “I can’t see that far without my glasses.”
    “Looks like a manhattan.” Hagopian stroked his nose. “Yes, I’ll try a manhattan. Don’t they let you wear your glasses?”
    “I tried it and they don’t think I look naked enough.” She smiled at them and went to order the drink.
    “What did I tell you? A crazy town,” said Hagopian. He paused to watch a chubby, naked Italian girl tossing a salad alongside a nearby table. “Mercedes should be playing in serious theater and here she is walking around without her glasses. A goofy town.”
    “And why are we here?”
    “I wanted to case this place, get an idea of what it’s like,” said Hagopian. “Pam is thinking of taking a job here.”
    Easy said, “Did she show up last night?”
    Hagopian was watching the naked salad tosser again. “Huh?”
    “Pam.”
    “Yes, she reappeared. The three of us went to dinner.”
    “Three?”
    The nude Mercedes brought Hagopian his manhattan and left.
    “Pam insisted we take the tow truck driver along with us. She met him when she drove my Jaguar into … well, listen. Enough of Hagopian’s troubles. Did you learn anything out in Manzana?”
    “I talked to the woman who runs the inn and to her daughter, who works in the post office.”
    “Any idea who the girl was who made that reservation?”
    Easy got the photo of the San Amaro gang out and pointed to three different places. “Our phantom lady is either Jackie McCleary or this girl here, Perry Burley, or Eva Lerner down here. Or none of the above.”
    Taking the photo, Hagopian said, “Perry is large in the chest. Nobody is sure who they saw?”
    “Innkeeper isn’t sure. Her daughter feels the same way, except she saw a little more.”
    “Such as?”
    “The girl who made the reservation as Hollis apparently did mail the first letter to McCleary at the post office the morning she was out there in Manzana,” said Easy. “Mary Jo, the post office girl, remembers her. Remembers she was wearing a turquoise ring on her wedding ring