picked up on what was happening without even blinking. âNow that I look close,â she said, âno one would believe youâre really a woman.â
âNo one looks close,â I said. âAnd if they do, they still just see Lulu, so whatâs the difference?â She didnât say anything, and I suddenly felt compelled to justify my methods. âIn fact, this ability to compartmentalize my mind is a real asset for a detective. I can look at the case from a number of different viewpoints.â
âHavenât I seen you hanging around the mall?â
âI often lunch at the Whisper Café,â Lulu said. âNow sit down and tell me what you know about Randy Casey.â
âRandy wrote documentation, too,â Prudence said.
âWhat? The police were here earlier. They didnât say anything about documentation. I thought he played games for Challenger Video.â
âThatâs what he was doing when he was killed,â she said. âI knew Randy. He didnât talk much. I donât see why anyone would want to kill him.â
âHow did you know him.â
âThe documentation community isnât that big,â she said. âBut the truth is I met him when he worked for Gerald and Pablo.â
âHe worked for them?â
âGerald fired him,â she said, âand Pablo let it happen.â
âThat doesnât look good.â
âI guess not,â she said. âRandy just wasnât serious enough for GP Ink. Getting fired was the best thing that could have happened to him. He really liked Challenger Video. They make games.â
âI thought I just said that.â
âWell, what you may not know,â she said, âis that Randy had just done the game playing instructions for a new product called Seventeen Worlds. The instructions hadnât been printed yet. In fact theyâd only been released on the net to a mail group.â
âSo, he was a documentalist, too?â
âChallenger hadnât hired him to write the docs,â she said. âIt was pure speculation. He was hoping the company would move him up to the documentation department when they saw what he could do. I guess no one out of the group ever got a chance to see his work.â
âDo you have access to that group?â
âYes,â she said.
âSo what is it?â
âItâs secret,â she said.
âI think youâre going to have to tell me about it,â I said. âI canât do my job if youâre keeping things from me.â
âI suppose youâre right,â she said. âItâs not a really big secret anyway. The group is the Secret Brotherhood of Documentalists. People call it BOD.â
Did she give in too quickly? I filed that question away for later consideration.
âSo, thatâs where that word comes from,â I said. âI keep running into it.â
âSecret?â
âDocumentalist,â I said, âbut speaking of the word âsecret,â shouldnât people call the group SBOD?â
âThe S is silent,â she said.
âAnd invisible?â
âYes,â she said.
âSo how do you know about this secret group?â
She paused for only a moment. âIâm a member,â she said.
âSo, if youâre a member, shouldnât the group be the Secret Brother and Sisterhood of Documentalists?â
âThe Sisterhood is silent, too,â she said. Was she serious? I didnât have a clue. The way she talked, the little mistakes and awkward phrasing, I couldnât get a handle on her. What did that small smile really mean? Did it reach her eyes? Was she putting me on?
âSo can you bring up a list of people in the group?â I asked. âMaybe we can spot something.â
âSure,â she said. âYou got a place I can plug in?â
âWhy not just use mine?â I twisted the monitor
Daniel Forrester, Mark Solomon