Dope Read Free Page B

his hair was probably light brown. Not good-looking. Not ugly, either.
    â€œWhat color are her eyes?” I asked.
    â€œBlue,” her mother answered. “Her hair is blond, like mine.”
    â€œHow tall is she?”
    â€œFive feet three,” Mrs. Nelson said.
    That would put the man at a little under six feet. He looked like he wanted to smack the girl.
    â€œThe investigator took that,” she said.
    â€œWe fired him,” Mr. Nelson added. “That was all he came up with. I don’t think he had the connections.”
    â€œ Underworld connections,” Mrs. Nelson explained.
    â€œWhat we mean is, we need someone who knows about drug addicts, and girl drug addicts in particular. What concerns us the most is that Nadine doesn’t have any money.”
    â€œThis man, Nick the Greek, he said that you would know where people like that go, how they make money and where they buy drugs and that sort of thing. You see, Nadine doesn’t have any money—”
    â€œWe’d rather have her home, even as a drug addict, where we can keep our eyes on her and know that she’s safe.”
    â€œWe think you can find her,” Mrs. Nelson said, looking at me. “We’d like to have her at home.”
    â€œWe think you can find her, Miss Flannigan,” Mr.
    Nelson repeated. “If you start looking today I’ll give you a thousand dollars, cash, right now. And a thousand more if you find her. But that’s to include all of your expenses, gasoline and meals and anything else you might incur—even travel.”
    A thousand dollars. Cash.
    I looked from one to the other. They looked anxious and eager and hopeful. I knew they weren’t telling me everything. Like I said, I’d never met a dope addict from a nice home. Maybe Mrs. Nelson hit the bottle, or maybe Mr. Nelson had a girl on the side, or five or ten girls. Maybe they spanked Nadine too much when she was a kid, or still did it, or gave her hell over her grades or were trying to get her to marry the guy from next door. Maybe the girl wasn’t on drugs at all and just thought Westchester was a boring place to be and didn’t want to go back there.
    It didn’t matter. With a thousand dollars up front, it didn’t matter if I found her at all. If and when I found her I would worry about what to do with her.
    I was walking out with a thousand dollars. That was what mattered.
    â€œI have to be honest with you,” I said. They already seemed ready to hand over the money but I figured it couldn’t hurt to tighten the screws. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m not sure if I’m the right person for the job.”
    â€œI’m not sure, either,” Mr. Nelson said. “Frankly, Miss Flannigan, all I know about you is that you live in New York City, you’re . . . that you’re in the same line of work as Mr. Paganas, and that you used to be a drug addict. But for now, you’re our only hope.”
    I wasn’t in the same line of work as Mr. Paganas, whoever he was, if he was selling real estate to Mr. Nelson. Not really. We’d probably started off in the same line of work, years ago, and while he moved up to selling real estate to people like Mr. Nelson, I’d moved down to boosting jewelry and pickpocketing. I figured he had recommended me because he didn’t know any other dope addicts, and the whole business was probably not enough dough for anyone else he knew. I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking from one to the other, like I was thinking.
    â€œOkay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
    They both looked like a weight had fallen off their shoulders. I told them the thousand would buy them a month. After that, if they wanted me to keep looking, they’d need to cough up more. I’d call them right away if I found anything, and if I didn’t find anything I’d call them at the end of the week