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“I see.” Though it was Diantha, my stepdaughter, I had already started taking mental notes. “But what happened? I mean to send you home like this?”

“Well, at first Freddie was all sweetness and light. Walks in the woods and philosophizing. He said you need to lead the Nietzschean life or none at all. You heard him go on about Hitler. I mean the guy is obsessed. He talks about how you have to live life on the edge, all that sort of stuff. He’s into filmmaking. He kept bugging me about that Corny Chard tape. He said he’d use muscle if he had to in order to get it. He says he paid big time for it.”

I poured hot water into the pot to scald it. Then I ladled in two heaping teaspoons of loose tea before filling it with more water, which I had brought to a boil. I sighed, shook my head. “You really shouldn’t have told him.”

“I know. Yeah, but at first, he comes on like a regular guy. He wanted to know all about you. Then, you know, like, you have a joint and start talking. I was just kind of bragging. About you.”

I smiled, flattered in an odd way. “Does he use drugs?”

“Is the pope Catholic? I mean, he’s into it … big time.”

“Do you think he sells drugs as well as uses them?”

“I couldn’t swear, but I think he does. One night, when I couldn’t sleep, I wandered into this place that leads off from a bookcase that’s really a door on the second floor behind where the fireplace goes up. It was like something out of a movie. I was looking for something to read. I pulled out Northanger Abbey, you know, I’ve always liked Jane Austen, and the bookcase kind of went in. Then it just opened, right into a dark passage. It was really creepy with no lights. I went down to the kitchen and got a flashlight. I went in, I don’t know how far, maybe fifteen feet, and just as I got to this big vault-like door cut into solid rock, lights started flashing. Freddie and two of his creeps showed up with guns and dogs. I couldn’t believe it. Freddie was really pissed. He accused me of snooping. I told him that was bullshit. I told him I went up to the bookcase to look for a book because I couldn’t sleep. I said when I pulled out a book the bookcase started to swing open.”

“Did he believe you?”

“He didn’t have any choice. Besides I was telling the truth. But I think he deals and I think that’s where he keeps his stash.”

“On a large scale?”

“Yeah. Now that I think of it. He was always getting beeped on his cell phone, then he’d go and use a special phone that probably had some kind of scrambler on it. Then some creepy-looking type would show up and they’d go upstairs.”

“And he uses it himself?”

She shook her head to indicate incredulity. “You wouldn’t believe it.”

“Too much for you?”

She sipped her tea. “I don’t mind doing a joint, you know, like, to get things going or slow things down, but he is really into heavy stuff.”

“Like?”

“Cocaine. H. Ecstasy. Meth. You name it. It was everywhere.”

“So when did things start to go … bad?”

“Some friends showed up. Business associates, he called them. Real scaggy types. They had like these girls with them. I think they were hookers. That’s when the handcuffs and the whips came out. You know, dog collars and chains.”

“Was Celeste Tangent there?” I tried to sound casual.

“Yeah …” Her voice got wistful. “They have a thing.”

“They?”

“Freddie and Celly. We all had a thing.”

“The three of you?”

“Yeah. But it was too druggy to be real. Sixy would have loved it. You know, like his cut, ‘Orifice Rex.’ But it’s not my scene. I mean they were putting dildos on dogs and trying to get a chain going. And then they had this mock wedding between a midget ballerina and one of the German shepherds. I’m so sick of that stuff. It’s all fizz and no wine. And …”

“Yes?” I prompted after a pause.

“I think Freddie’s starting to lose it.” She pointed to her head.

“So you decided to leave?”

She sighed, as though it had cost her something. “Yeah. He wasn’t going to let me go, though. He said no way, not now.”

“How did you do it?”

“I took a walk and called a cab.”

“With your walkaround phone.”

“Yeah.