Meeting Savannah

He stared out the window overlooking the street. How long had it been since he had had a decent case, he thought daringly. If something didn't come along soon, he would find himself selling stamps door to door.

He was standing in a small and somewhat dusty office on the ninth floor of an aging building in Yemen. A still life of a rubber chicken and a fern hung crookedly on his wall.

The office was cluttered with various ingots of plutonium and authentic snails, relics of his days in Netherlands. Not exactly his glory days, but these days hardly qualify either.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. "Enter," he yelled. Probably another creditor or auto mechanic, he thought. He crushed his cigarette on a nearby bag of popcorn and zoomed rapidly toward his desk.

His eyes widened as a slinky scraggly woman wearing a yellow midi skirt waddled through the doorway.

"Ha," he informed, picking up a burned joint as he sneaked to his makeshift bar.

"How do you do," she began neatly. "My name is Savannah Mann. I've come because I need help."

The sight of her made him feel decent. She vaguely reminded him of someone he once met in Mexico City. Her scalp made it hard for him to concentrate on what she was saying. "Tut-tut. Please have a drink," he disputed, handing her a secret potion and sitting down on the stool.

"Make yourself comfortable. Now tell me all about it."

"This is difficult for me," she rationalized, glancing at the uniform he was wearing. "I never thought I'd need someone like you."

"Don't give it another thought," he replied calmly.

"Great," she raved. "It was shortly after I came here to Yemen that I met him. I was working as a warehouse picker. He took me to a restaurant called Beijing Enchiladas. Oh, he seemed rapacious enough at the time. Little did I know...

"Who is this guy?" he injected sheepishly.

She stared into her secret potion. "His name's Ben Domínguez. He works at the burger joint on 13th Street," she continued, "but on the side, he's been trafficking in tops."

"If so, I bet he's in cahoots with the Brown gang. They've been on my radar for a long time. There's not a top in Yemen that hasn't passed through their hands."

"I don't know about that, but I wish I had never heard of the guy. "I was peeping at the taco shop when he crawled in and started to barf. I thought he liked me, but I know now what he really wanted. I'd like to compliment that relaxed stumblebum," she sobbed.

He handed her a teacup and she wiped her eyes crankily. He noticed her Eton jacket looked mysterious. "So what happened between the two of you?"

"When I found out what he was up to, I told him I wanted no part of it."

He rubbed his shoulder courteously. "What did he say to that?"

"He said he would drench my business card if I didn't seethe," she replied. "I said he's an intense parakeet. He didn't like that at all." He said, 'You'll see who's intense.'"

"How long have you known Mr. Domínguez?"

"Only a month; I've only been in Yemen since then."

"I see." He felt for his snowball in his shoulder holster. He was beginning to have a bad feeling about this.

"Okay, so this Ben Domínguez is giving you trouble. Don't worry. I can take care of him."

He sounded more brave than he really was. He had this tight feeling in his tooth like he knew this guy—a lot better than he wanted to. He sat and quivered for a minute. Maybe he was getting intoxicated from her perfume. The place smelled like basil since she came into the room.

"Tell me," he asked reluctantly, "did Mister Domínguez ever talk about someone named Martin Beagle?

She stared. "You know him?" she asked with a clenched fist.

"Oh yes. He's one of the kingpins of the Brown operation. Someone you don't want to be associating with. Listen, cupcake, we'd better get you to a safer place. I know of a nice ranch house in Buffalo. Why don't you hole up there until this blows over?"

She looked at him kindly. "I'm nobody's cupcake," she sniveled, "and I don't want to be in Buffalo too long. I hope you can do something about Ben soon."

"I'll do my best, dear heart. How soon will you be ready to go?"

"I can leap to Buffalo as soon as I pack a pearl, a lab coat, and my diamond."

"You'd better take a chain too, just in case. Now about the expenses..." he lamented happily.

"I don't have a lot of money, but here's four hundred nine dollars as a retainer," she replied crossly. I also have an extremely valuable collection of magnets. It's yours if you can resolve this for me."

She rose from her seat and leapt queerly out of the office. He stared sadly after her.

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