The early morning phone call from Lemon-head put me in a sour mood. In Blake Madison's book, the only time a man should see dawn is on his way to bed. I rolled over and put the reciever back on the hook, rubbed my eyes, and prepared to return to dreamland when the light knock came at my bedroom door.

"Madison, are you awake?" Lucky softly called, and for a minute, I thought I was still dreaming. I grunted yeah, and sat up. The door opened a crack and she called again, "Are you decent?"
"Yeah, but I'm naked.." I replied. Lucky gave a squeal and slammed the door. God, I love that joke. Then I heard her laugh in the hallway, "Gawdammit, Blake..." and she opened the door.

She came in wearing my crappy bathrobe and looked at me apologetically. "Sorry, I found it hanging on the bathroom door. Hope you don't mind."
I said I didn't, and that was the truth.
She sat on the edge of the bed and handed me a cup of coffee. "I was going to make breakfast," she said, "but the only things in your fridge were a half jar of mustard and a hula girl dash ornament..."

"Did you sleep okay?" I asked. She rolled her head and made some remark about pretzels, then stared into her coffee cup.
"You didn't let me finish last night..." she joked "I was ready to crack this thing wide open."
"Oh really, super sleuth? Pray, tell me what you have divined?"
"Well, not so much divination, more like speculation." she said "We've got some holes in this that are really bugging me..."
I was again quite curious to see what her addled little brain had concocted, so I grinned and said, "Please, do tell."

"Well, first things first, this Condolezza chick is no good. Why in the world would she hire you if she had all of those arabs protecting her? The roadies mentioned her stealing songs. Did she? And from whom? How in the world does she know Theet? And better yet, how does she know Cosmo? Who is that dark-haired lady she was with, and the kicker for me: Why in the world would she hire you, then not make any contact after all this time? Then, that Arab guy. Are you sure he's on your side? Between him, the roadie, and Condolezza, there is that weird triumvirate that just screams bad news, to me anyway.."
I nodded.

"Then there's that Theet Logos character. How does he know Condolezza? Is he the songwriter she lifted from? Did he lose his knife or did he use it himself? And Cosmo, now, he doesn't look like those roadies, but is heone? And we know he knows Condolezza, but what about him knowing Theet? Another threesome that worries me just a little bit." She sipped her coffee and stared out the window.

"But you know the one that has me baffled, is Ned Loonbucket. First of all, why would anyone want to kill that lost soul? And the thing that bothers me the most, is that he was on his way to the Keg'n'Cork. Why was he coming there? To warn me? And Pepsi and Cosmo...why? If Cosmo was a name, does that mean Pepsi is a person too? Did he see Theet with someone, want to come tell me, and they got him before he could? That would explain the knife. And Cosmo...was Cosmo a helping hand, or the murderer? It is slowly driving me crazy, Madison...Just what did Ned know? Or better yet, think that he knew...after all, he WAS Ned Loonbucket..."

I sat for a moment, wishing I could put her brain in a jar and keep it on my desk for emergencies. She had just shone daylight through every hole in this case. There were too many questions and not enough time to answer them all. We would have to be careful, and very lucky.

"But listen," she said, "I wanted to tell you..I gotta get going..."
I looked at her, tousled in the light of dawn, and asked, "So what's on the books for you today?"
"Are you kidding? First off, try to clean up my apartment...shouldn't take too long, the place is microscopic..then, I dunno.."
"When I get things straightend out a bit, I'll look you up, okay?" I asked.
"Sure thing," she replied. "you know where to find me." She then leaned over and kissed my forehead before she left. I set the mug on the nightstand, rolled over, and went back to sleep.