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thetiny furball up in his arms to cradle it upside down against his chest.
    “Shenzie, my man, we gonna cook you for supper!” But Shenzie, knowing a soft touch when he felt one, merely purred. Randy
     laughed again and stooped to set him right side up on the floor, asking Eddie, “Got time for a beer?”
    “Marie and Albie are down in the car.”
    Shenzie was twining himself back and forth around Solomon’s ankles. Randy laughed again.
    “Guess me an’ old Shenz’ll get along just fine.”
    “Thanks for taking him, Randy—I mean it. I’ve written out the direction to the place at Point Reyes if you think you can get
     away for a weekend—”
    Solomon snorted as he crumpled up the directions. “Listen, the way people are killin’ each other off in this city, I ain’t
     gonna get any time off. An’ if I did, I’d spend it chasin’ gash rather than snipe or some damn thing at the seashore…”
    He started walking Eddie to the door, then stopped, suddenly serious.
    “Truth be told, Sherlock, I’m worried about this case of yours. You’ve sorta halfway convinced me that maybe somebody did
     make old Grimes’s boat blow up. If you’re right, we’re talking murder for hire here.”
    “I sincerely hope so,” grinned Eddie.
    “Ain’t funny, Hoss. If—”
    “If I turn up a hitman where you guys and the underwriters and the fire department thought there was just an accident, I’ll
     be the hottest eye in town.”
    “Or the deadest. You’d best remember what a hitman does for a living.”
    “He won’t even know I’m there,” grinned Eddie.
    “Aw, hell, you’re impossible.” Randy laughed and stuck out a big paw for Eddie to shake. “Just don’t make any moves while
     you’re at Point Reyes, okay? Wait until—”
    “We’re not even taking the laptop. Total downtime. But when we get back—watch out!” He started out, then turned back again.
     Shenzie was atop the TV, sniffing one of the horn birds with brow-furrowed suspicion. “Anyway, Randy,hitmen aren’t supermen—just guys with strange ideas about a fun time.”
    Randy stood in the open doorway at the head of the stairs with a worried look on his face, watching Eddie bound back down
     to his car with the bike rack and two mountain bikes on the roof. He waved at Marie through the window, she waved back. He
     could see little Albie in his car seat in the rear.
    He sighed and went back into the house. Shenzie was waiting to ambush his ankle. “Hey, crazy cat!” he exclaimed. “You’re bitin’
     the foot gonna kick you you keep it up!”
    Shenzie didn’t care. Eyes bugged out and wild, flopped on his thin black side, he sought to disembowel the side of Randy’s
     size 13 leather shoe with pumping back feet while holding onto the highly shined and therefore slippery toe with his front
     feet.
    By definition Shenzie was, after all, nuts.
    But Randy loved it. He laughed so hard he almost fell on the floor. He dug the little mulatto dude. Mulatto—black and white.
     Get it?
    Maybe he’d get himself a cat like this Shenzie one of these days. They sure were a lot more fun than he’d expected. Since
     his wife had left he hadn’t been having a whole lot of fun. Just working, fucking when he could, with maybe a little moonlighting
     thrown in on the weekends for some extra cash.

3
    Life in the rustic cabin at Point Reyes quickly fell into wondrous routine. Wake up spooned together for warmth in the old-fashioned
     double bed, whisper lazily until curious hands and mouths found familiar pleasure points, then the rising arc of passion until
     they fell back panting to the sounds of Albie stirring on his little bed in the next room.
    No phones to answer. No computers to work. No friends to visit. No television to watch. Just books to read. Incredible salt
     marshes to tramp through. Sometimes at dusk as the fog rolled in, a driftwood fire on the beach in the lee of a washed-up
     log, trying to identify night noises out of the