The manilla envelope I tossed to her was full of xeroxes of newspaper articles, personal ads, and similar items. They covered a few cities on each coast and one or two larger ones in the midwest. They were about the disappearances of several artists and small-time publishers, and the destruction by fire of their houses, apartments, or studios.

"It's just too bad you had to " I smiled, hire me for this job, "Maybe I was the only girl -uhguy who knew where to find Eric West. But I'm also the only detective who would have known enough about the kinky underground to look up the names of those people in the Newspaper Files: They're all involved in some way or another with the production of kinky erotica; They're all missing; And it shouldn't be too hard to prove that they all -at one time or anothe: hired the services of a young model who later became Janna Haffaz: Miss Earth!"

I noticed now that Jana's right hand was under the table. I tried to look as though it didn't worry

me.

"Just what did you think I'd do when you showed me all this?" She asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Just what you're going to do," I said, "I expect you to hand me over Twenty Thousand Dollars, pay

the tab and get up and leave. Otherwise,

those two Oriental Girls I've been working with You remember? The ones who don't speak much english?-Otherwise, they'll take their copies of all this material and the letters from me straight to the offices of the most headline-hungry major paper in the City. And once that's done, you'll lose a lot more than your title as Miss Earth."

I could see her calculating. She was probably thinking about the chances of killing me and getting out of here unseen. And her chances of finding Miko and Ushi and getting the envelopes if any existed from them. Then, with a sigh, she pulled out one of her pink envelopes, bulging with money.

"I should have known better than to trust a man, " She said, "Even a weak, simpering, busty little shemale like you!"

"You can trust me, " I replied, calmly putting the money in my purse, "You can trust me not to tell you where Eric West is operating, and you can trust me not to tell anyone about the things I've uncovered. You're secret's safe with Eric in fact, I doubt if he even remembers and it's safe with me!" "You expect

"Hah!" She spat

me to believe that? You think this was my idea? I hadn't worn the Crown for a week before I got a note from Arnold Klow asking for money! And