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“It’s a good thing to do. We might do that too.”

“What does Papa’s will say … To an heir, confirmed as my descendent in the Cellmark Laboratory or its equivalent by DNA testing, my estate entire upon the passing of my beloved son, Mason. Beloved son, Mason, that’s me. In the absence of an heir, the sole beneficiary shall be the Southern Baptist Convention with specific clauses concerning Baylor University at Waco, Texas. You really pissed Papa off with that muff-diving, Margot.”

“You may not believe this, Mason, but it’s not the money—well, it is a little bit, but don’t you want an heir? It would be your heir too, Mason.”

“Why don’t you find a nice fellow and give him a little nooky, Margot? It’s not like you don’t know how.”

The Moroccan music is building again, the obsessive repetitions of the oud in her ear like anger.

“I’ve messed myself up, Mason. I shriveled my ovaries with all the stuff I took. And I want Judy to be part of it. She wants to be the birth mother. Mason, you said if I helped you—you promised me some sperm.”

Ma

son’s spidery fingers gestured. “Help yourself. If it’s still there.”

“Mason, there’s every chance that you still have viable sperm, and we could arrange to harvest it painlessly—”

“Harvesting my viable sperm? Sounds like you’ve been talking to somebody.”

“Just the fertility clinic, it’s confidential.” Margot’s face softened, even in the cold light of the aquarium. “We could be really good to a child, Mason, we’ve been to parenting classes, Judy comes from a big, tolerant family and there’s a support group of women parents.”

“You used to be able to make me come when we were kids, Margot. Made me shoot like a belt-fed mortar. And pretty damn fast too.”

“You hurt me when I was little, Mason. You hurt me and you dislocated my elbow making me do the other—I still can’t curl more than eighty pounds with my left arm.”

“Well, you wouldn’t take the chocolate. I said we’ll talk about it, Little Sister, when this job is done.”

“Let’s just test you now,” Margot said. “The doctor can take a painless sample—”

“What painless, I can’t feel anything down there anyway. You could suck it till you’re blue in the face, and it wouldn’t be like it was the first time. But I’ve made people do that already and nothing happens.”

“The doctor can take a painless sample, just to see if you’ve got motile sperm. Judy’s taking Clomid already. We’re getting her cycle charted, there’s a lot of stuff to do.”

“I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Judy in all this time. Cordell says she’s bowlegged. How long have you two been an item, Margot?”

“Five years.”

“Why don’t you bring her by? We might … work something out, so to speak.”

The North African drums end with a final slap and leave a ringing silence in Margot’s ear.

“Why don’t you manage your little hookup with the Justice Department by yourself?” she said close to his ear hole. “Why don’t you try to get in a phone booth with your fucking laptop. Why don’t you pay some more fucking guineas to catch the guy that made dog food out of your face? You said you’d help me, Mason.”

“I will. I just have to think about the timing.” Margot crushed two walnuts together and let the shells fall on Mason’s sheet. “Don’t think too goddamned long, Smiley.” Her cycle pants whistled like building steam as she walked out of the room.

CHAPTER

46

ARDELIA MAPP cooked when she felt like it, and when she cooked the result was extremely good. Her heritage was a combination of Jamaican and Gullah, and at the moment she was making jerk chicken, seeding a Scotch bonnet pepper she held carefully by the stem. She refused to pay the premium for cut-up chickens and had Starling busy with the cleaver and the cutting board.

“If you leave the pieces whole, Starling, they won’t take the seasoning like they will if you cut them up,” she explained, not for the first time. “Here,” she said, taking the cleaver and splitting a back with such force bone splinters stuck to her apron. “Like that. What are you doing throwing those necks out? Put that handsome thing back in there.”

And a minute later, “I was at the post office today. Mailing the shoes to my mom,” Mapp said.

“I was in the post office too, I could have taken them.”

“Did you hear anything at the post office?”