I interrupted him.

"Call me Brew." I needed to do something to disrupt the effect he and his window had on me.

He raised a manly eyebrow.

"That's your first name?"

I shook my head.

"It's Michael. But I haven't used it since I was born." Actually since my brother was born. We were the Axbrewder boys, Mick and Rick.

I hated the reminder but it helped. Memories like that put calcium back in my spine. Sounding a bit stronger, I finished, "Brew suits me."

He was comfortable with that.

"Fine. I'm Marshal." He may've been comfortable with anything.

Shifting gears smoothly, he remarked, "Beatrix tells me you're interested in our employment policies."

Apparently nothing slipped past him. He even knew that I needed helo setting started.

"Indirectly," I admitted.

"What I want is a job."

He didn't react.

"And what does that have to do with why I put in a few carpet-covers and electric eyes for Beatrix?"

"Nothing, really," I said, hoping that the hole in my guts didn't show.

"I was just trying to get her attention."

This was what I'd come for, so I forged ahead.

"I'm a private investigator," I told him, taking the go-for-broke approach, "but I lost my license a few years ago on a negligent manslaughter charge. Since then I've been working for another investigator. I'm in Garner mostly because I don't know where else to be. But I'm new here. I don't have any contacts, and you might not recognize my references." Before he could ask me why I'd picked him, I added, "I got your address out of the yellow pages. Your ad's bigger than anyone else's."

I did not want to reveal anything that Ginny hadn't already told him.

He grinned cheerfully.

"Do you always leave that many gaps on your job applications?"

No doubt women fell down dead when he looked at them like that. Since I hated him, I didn't smile back.

"Some days are worse than others. What do you want to know?"

He still hadn't mentioned Ginny.

He spread his hands like a man who wanted everything.

"If you don't have a license, what are your credentials?"

He made my position easier by reminding me to be mad at him.

"This, mainly." Glaring indiscriminately across the desk, I took out my .45 and thunked it down in front of him.

"That I have a license for."

This time he raised both eyebrows.

"That's it? Your credentials are an old .45 heavy enough to break your foot if you dropped it?"

"No." I faced him head-on.

"I'm also a really lousy shot."

For a second or two, I thought he might laugh out loud. But his laugh was probably as affable and self-confident as the rest of him, and I didn't want to hear it, so I tried to distract him with a real answer.

"I've been doing this for a long time, and I can watch out for myself."

While I talked, I retrieved the .45 and put it away.

"When I'm on a case. I I don't take no for an answer. I'm not particularly smart, but I'm stubborn as hell. I'm good with secrets. I can follow orders. I don't cheat and I don't sit on my hands while other people cheat. And I've told enough lies in my life" mostly to myself "that I'm starting to hate them.

"Oh," I finished grimly, "and I'm a recovering alcoholic." Just in case he wondered how I felt about negligent manslaughter.

He studied me hard enough to leave holes in my head, but he still sounded cheerful.

"And you're rude to receptionists. You should add that to your list."

This wasn't an interview, it was a damn game. He didn't like what he'd heard from Ginny about me, and now he was just entertaining himself while he waited for an excuse to throw me out.

Or else I'd pissed him off by leaning on Beatrix Amity.

Ignoring my stomach, I sat up straighter.

"I forgot that one. But it's trivial. I'm also rude to employers."

This time he did laugh.

"And I guess you have a gift for it, too."

Then he leaned back in his chair, folded his arms behind his head, and lost his sense of humor.

"I'm sure everything you say is true." I couldn't help noticing that he didn't seem to sweat.

"But from my point of view it isn't much. Unless you want to fill in some of those gaps ?"

Since he hadn't asked a specific question, I didn't volunteer anything.

Without specific questions, I didn't know how much I could tell him.