Been watching a lot of Cary Grant movies, have you, Matt? A little elegant counterpoint to hot and heavy sex?
'Oysters and champagne?'
'Yeah. It seemed appropriate under the circumstances. '
'I don't like oysters,' Susan said.
He reached for the telephone and dialed. The sheet over his groin was dislodged.
He either didn't notice or doesn't care.
'This is Mr. Payne,' he said. 'If it's not too late, make that one dozen oysters.'
He hung up and moved back to his propped-up-against-the — headboard position and looked at her. He did not pull the sheet over his nakedness.
Why does that annoy me so much? What is he doing, exposing himself like that? Saying, 'Now that I know what a hot-blooded bitch-what a good fuck-you are, why worry about decency?'
'You apparently have a lot of experience in circumstances like this,' Susan heard herself say.
'Actually,' he said wryly, 'I have absolutely no previous experience in a circumstance even remotely like this one.'
'Would you mind covering yourself?' she heard herself ask in the voice of a bitch.
'Sorry,' he said, and grabbed for the sheet.
'I can't believe I did this,' she said.
Matt shrugged. The shrug-his whole attitude-infuriated her.
He made it worse by asking, 'You ever hear the expression 'These things happen'? Or, 'Sex is what makes the world go around'?'
'Goddamn you!' Susan said.
He looked at her without expression.
'What if I'm pregnant?' she heard herself blurting.
That surprised him.
'You're not on the pill?'
She felt herself blushing as she shook her head, 'no.'
'Why not?'
'I don't need it.'
'That was an admission, in case you weren't aware of it, that there is no good ol' Whatsisname, the boyfriend your parents can't stand.'
'Yes, there is-'
'Stop the bullshit, Susan,' he interrupted her rather unpleasantly. 'We don't have time for it. It'll only make things worse than they are. If that's possible.'
'What's that supposed to mean?' she challenged.
He patted the bed beside him.
He's ordering me to shut up and get back in bed! Goddamn him!
'What makes you think we're going to do that again? Ever?'
'I told you we don't have time for bullshit. Sit down,' he said, and then went on, 'I said 'sit,' not 'lay.' '
Not knowing why she decided to give in, Susan went to the bed and sat on the edge. Matt took her hand in his.
For a moment, thinking he was going to put her hand on him under the sheet, she debated jerking her hand free. But she sensed, somehow, that having her fondle him was not-at least for the moment-on his mind.
'You were a little surprised about this, right?' Matt asked seriously. 'What's happened to us?'
'That's the understatement of the century,' she said.
'Well, me, too, fair maiden. This is the last thing I expected to happen, or wanted to happen.'
'That's not the impression you gave me.'
'The cops are onto you, fair maiden.'
'And what the hell is that supposed to mean?'
He shrugged again, and again it infuriated her.
'Truth time,' Matt said, 'For example, to clear the air: When you were not in your room in the Bellvue with the nonexistent boyfriend, you were off meeting a guy named Bryan Chenowith and/or one or more of his fellow fugitives.'
'Oh, my God!'
'Yeah,' Matt said. 'In other words, the jig is up. You are what is known in the criminal statutes, state and Federal, as an accessory after the fact. And actually, I want to be sure about the after the fact.'
'You son of a bitch! You went to my house! You had dinner with my parents. And all the time-'
'You left out 'made love to me.' Guilty on all counts. And I'm going to take great pleasure in seeing your pal and his friends hauled off to the slammer without possibility of parole for the rest of their natural lives. My problem is what to do about you.'
She looked at him with horror in her eyes, but didn't speak.
'I don't want you to go to the slam, fair maiden. That would distress me terribly.'
'Why should that bother you, Mr. Detective?' Susan flared, and started to get off the bed. She wondered if she was going to throw up.
He held her wrist, and he was too strong for her.
'I'm not through,' he said, not very pleasantly.
'What are you going to do now? Rape me before you arrest me?'
'Come on, Susan, you know better than that. Get it through your head that right now I'm the best friend you've got.'
'How often have you used that line? What do they call that, putting the suspect at ease?'
'That's what they call it,' Matt agreed. 'The difference is, this is the first time I've used the technique on an interviewee I think I'm in love with.'
Her heart jumped when he said that.
'In love?' she asked, witheringly sarcastic. 'You don't expect me to believe that, do you?'
'Well, maybe what happened affected me more than it affected you, but that's how I'm forced to look at it.'
'Oh, come on, Matt!'
'If I didn't come to realize, when you were in the bathroom all that time, that what's wrong with me is that I'm in love with you, then what would have happened was that we would have torn off another couple of pieces, had our dinner, and I would have taken you home and been not at all upset about the inevitability of you going off to the slam.'
'My God, you're serious!'
'Were you listening when I said we don't have time for bullshit?'
There was a knock at the door.
'Who's that?' Susan asked, as if frightened.
'Probably the waiter. When I checked in, I told them to cool a couple of bottles.' He raised his voice. 'Just a moment, please, I'm in the shower.'
He let go of her wrist and got out of bed.
'Is there another one of those in there?' he asked, making reference to the hotel's terry-cloth robe and gesturing toward the bathroom.
'I only saw this one,' Susan said.
'Then you better give me that one,' Matt said. 'And wait in the bathroom. Or get under the blankets.'
She looked at him doubtfully, then looked around for her discarded clothing.
'Where're my clothes?'
'I kicked them under the bed,' he said matter-of-factly, then smiled and went on. 'Come on, give me the robe. The cow already got out of the barn. I know what you've got hidden under there.'
She turned her back on him, unfastened the robe, and, aware that she was blushing again, shrugged out of it and ran to the bathroom.
'What do you want to eat?'
