even have the credentials. Besides, she?s a happy woman, just gets a little lonely.”
“Did Chief send you to—”
“Chief doesn?t know you?re here. If he did, I doubt he?d remember you. He?s still livin? in 1969.
Teddy?s death destroyed him.”
“It didn?t do a helluva lot for Teddy either.”
“You gonna turn out to be a smartass?”
“I was with him when he died. That kind of thing stays with you.”
“I saw the letter,” he said. He was staring straight ahead, not looking at me or anything else in
particular.
I gave him my hardest stare. “You never did like me, did you, Mr. Stoney? You never thought I was
good enough for her.”
“I told you what! thought,” he said. “You were a good halfback until you got busted up. After that..
He let the sentence dwindle away. Fill in the blanks.
“It was all part of watching out for Dunetown, right? Like you?re doing now. Sticking your nose in
my business again.”
He looked at me and his lip curled up on one side.
“You found your level, doughboy,” he said.
“Just like you, right?”
He sat for a few beats more and then, without looking at me, he said, “Harry Raines has a brilliant
future. It wouldn?t do for his wife to be caught screwin? around with a cop.”
“Or anybody else,” I added.
“There ain?t anybody else, doughboy.”
“How about Tony Lukatis?”
His eyes narrowed. “You sure been busy prying into things that don?t matter.”
“That makes two of us. Besides, you brought the subject up,” I said. “Seems to me everybody?s
awfully concerned about Harry Raines? future and nobody particularly gives a damn about his wife.”
“She ain?t runnin? for office.”
“That?s all it?s about, running for office?”
“Look, don?t go making a monkey of yourself. She?s vulnerable right now. I?d hate to think you were
takin? advantage of the situation.”
“You?ve got a lot of time invested in him, don?t you?” I pressed on.
His eyes continued to twinkle, even in the subdued interior of the limo. He nodded his head sharply.
“Bet your ass I do,” he said.
