“I don’t think he, uh, exactly believes the suggestion that Parrish is hanging out around here. Maybe he doesn’t want to believe it.”
I took Jack up to Cafe Kelly that night. When Stinger, Travis, and Leonard learned what had happened to Bingle, I thought Stinger just might go on a house-to-house hunt for Nick Parrish, with Leonard and Travis riding posse.
I asked him about Aunt Mary, and his mood changed immediately. “If I was twenty years younger, I’d ask her to marry me,” he said with a grin.
When I got home, I discovered Cody had stretched himself out on Frank’s chest, but the dogs were nowhere in sight. “They’re in with Ben,” Frank said sleepily.
I don’t know if a dream awakened me, or if I heard Ben go outside. Either way, at about four in the morning, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get back to sleep. I dressed and went out to the patio, where Ben was sitting, already dressed and drinking coffee, petting Deke and Dunk.
“I called the vet,” he said. “They say Bingle got up and he’s barking. They think he’s going to be fine.”
“Great news,” I said. “If he’s barking, he must be getting better.”
“Yes. I told them how to say ‘be quiet’ in Spanish. They said I could pick him up at eight.”
“So here you are with a mere four hours to wait.”
He smiled. “Right. At first I was too worried to sleep. Now, I’m too relieved. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“No. You know I’m one of Bingle’s biggest fans. And if anything happened to one of these guys, or Cody, I’d be a basket case. What’s your schedule tomorrow? Can you catch up on sleep?”
“I’ll be okay as far as sleep goes. I did sleep a little tonight — as much as I need. I’m supposed to be your . . .”
“Bodyguard?”
“How about — companion? What’s your schedule?”
“I have an appointment with Jo Robinson in the afternoon. Then I’m working from ten at night until two in the morning, but I think Frank is planning to relieve you from duty before then.”
We sat in silence for a time. I thought about my assignments from Jo. I hadn’t done too badly, but there was this Parzival business.
“Ben?”
“Hmm?”
“Before Parrish escaped—”
“Before the others were killed,” he insisted, always annoyed at my attempt to avoid saying it.
“Before the others were killed,” I conceded, “even before we found Julia Sayre, something was bothering you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Ben — to quote good old Parzival — ‘What’s wrong with you?’ ”
He looked away from me.
“I have a feeling it has something to do with reporters.”
He didn’t answer.
“Or was it an instant dislike of me, personally?”
“Of course not.”
“Then what troubled you? What made you so angry? Why couldn’t you sleep at night?”
“Many things,” he answered softly.
I waited. He tried to fob me off with a list of the mass disaster cases he had worked recently.
“David told me about them,” I said. “And while I’m not saying that I’d have the fortitude to work one of those cases, let alone as many as you have, David hinted there was something else going on with you.”
“He did?” he said. “I’m surprised. David was usually better at keeping confidences.”
“Don’t try to make this about David. Unless you had some particularly awful experience with a reporter on one of those disaster cases, I don’t think that’s what made you snap at me from the moment I joined the team.”
He hesitated, then said, “I’m tempted to make something up. It would be easier than telling you the truth.” He sighed. “But after all you’ve done for me, the least I can do is be honest.”
“You don’t owe me anything. Tell me because we’re friends, or don’t tell me at all.”
He looked out at the garden. In a low voice, he said, “It has a rather sordid beginning, I’m afraid. The end of a relationship. You remember Camille?”
“Yes — the blond bombshell who visited you at the hospital.”
He nodded. “Camille is bright and funny, loves the outdoors, and yes, when we dated, I knew that every guy who saw her on my arm was green with envy.”
“So what went wrong?”
“Me, I guess. She finally realized that I wasn’t going to change in the ways she hoped I would.”
“What was she hoping would change?”
“My work, mostly. She didn’t mind dating an anthropologist, but she hated everything about the forensic work
