O almost smiled.
'By the angel of death, perhaps.'
'Besides him,' I said.
'Or her.'
'What an odd question, why do you ask?'
'I'm an odd guy, have you?'
'Of course not.'
We sat for a moment looking at each other. O was working on the gum as if he had only a few more minutes to subdue it.
'I have a question for you, Spenser,' he said.
'Did you understand anything in my play when you saw it?'
'Actually I did, O the Tiresias stuff you stole from Eliot.'
A startling flush of red blossomed suddenly on O's smooth white face. He stood up.
'I do not steal,' he said.
'That was homage.'
'Of course,' I said.
'It always is.'
CHAPTER 10
Deirdre's chest was no less aggressive than it had been at the reception, and neither was she.
'Alone at last,' she said when she sat down.
She might have been twenty-five, with wide blue eyes, and a lot of auburn hair, worn big. Her dark green spandex health club gear was iridescent. An oversized gray sweatshirt reached nearly to her knees. It had a New York Giants logo on the front.
'Craig Sampson's loss is our gain,' I said.
'Oh, I'm sorry,' she said.
'I don't mean to be frivolous about something so awful.'
'I doubt that it makes much difference to Sampson,' I said.
'What can you tell me about him?'
'He was fun,' Deirdre said.
'He'd been around, you know, and he knew the score.'
'Which was what?'
'Excuse me?'
'The score? What was it?'
'Oh, you know what I mean. He was older. He knew the whole downtown theater scene in New York. He'd done cruise ships and dinner theaters. He was good to talk to about the business.'
'He ever in any trouble you know of?'
'Craig? No. He was too smart. He kept his nose clean and his mouth shut and went about his business.'
'Love life?'
'He wasn't gay. I'm pretty sure. In the theater it's not that big a deal, you know? And besides, I could tell. He was straight.'
'Did he have a girlfriend?'
'Nobody in the company. I don't know why. He had plenty of chances, but he didn't seem interested.'
'Outside the company?'
Deirdre was sitting sideways on the chair with her legs tucked under her. It was hard to figure how she'd achieved that position, but it made her look good, so I assumed it wasn't accidental.
'Oh, I don't know,' she said.
'Most of us don't have much life outside the company. You know? I mean Port City… really!'
'Did he go away much? Boston? New York?'
'Not that I can remember. Most of us are working most of the time. He'd go to New York a couple times when the theater was dark, make a commercial, he said.'
'What commercials?'
'I don't know. I never watch television. And I don't ever want to do commercials. Craig said it covered expenses.'
