“Well, he just wouldn’t. He was, is very nice.”
“Can you give me his name?”
“No, really, I’m happy to help. But I don’t wish to make trouble for a man who’s guilty of nothing.”
“Did you ever date Louis Vincent?” I said.
There was silence.
After a moment I said, “May I take that as a yes?”
“Why did you ask about Louis?”
“He’s suspected in a stalking on the North Shore,” I said.
Again silence. This time I waited her out.
“Yes,” she said finally, “I dated Louis Vincent.”
“And what caused you to stop dating?” I said. “I… I went back to my husband,” she said. “I had dated Louis while my husband and I were separated.”
“How’d he feel about you reuniting with your husband?”
“He was very much for it,” she said. “That’s why I can’t…”
“Did he have any thought that you might continue to see each other after you reunited?”
“I… well, he did say at one point it would be fun if we could still meet once a week or so and… ah… be in bed together.”
“And you said no.”
“I said I didn’t see how that would work if I were married again. He said he understood.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Will this have to come out?” she said. “I mean my husband and I… well, it’s working now. I’d hate to drag this thing back up.”
“I don’t see why it has to be a public thing,” I said.
“I don’t really believe it was Lou,” she said.
“You never know,” I said.
Profound.
I hung up and went back to looking out the window, and thinking about nudity. It was late afternoon and I was up to how Susan looked with her clothes off, when the phone rang. It was a guy named Al.
“I’m calling for a woman in Hingham,” he said. “You know who I mean?”
“Yes,” I said.
“She doesn’t want to talk about the stalking thing. But if she can help stop it for some other woman she wants to help. She asked me to call.”
“You her husband?”
“Something like that,” Al said. “I can answer most of your questions.”
“One, really,” I said. “She ever date a guy named Louis Vincent?”
“I’ll ask her,” Al said.
The line was silent for a minute or so, then Al came back on the line.
“Yes,” he said.
“Anything she can tell me about him?”
“No.”
“Already been discussed?” I said.
“Yes.”
“Thank her for me,” I said.
“You think this guy Vincent is the stalker?”
“Yes, I do,” I said.
“You know where to find him?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Where?”
“I think I won’t tell you,” I said.
“Well, you see him, tell him,” Al said. “There’s a guy looking for him, big guy, had some fights in his life, likes it, tell him when this guy finds him he’s going to yank his fucking head off.”
“I’ll tell him,” I said.
