'The security company.'
'Security South,' I said. 'Jon Delroy. You like him for it, don't you?'
'He was there when the father was alive. He is there now,' Susan said.
'Pud suggested that Delroy and Penny were involved sexually.'
'What do you think?'
'At the time I thought it was preposterous. She's adorable. I was kind of offended.'
'And now?'
'Now… well, we only know what we know. Delroy's still there, and several people say that Penny has the power.'
'Life is full of heartbreak,' Susan said.
'Luckily I have a fallback position,' I said.
'You certainly know how to turn a girl's head with your slick talk,' Susan said.
'The truth of the matter is,' I said, 'you are my position. Everything else in life is fallback.'
Susan smiled and bumped her head once against my shoulder.
'You okay to walk down to the hotel now, old fella?' she said.
'Wait a minute, you were the one wanted to tarry awhile.'
'Pity,' Susan said. 'I took pity on you.'
We began to walk downhill on California Street, toward Stockton.
'We don't have to leave until tomorrow. What would you like to do the rest of the day?'
'I don't know, what would you like to do?'
I smiled.
'Oh,' Susan said. 'That.'
I smiled some more.
'Afterwards can we shop?'
'Sure,' I said. 'If you're not too tired.'
'I'm never too tired to exercise my rancorous capitalism.'
'Nor I to display my rampant machismo,' I said.
'A match made in heaven,' Susan said.
We turned right on Stockton Street and went into the hotel.
FORTY
SUSAN AND I had hugged for an extended period at San Francisco Airport, before she got on a plane to Boston and I flew off to Georgia. Now, looking for my car in the Atlanta airport, I imagined that I could still smell her perfume and maybe taste her lipstick. Missing her was a tangible experience. I was already homesick for her, and by the time I retrieved my car and drove down to Lamarr I was quite sad, for a man of my native ebullience. I sang a little to cheer myself up, but 'I'll hurry home to you, Lamarr, Georgia' didn't have quite the right ring.
It was hot even at night, and by the time I walked from my car to the hotel, my shirt was soaked with sweat. I made a drink in my room, and sat on the bed and sipped it, and thought about Susan. I had another drink, and when it was done, I rinsed out the glass, put away the bottle, took a shower and went to bed, and lay awake for a long time. In the morning, after breakfast, I got a call from Martin Quirk.
'Jon Delroy,' he said.
'Yes, sir.'
'FBI has no record of him ever working for them.'
'Ah hah,' I said.
'Ah hah?'
'It's a detective expression,' I said.
'Oh, no wonder I was confused,' Quirk said. 'Then I ran him past the Marine Corps. They have a Jonathan Delroy killed on Guadalcanal. They have Jon Delroy, a lance corporal, currently on active duty. They have a Jon Michael Delroy, discharged 1958.'
'My guy's around forty,' I said.
'That's all the Delroys they got,' Quirk said.
'Ah hah, ah hah,' I said.
'That's what I thought,' Quirk said.
I hung up from Quirk and called Dr. Klein. The woman who answered said he would call me back. I said no, that doctors did not have a good track record on calling back promptly and I would prefer to stop by. She asked if it
