1
It was a late May morning in Boston. I had coffee. I was sitting in my swivel chair, with my feet up, looking out my window at the Back Bay. The lights were on in my office. Outside, the temperature was 53. The sky was low and gray. There was no rain yet, but the air was swollen with it, and I knew it would come. Across Boylston, on the other side of Berkeley Street, I saw Paul Giacomin walking with a dark-haired woman. They stopped at the light and, when it changed, came on across toward my office. They both moved well, like people who'd been trained. I'd have to see her close-up to confirm, but from here I thought the woman looked good. I was pleased to see that Paul was carrying a paper bag. I swiveled my chair back around and, by the time they got up to my office, I was standing in the doorway. Paul smiled and handed me the bag.
'Krispy Kremes?' I said.
'Like always,' he said.
I put the bag on my desk and turned back and hugged Paul.
'This is Daryl Silver,' Paul said.
'My real name is Gordon,' she said. 'Silver is my professional name.'
We shook hands. Daryl was, in fact, a knockout. Eagle-eye Spenser. I opened the paper bag and took out a cardboard box of donuts.
'They haven't got these yet in Boston,' Paul told Daryl. 'So whenever I come home, I bring some.'
'Will you join me?' I said to Daryl.
'Thanks,' she said. 'I'd love to.'
'That's a major compliment,' Paul said to her. 'Usually he goes off in a corner and eats them all.'
I poured us some coffee. Paul was looking at the picture on top of the file cabinet of Susan, Pearl, and me.
'I'm sorry about Pearl,' Paul said.
'Thank you.'
'You okay?'
I shrugged and nodded.
'Susan?'
I shrugged and held out the box of donuts.
'Krispy Kreme?' I said.
The rain arrived and released some of the tension in the atmosphere. It rained first in small, incoherent splatters on the window, then more steadily, then hard. It was very dark out, and the lights in my office seemed warm.
'How did it go in Chicago?' I said.
'The play got good notices,' Paul said.
'You read them?'
'No. But people tell me.'
'You like directing?'
'I think so. But it's my own play. I don't know if I'd want to direct something written by somebody else.'
'How's rehearsal going here?'
'We've done the play too often,' Paul said. 'We're having trouble with our energy.'
'And you're in this?' I said to Daryl.
'Yes.'
'She's gotten really great reviews,' Paul said. 'In Chicago, and before that in Louisville.'
'I have good lines to speak,' she said.
'Well, yeah,' Paul said. 'There's that.'
With the rain falling, the air had loosened. Below my window, most of the cars had their lights on, and the wet pavement shimmered pleasantly. The lights at Boylston Street, diffused by the rain, looked like bright flowers.
'Daryl would like to talk to you about something,' Paul said.
'Sure,' I said.
Paul looked at her and nodded. She took in a deep breath.
'Twenty-eight years ago my mother was murdered,' she said.
After twenty-eight years, 'I'm sorry' seemed aimless.
