'What?'
'Why don't you find somebody else to do this work,' I said.
'No. Oh my God. No. I didn't mean that. Sometimes I'm so clear on things that I may be too abrupt. I want you. I don't want someone else. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you. I'm sorry.'
I put both my hands up, palms toward her. And made a gesture for her to stop.
'I'm not offended,' I said.
'I can pay you more,' she said.
'My last job, I was paid four donuts,' I said. 'Your pay scale is fine.'
'Then what?'
'I'll make you a deal,' I said. 'I'll get you evidence sufficient to demonstrate infidelity. And you stop telling me what it is and how to do it.'
'I didn't mean to make you mad.'
'I'm not mad,' I said. 'I'm just sort of inner-directed.'
Marlene frowned a little and tried to look thoughtful.
'Well,' she said. 'Can we continue?'
'On my terms,' I said.
'Oh, yes, certainly,' she said. 'That will be fine.'
'Okay. I'll stay with your husband for a while, see what else surfaces.'
'Thank you,' she said.
'Sure.'
We sat quietly for a moment. She shifted a little in the chair. She was wearing yellow sling-back heels and no stockings. Her legs were tan. It was May. I suspected artifice.
'I really do like you,' she said. 'Really.' I nodded.
'Don't you think I'm good-looking?'
'I do,' I said.
'I know I frighten a lot of rnen,' she said. 'You know-beautiful, educated, rich. Men feel threatened.'
'I'm trying to be brave,' I said.
'I think you are really good-looking too,' she said.
'Guys at the gym are always telling me that,' I said.
'It's hard being alone,' she said. 'And being a woman. I'm counting on you.'
'Little lady,' I said, 'you're in good hands.'
'Are you laughing at me?'
'With,' I said. 'Laughing with.'
10
Which was why, later that afternoon, I was back at my post, in line of sight with Trent Rowley's silver Beamer. I had two books with me: Simon Schama's book, Rembrandt's Eyes, which was too big to carry around places except when I was doing surveillance in a car. The other was a much smaller book called Genome, in case I had to kill time on foot.
The Schama book was not one you read at a sitting, and certainly not at a standing. I'd been reading it a few chapters at a time for several years. I hadn't started Genome yet.
People began leaving the Kinergy offices at about 4:30. The Beamer stayed put. I kept reading. At six I started the car up and turned on the radio. The Sox were playing an early evening game for some reason, probably having something to do with television. I was pefectly happy with television, but it always seemed to me that, finally, baseball was designed for radio. The pace of the game gave the announcers time to talk about the game and the players and other players from games past, unless they had so many commercials they had trouble fitting the game around them. By the seventh inning it was too dark to read, even with the interior light on in the car, so I put Rembrandt down and listened to the game. By 9:15 the game was over. It was fully dark, and the silver Beamer and I were the only cars left in the lot.
Was Rowley scoring Ellen Eisen in his office? He was the CFO so he must have a couch. I could burst in on him with a camera and shout ah ha! But I didn't have a camera, and I had no interest in ever yelling ah ha! It would have been especially embarrassing if when I burst in and yelled ah ha! he was at his desk going over spreadsheets. Plus, without a camera all I could do when I burst in would be to point my finger at them and say click.
I decided not to burst in. I called his office number. His voice mail answered after four rings. I waited another fifteen minutes and called again. Voice mail again. If he'd come out, I wouldn't have missed him. I had been doing this kind of thing too well, for too many years, for me to have missed him. Had he scooted out another door into the waiting arms of Ellen Eisen? Were they even now locked in mad embrace in the back seat of her Volvo station wagon? Or had he been overwhelmed by guilt and slashed his wrists with a Swiss Army knife? I sat in the dark and looked at the
coccncruging stars and thought about it. I needed to know wlwro Iw w;as.
