'Well, I was at the movies. I often go into Boston alone to the movies.'
'You didn't see anyone you knew?'
'No.'
'You have the ticket stub?'
'No, of course not, why would I save a ticket stub?'
I was quiet.
'It's like you think I did do it,' she said.
'You have very little chance of getting at the truth,' I said, 'if you know in advance what the truth ought to be.'
'Oh don't lecture me,' she said. 'Go do your job.'
'Marlene,' I said. 'I think I'm going to have to file you under Life's Too Short.'
'Excuse me?'
'I quit again.'
She stared at me. 'You can't quit,' she said.
'Sure I can.'
I stood up.
'I'll send my bill to Randy,' I said.
She began to cry. I started for the door. She cried harder.
'Please,' she said.
I got to the door.
'Please,' she said again.
I looked back. She was bent way over in her chair as if her stomach hurt. Her face was buried in her hands.
'Please don't leave,' she said. 'Please don't leave me like this.'
She had me. I put my hand on the doorknob but I knew I wasn't going to turn it. I took in some air. She blubbered.
'Okay,' I said.
'What?'
'Okay,' I said.
I turned away from the door and went back and sat down. I was 0 for 2, quitting.
13
Dr. Silverman and I looked at the Gainsborough exhibit all morning at the Museum of Fine Arts. Then we went for lunch in the museum restaurant. Susan had salad. I had fruit and cheese. We shared a bottle of pinot grigio.
'I doubt that she was faking the hysterics,' Susan said to me. 'It is not easy to do.'
'You ever do it?'
'No.'
'Even when I propose sex?'
'Those are real hysterics,' Susan said. I ate a seedless grape.
'Funny thing,' I said. 'She didn't get hysterical over her husband's death.'
'They were estranged, after all,' Susan said.
'First thing she wanted to know was if he was cheating, and did I get pictures.'
Susan took a bite from a leaf of Boston lettuce. 'Was he?' she said.
'Yes, I had him in a hotel room for several hours with a woman.'
'You told her.'
'Yeah. That's what she hired me for.'
'Maybe.'
'Maybe?'
'Pictures?' Susan said.
'No. I probably was never going to get the pictures she wanted.'
