woman and solicit her for sex. Susan was still with a patient when l got there, so I went upstairs to her apartment and sat on the couch with Pearl and drank some beer. Susan was as likely to drink beer as she was to bake a cherry pie. But she always kept a few bottles of Blue Moon Belgian White Ale on my account. Which I took to be strong evidence of her love.
I n Susan's honor I drank the beer from the English pub glasses that she had bought for that purpose, and I was on the third beer when she came in.
'Last of the whack jobs?' I said.
'I try to think of them as patients,' Susan said. 'But, yes, I have no more customers today.'
She came over and kissed me and Pearl, in that order, which I took to be another strong sign. Then she got herself a glass of white wine and sat on the couch with me, on the side away from Pearl.
'How goes the war on crime?' Susan said.
'Not well,' I said. 'I can't seem to find any of my witnesses.'
'Really?' Susan said. 'Would you like to tell me about it?'
'Of course,' I said. 'Why did you think I came here?'
'Sex,' Susan said.
'Besides that,' I said.
'Tell me about it,' she said. I did.
'Do you think anything has happened to them?' Susan said. 'There could be a hundred reasons why none of them is at their post,' I said.
'But it is somewhat coincidental that all three of them are not at their post simultaneously.'
'Yes,' I said. 'It is.'
I got careless with my beer glass for a moment, and Pearl slurped in a fast tongueful before I moved it to a more secure location.
'It's only dog slobber,' Susan said.
'Nothing wrong with dog slobber,' I said.
'Of course there isn't,' Susan said. 'What are you going to do now?'
'Finish the beer,' I said.
'No.' Susan smiled. 'I meant about the missing people?'
'I'll keep trying,' I said. 'Probably talk with Gavin again.'
'Think you'll get anything from Gavin?'
'Probably not.'
'What do you want to know?' Susan said.
'Ultimately I want to know who killed Trent Rowley. But in order to do that it might help if I knew why Gavin was having people followed.'
Susan said, 'Perhaps Darrin O'Mara would be worth a talk.'
'Matters of the Heart?'
'Un-huh. You mentioned that Ellen considers him her advisor.'
'And she might have sought his advice,' I said, 'on other matters?'
'I believe that Darrin,' Susan said, 'would argue that all matters are of the heart.'
'He would,' I said.
Susan turned her palms up in a gesture that said, 'Well?' She sipped her wine. I finished my beer. Pearl watched us intently.
'Do you think matters of the heart includes matters of the libido?' I said.
'Of course it does,' she said. 'The distinction is artificial.'
'So love and desire are aspects of the same thing?'
'Um hm.'
'And you love me,' I said.
'Oh, oh!' Susan said.
I looked at her and waited.
'What about the baby?' Susan said.
'We could let her watch.'
'Oh, ick!'
'Or not,' I said.
'I do have a soup bone in the refrigerator,' Susan said, 'that I keep for emergencies such as this.'
