'Isn't modesty just another snare of conventional sex attitudes?'
Marlene showed no interest in her crab salad. She snagged a busboy on his way by.
'Could I have some more wine?' she said.
'I send your waiter right over,' the bus boy said.
'Why are you asking me all this?' Marlene said.
While she waited for the waiter, she tipped her glass up to drain the remaining droplets. I had a spoonful of my chowder.
'I'm detecting,' I said when I'd swallowed the chowder. 'Did O'Mara do anything but urge you to be free?'
'I am paying you to find out who murdered my husband,' she said.
The waiter brought Marlene a glass of wine.
'You should probably bring me another glass, when you get the chance,' she said to the waiter.
'Certainly, ma'am,' the waiter said. He glanced at me.
'More iced tea, sir?'
I shook my head. Marlene guzzled some wine. I had some chowder.
'Did O'Mara do anything to help free you of your Victorian hangups?' I said.
Marlene was looking around the courtyard. There might be someone important.
'What we learn in the seminar experience, and what we say and do there, belongs to us, and to no one else.'
'Not even me?' I said.
She giggled and raised her wineglass toward me. 'Especially not you,' she said.
The waiter arrived with the backup glass and she finished off the one she was drinking so he could take it with him.
'Did you and Trent meet Bernie and Ellen at the seminar?' I said.
'Of course not. Bernie and Trent worked together at-' She tried to say Kinergy, but got the G transposed and it came out 'Kingery.'
She didn't seem to notice. I asked her some more things. She drank some more wine. I finished my chowder. She didn't touch her crab salad. I drank the rest of my iced tea. She had some more wine. I continued to learn nothing about Darrin O'Mara. I considered Spenser Crimestopper, Rule 2: If after repeated efforts you don't succeed, quit. I paid the check. As I was paying it, Marlene stood suddenly.
'I have to wee-wee,' she said.
'Thanks for sharing,' I said.
She turned from the table, and staggered and fell backward and sat hard on the brick patio with her legs splayed out in front of her. I got to her just ahead of a woman at the next table. 'Are you all right?' the woman said.
'Shertainly,' Marlene said.
I got my hands under her armpits and hoisted her up. 'Shleepy,' she said.
'She needs the ladies' room,' I said to the woman at the next table. 'I'll get her there. Can you go in with her?'
'Of course,' the woman said. I wanted to kiss her.
'But if she falls again,' the woman said, 'I don't think I can pick her up.'
'I'll wait outside,' I said. 'If you need me, just sort of clear the way, and I'll come in and get her.'
The woman from the next table smiled. She was a strong-looking woman with a large chest and black hair salted with gray.
'Okay,' she said.
I steered Marlene toward the ladies' room, and waited outside. After a longer time than I would have thought, they came out.
'I wee-wee-d,' Marlene said.
'Swell,' I said.
35
I got a room at the Charles Hotel, and maneuvered Marlene I up to it. She thought we were going to throw off convention's thrall, but I got her to lie down on the bed for a minute first. She fell asleep at once. And I made good my escape.
I went across the river to my office, with the intention of opening my window, putting my feet up on my desk, locking my hands behind my head, and figuring out who killed Trent Rowley. I might have sat there a long time, but fortunately when I went in the light was flashing on my answering machine. Yea, a distraction, I pressed the new message button.
