'U.S. Army,' I said. 'Middlesex County DA.'
'No, no. I mean big business.'
'I know what you mean,' I said. 'I was being frivolous.'
'Oh.'
'So you told Gavin what you had discovered. What did he say?'
'He said I was almost certainly mistaken, and I insisted I was not, and he said that I should keep my mouth shut about it and talk to no one until he'd had a chance to look into it. He said he'd get back to me.'
'Why Gavin?' I said.
'Because I thought he was honest. I mean he's weird and you know, anal, all buttoned down and zipped up, but he is loyal to Coop, and I think he had integrity.'
'And did you tell anyone else?'
'No.'
'Did he get back to you?'
'I don't know. The next thing I heard was he was dead.'
'And you don't know how much he looked into it, if at all?'
'No.'
'But you feel his death is related?'
'Yes. Don't you? I mean I tell him something dreadful, and the next thing I know he's dead.'
'Breakfast doesn't cause lunch,' I said.
'What the hell does that mean?'
'The fact that one thing precedes another doesn't mean one thing causes another.'
'Oh,' she said. 'I know all that. But do I want to risk getting killed for some fucking formal logic rule?'
'No,' I said. 'You don't.'
43
I called an accountant I knew and we talked for a few minutes. When I hung up, I took Adele directly from my office and moved her into my place on the first block of Marlborough Street just up from the Public Gardens.
'I wish I could have gone home first and picked up some things.'
'Safer this way,' I said.
'Could anyone have followed us?' she said when we went in to the building.
'No.'
'You're sure?'
'Yes.'
I was on the second floor. We took the stairs.
'How do you know we weren't followed?' Adele said.
'I have superpowers,' I said. 'Later maybe I'll leap a tall building for you, at a single bound.'
She smiled faintly. My wit was probably too sophisticated for her. I unlocked my apartment door and we went in.
'Do you live with that woman?'
'Susan? No I don't.'
'Wow, you seemed so...'
'We are,' I said.
'Oh.' She looked around. 'You live here alone?'
'I have visitation rights with a dog,' I said. 'She stays here sometimes.'
She looked around some more.
'My God,' she said. 'It's immaculate.'
'I'll be damned.'
'I just ... I'm sorry ... I just assumed men living alone were pigs.'
'Clean pigs,' I said.
'Do you cook for yourself?'
'Myself and houseguests,' I said. 'You want coffee?'
