I said, 'It means . . .' and shook my head.
'I don't find you amusing,' he said.
'Damn,' I said.
'Your invasion of my privacy and my wife's is unconscionable. I am prepared to take action against you.'
I nodded.
'Goddamn it, say something,' Garner said.
'Unconscionable,' I said.
Garner was still. He stopped tapping his pencil. He tried glaring at me, but it wasn't very effective.
'Let me say this plainly, sir.' Garner was trying to talk with his lips compressed, which is kind of difficult, but he pulled it off. 'I will not tolerate any, repeat, any, further harassment. If you come anywhere near my home again, you will hear from my attorneys.'
'A fearful prospect,' I said. 'How about the Rosewood Condominiums in Framingham.'
Garner's face remained composed, but his eyes sort of darted.
'What?' he said.
'Where Beth Ann Blair lives,' I said. 'With a view of the lake?'
Garner shook his head.
'I'm afraid I don't understand,' he said.
'You spent the night there last week,' I said.
'I'm sorry, you must be mistaken,' he said stiffly.
'No. It was you,' I said. 'How long have you been boffing the good doctor?'
For a moment, something faltered in Garner's gaze, and an ugly thing peeped out. He glanced briefly down at his hands folded in his lap, and when he looked up again, the thing was gone.
'I'm afraid this conversation has concluded,' he said.
'Did you know that Beth Ann was also intimate with Jared Clark?' I said.
Garner's eyes darted again. He opened his mouth and closed it, and stood up suddenly. Without a word, he walked around the desk, past my chair, and out through the reception area. I sat for a minute in case he changed his mind. He didn't. After a while, I got up and walked back out through the reception area. Carol Kenny had a startled look frozen on her face, but she tried her best to remain professional. She smiled.
'Meeting over?' she said.
'Yep,' I said. 'I'm afraid it's finished between us.'
She smiled again. 'You can find your way out then?'
'I can,' I said.
And did.
Chapter 57
I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT Garner would do next, but I suspected that he'd do it with Beth Ann Blair, and I wanted to be around to see what it was. She wasn't at the Dowling School. From my car, I called her office and hung up when she answered, and drove on over to Channing Hospital and parked and went up to Beth Ann's floor. I went busily into her waiting room. There were two people waiting there, making eye contact with nobody. The door to Beth Ann's office was closed. I looked around.
'Oops,' I said. 'Wrong office.'
I went out and closed the door. At the end of the corridor, there was a small waiting area with three chairs and a small table on which were the remnants of yesterday's Wall Street Journal. I went to the area, sat in one of the chairs, picked up the paper, opened it, and hid behind it. If Garner showed up, I'd spot him. If he called her and she dashed out to meet him, I'd follow her.
People came and went in the corridor, none of them Beth Ann or Garner, none of them paying any attention to me. I read yesterday's market news. Few things are less interesting than yesterday's stock-market results. In a few minutes, a woman and child came out of Beth Ann's and headed for the elevator. An hour later, the two people I'd seen in the waiting room came out. And five minutes later, Beth Ann came out and headed for the elevators, her heels ringing on the floor of the corridor. I hustled down the stairs and out the front door, and was in my car by the time she appeared. There was neither opportunity nor reason for a nondescript rental car. She was paying no attention to anything, and I just needed to keep her in sight, which I did through town and onto the Mass Pike westbound and into a food/fuel service area near Charlton. At the back of the parking lot, near the Dumpster behind the food-court building, with parking spaces open all around it, was a Buick sedan I'd seen before. Beth Ann parked her cute sports car right next to it, on the side away from the Dumpster. I parked a couple of rows back.
Beth Ann got out of her car and walked around the Buick and got in the passenger side. They sat in there together for a while. The door opened on Beth Ann's side and she scrambled out. Garner got out his side. Beth Ann tried to run, and Garnet caught her and pushed her against the car. She slapped at him with both hands. He held on to her. I could hear Beth Ann screaming. I think she was screaming 'help,' but it was hard to be sure. Garner was trying to put his hand over her mouth to make her stop screaming. I think she bit his hand.
I put my car in gear and drove over and parked sideways behind both their cars and got out. I took hold of Garner by the back of his coat collar and pulled him away from Beth Ann.
'You are causing an embarrassing scene,' I said.
He twisted and tried to hit me. I slapped his fist away. Beth Ann tried to run past us. I caught hold of her arm
