with my free hand and pulled her back.
'Why can't we all just get along,' I said to them.
They both said variations of 'Let go of me.' He tried to hit me again. I let go of Beth Ann, and punched him in the solar plexus. He gasped and bent over and when I let him go, stumbled back against his car, trying to get his breath. Beth Ann had started off again. She was wearing three-inch heels and ran badly in them. I caught her in two steps and brought her back.
'You have no place to run, anyway,' I said.
'He threatened me,' she said, her breath heaving. 'The bastard threatened to kill me.'
'Did not,' Garner gasped.
There was a picnic table on a small patch of grass at the corner of the parking lot.
'Let us sit over there,' I said, 'and talk.'
'No . . .' Beth Ann said.
Garner had straightened. Still leaning against the car, he shook his head no.
'I wasn't asking,' I said. 'Someone has probably called the cops, and you might want to get calmed down and have a story ready when they get here.'
Both of them looked horrified. It was something they'd never considered. The three of us walked across the parking lot and sat at the table. In the distance, I could hear a siren.
'You had a little sort of lovers' spat,' I said. 'I, in a friendly way, intervened, and now we've talked it out and no one has any complaints to register.'
Both of them heard the siren, too. Neither of them said anything. Beth Ann was still flushed, but Garner was very pale.
Chapter 58
A STATE POLICE CAR pulled up in front of the restaurant building, and a big trooper got out and went in. In a moment, he came back out with two people. They talked. He nodded. They pointed toward us. He nodded. As he walked across the lot toward the picnic table, a second cruiser pulled in and parked behind his.
The big trooper stopped at our table. I recognized him. It was one of the two Staties who, at DiBella's request, had brought Animal to the state maintenance shed for me to reason with. He looked at me. I looked at him.
'DiBella's friend,' the cop said.
'Sort of,' I said.
'I understand there was some trouble here,' the cop said, and looked at Garner and Beth Ann.
Garner gathered himself.
'I'm afraid it was just a lovers' spat, officer.'
The cop looked at Beth Ann.
'You agree with that?' he said.
She smiled at him, which was pretty impressive.
'Yes. I feel like a fool,' she said. 'But Roy and I ... we lost our tempers at the same time.'
'You?' the cop said to me.
'I happened upon them, and intervened and managed to reconcile them.'
The cop looked at me and shook his head. But he didn't comment.
'Either of you wish to file any kind of complaint?' he said to the happy couple.
'No, sir,' Garner said.
'We're fine,' Beth Ann said.
The trooper looked at me.
'Everything's fine,' I said. 'You people better learn to settle your differences another way,' he said. 'I get another complaint and I won't be so easy about it.'
He and I both knew that was a crock. He hadn't even taken their names. But he and I both knew also that idle threats work sometimes.
'It won't happen again, officer,' Garner said.
'Absolutely not,' Beth Ann said and smiled again at the cop.
The smile was effective. It managed to suggest somehow that she'd like to have sex with him. Which, of course, could have been true. The cop looked at me again.
'That your Mustang there?' he said.
'I'll move it at once,' I said.
He nodded.
'You all have a nice day,' he said.
He walked back across the parking lot and stopped next to the second cruiser. He spoke to the second cop for a
