“Cabbie’ll know,” she said.
“I’m driving.”
“Rental car?”
“Nope, my own. I drove out here.”
“From Boston?” she said.
“Yep.”
“You ’fraid to fly?”
“Nope.”
“Why you drive here from Boston.”
“Gave me time to think,” I said.
“I’ll bet it did,” she said.
She wrote out an address on the top sheet of a small yellow pad, tore off the sheet, and gave it to me.
“You getting rich here?” I said.
She smiled again.
“Not hardly,” she said.
“So why do you do it?”
“Might as well be me,” she said.
“Nobody better,” I said, and put out my hand.
45.
Ilay on my bed in the Holiday Inn and talked with Susan on the phone.
“Hawk on the job?” I said.
“If he stayed any closer we’d be having sex,” Susan said.
“Yikes,” I said.
“Sort of a metaphor,” Susan said. “He’s very conscientious.”
“Vinnie and Chollo?”
“Right behind Hawk,” Susan said. “In truth they’re driving me crazy.”
“Good,” I said.
“I know. I’m very safe.”
We were quiet. It didn’t feel like quiet. It felt like we were saying things to each other.
After a moment, Susan said, “Progress today?”
“Yeah, some,” I said. “I found someone who knew Alderson. He was associated with a college out here. I’m going there tomorrow.”
“What college?”
“Coyle State,” I said.
“Nope,” Susan said. “Never heard of it.”
“Now you have,” I said. “You can always learn things talk ing to me.”
“Yes,” Susan said. “It’s one of the reasons I do it.”
I looked up at the ceiling. It was a standard sprayed-on ceiling. The room was generic hotel chain, generic furniture, generic rug. Nice view of the lake if I stood up. I’d been in a lot of rooms like this, mostly minus the view. They worked fi ne. They housed you, kept you warm, let you bathe and sleep and eat. They didn’t do much for the soul, but their mission had nothing to do with the soul.
“Any other reasons?” I said.
“Yes,” she said. “Do you know when you’re coming home?”
“No. It’ll depend a little on what I find out at the college tomorrow.”
“Have you been thinking about us?” she said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Have you been thinking about marriage?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“We are the kind of people who marry,” I said.
“Yes.”
