Painted Ladies

“Can you recite the whole poem?” Susan said.

“I believe I can,” I said.

“Don’t,” she said.

“You know,” I said, “she never asked me why I hadn’t done a better job of protecting him. She never asked if I knew who did it or if I thought we could catch them. Just wanted to experience it secondhand so she could make something out of it.”

“Many people would have,” Susan said.

“Many people,” I said.

“How’d she feel to you?”

“I know her husband has recently been murdered. I know grief makes people odd sometimes,” I said. “But she seemed to be dramatizing herself. She didn’t cry or, as far as I could tell, come close to it.”

“One component of grief, as I know you know,” Susan said, “is ‘What will become of me?’ ”

I nodded.

“Perhaps that feeling has somewhat overshadowed her others,” Susan said.

“Thank you, Dr. Silverman,” I said. “Would that be narcissism?”

“Maybe,” Susan said. “To make a thing for her out of his tragedy.”

She drank some champagne.

“Or maybe it’s a way of coping bravely with unspeakable sorrow,” I said.

“Maybe,” Susan said.

“Are you shrinks ever certain of anything?”

“Possibly,” she said. “Have you talked to Prince’s colleagues?”

“Cops have. They say there’s nothing there.”

“How about students?” Susan said.

“Don’t think so.”

“Office staff?” she said.

“I don’t think so,” I said.

“Both offer insights often unavailable to colleagues,” Susan said.

“Maybe I’ll go over there,” I said. “Talk to the coeds. Coeds can’t resist me.”

“As long as you can resist them,” Susan said.

“I value maturity,” I said.

“You should,” she said. “Is that stew done?”

“With stew,” I said, “if you cook it right, you have a done window of about six hours.”

“That should allow time for sex,” she said.

“If we hurry,” I said.

“Good. I like lovemaking on an empty stomach.”

“Me, too,” I said. “Or a full one. Or one partly empty. Or—”

She turned against me on the couch.

“Stop talking,” she said.

And gave me a large kiss.

11

The Department of Art and Art History at Walford was located on the first floor of a brick building with Georgian pillars beside a pond. The pond looked to me as if it didn’t belong there and had recently been created. But maybe I was being picky. Ponds are nice. The main office was right inside the front doorway, to the right. There were three women there. The presiding woman was tall and gray-haired, with thin lips and grim eyes. On her desk was a nameplate that said Agnes Phelen. Her desk was beside a door that led to the office of the department chairman. I knew that at once, because I am a trained investigator and the sign on the pebbled-glass door said Office of the Department Chairman. The other two women were much younger and looked more optimistic. Agnes looked at me with what appeared to be scorn, though it could have been suspicion.

“May I help you?” she said.

She didn’t look as though she meant it.

“You may,” I said.

She looked annoyed.

“What would you like?” she said.