'Well, yeah.'
'Is anybody paying you?'
'Well, no.'
'See?'
'Okay, you got that part right,' I said. 'But it doesn't make me a simple tool.'
'I could sum you up in a sentence,' Susan said.
'What would it be?'
'You do what you say you'll do. You aren't afraid of much. And you love me.'
'That's three sentences,' I said.
'I separated them by semicolons,' Susan said.
Sitting between us, as was her wont, Pearl was staring intently at a squirrel across the street. The yard was fenced and the gate was closed, so there wasn't much else she could do, but she was giving it a hell of a stare. We sipped our drinks. People passed. Several smiled at the three of us. Susan spoke to some of them.
'Would you ever put your underpants on backward?' I said.
'Is this a trick question?' Susan said.
'No,' I said. 'Dawn Lopata's underpants were on backward when they took her to the hospital.'
Susan shook her head.
'No one would make that mistake,' she said.
'Unless it was a man and he was rushed,' I said.
'Unless that,' Susan said.
'Also,' I said, 'she had rather large breasts but no bra.'
'How large?'
'I never saw her in person,' I said, 'but in pictures she seems in the D-cup range.'
'Did she seem to be braless in the pictures?' Susan said.
'No.'
'It's not a dilemma I've ever faced,' Susan said. 'But most women would not want to go braless with breasts that big.'
'My thought exactly.'
'And you are wondering if maybe someone else dressed her?' Susan said. 'And getting the bra on was too much work?'
'I am.'
'Would that mean that Jumbo did it?'
'Nope. But it means somebody wanted to, ah, clean up the scene a little.'
'Z?' Susan said.
'Probably.'
'Have you consulted Quirk about this?' Susan said.
'No.'
'Don't you think you ought to?' Susan said.
'No.'
'Why not?' she said. 'Why not take advantage of what he might have learned already?'
'We decided not to consult,' I said.
'Why not?'
'We both think the best thing is for me to start from scratch,' I said. 'And reach a conclusion and compare it with Quirk's.'
'He said that?'
'No.'
'So . . . ?'
'I mentioned it, and he agreed. There's stuff you know,' I said, 'without saying much.'
'Oh,' Susan said. 'I'm blundering into that male thing again.'
'No matter where you go,' I said, 'you don't blunder.'
'Thank you,' Susan said. 'But talk to me about the, ah, male thing, a little more.'
'Quirk wants to know if Jumbo's guilty. He doesn't care if he can prove it. But he wants to know. If I go through the exercise and conclude that Jumbo is guilty, and Quirk's conclusion is the same, then he can relax and let them
