'How do you know that?'
'Close observation of the human condition,' I said.
'Uh-huh?'
'And you told me,' I said.
'Uh-huh.'
Some gulls sat alertly on the pilings, watching people eat. Occasionally, for no apparent reason, one would suddenly unfold his wings and sweep into the air. Then he would fly off, and return. Of course, since gulls look very much alike, I couldn't say for sure if it was the same gull.
'Do you think they can win?' Susan said.
'Not with Corky Corrigan running their suit,' I said.
'Not even if Morris Hardy steps in?' Susan said.
'Morris Hardy will step in to take his third of the fee, if Corky manages to win,' I said.
'Maybe Jumbo's people will settle.'
'Probably,' I said. 'Which is what probably attracted Morris Hardy and his law offices in the first place.'
'Because,' Susan said, 'he knows that Jumbo's people want all this to go away before the world finds out what Jumbo really is.'
'Not calculus,' I said.
'Can you do calculus?' Susan said.
'No.'
'Do you actually know what calculus is?' Susan said.
'No.'
'Me either,' she said.
'And you a Harvard girl,' I said.
'It's distasteful, isn't it?' Susan said.
'Calculus?' I said.
'That, too,' she said. 'But I meant the lawsuit.'
'Distasteful,' I said.
'Yes,' Susan said. 'I mean, I know it does the dead daughter no harm, and they might need the money, but . . . would you do it?'
'No.'
'I'd do it to try and get even,' Susan said. 'For revenge. But for the money? No.'
'Maybe they're doing it for revenge,' I said. 'Maybe they're trying to goose the criminal justice system.'
'Or maybe it's the money,' Susan said.
'Maybe.'
We were quiet for a time, looking at the gulls and the boat traffic, and the cityscape across the water.
Susan said, 'Something I keep meaning to ask you. It doesn't seem important, which is why I probably keep forgetting, but it's bothered me since you started talking about the case.'
'Maybe you keep forgetting because you are lost in adoration of me,' I said. 'And it preoccupies you.'
Susan nodded.
'That is often a problem,' she said. 'But in those moments when I can focus elsewhere . . . As you recall, I used to live in Smithfield.'
'I believe it's where we met.'
'Yes,' she said. 'Anyway, I always have wondered how she got from Smithfield to Boston.'
'Dawn Lopata,' I said.
'Yes.'
I was silent for a moment.
Then I said, 'Why do you ask?'
'Well, there's no public transportation in Smithfield. She'd have to drive. And if she drove, where's her car?'
'Maybe she went with friends,' I said.
'The day she met Jumbo,' Susan said, 'wasn't she with college friends who live in Boston?'
'Yes.'
'So?'
