realized, in taking big dollars from a top shop was that it came with a caveat: you had to deliver. Failing to do so because he had both hands tied behind his back from the start was no way to build that reputation Potempa had mentioned earlier. And then there was the fact that his friend had recently been scraped off his own gym floor, and something needed to be done about it.
Christ, Behr thought a moment before he spoke, I’m physically unable to make money. It’s just not in my DNA.
“I’m gonna take a pass on this one, gentlemen,” he said, then slid their paperwork back across the desk and headed for the door.
THIRTEEN
It was weird, but her stomach looked flatter in the two-piece than it did in the single. Susan appraised herself in the mirror. She wasn’t that religious when it came to the aerobics and gym time in general, but maybe it was time to get some religion. No more “pour me into it” party dresses for her. She should at least start swimming again. She pictured herself churning up the lanes back in college-it seemed like a long, long time ago, much longer than ten years. She pulled her hair back into a pony and checked her sleepy eyes. She wondered if her mouth had recently started turning down at the corners more than usual, and whether she was on her way to starting to look old.
She thought about putting on some makeup, but smiled and just rubbed in some tinted sunscreen moisturizer. They were headed down past Bloomington to Lake Monroe, where her boss kept a boat. There would be swimming, tubing, maybe skiing. She checked her top. It seemed secure enough that her business wouldn’t go flying when she hit the water. Her phone rang, Frank on the line. A fist of tension knotted around her at the sound of his voice. They’d said their “sorries,” but that hadn’t gotten at the issue. Not really, and she knew it was her fault. She pulled up a striped mini and threw on a denim shirt up top. She put a couple of towels in a backpack, grabbed her sunglasses and some lip gloss, and headed for the door.
The cornfields formed a corridor of green as they drove down 37. The windows were open and warm morning air blew through the car in place of conversation.
“I’m here,” Behr had said into his cell phone when he’d pulled up in front of Susan’s apartment building. “You need help with anything?
… All right, see you in a minute,” he’d said before he hung up.
“Hi,” “no,” and “I’ll be right down,” were all that constituted her side of the conversation. He tried to interpret what kind of day he had ahead of him, but based on that, he’d have done better if she’d sent him a braille telegram.
“How are you?” she’d said when she got in the car.
“Okay, considering,” he answered. “You?”
“I’m fine.”
“You look good.”
“Thanks,” she said, and then gave a glance at his clothes. “You’re wearing that?”
He looked down and realized the jacket and tie he’d worn to the meeting didn’t scream “day at the lake.” “I’ve got some shorts in the trunk.”
She shrugged and then fiddled with the radio before letting it rest on WFBQ playing Jackson Browne.
That had been it for the last half hour. Then she said: “So his name is Ed. My boss.”
“Ed Lindsey, right?” Behr nodded.
“His wife is Claire. The rest of my department will be there too, some others from the paper and maybe a few faculty from Indiana U-Purdue, where Ed volunteer teaches.” Behr just looked at the road.
When they’d passed Bloomington, and the signs for Monroe Lake and French Lick started popping up, Susan pointed out the window at a Kroger. “We should stop and get something.” Behr turned off.
Too many signs in the front windows, place is ripe for a strong-arm job, Behr thought, following Susan through the store. An armed team comes in and locks the door, and no one outside can tell there’s a robbery in progress. If someone does trip an alarm, suddenly you’re in a Dirty Harry movie. No clean views or angles from outside for the cops once they did arrive. Most urban stores consider this when they’re hanging their specials posters.
He almost bumped into Susan when she stopped at a refrigerated produce case and he nearly shook his head to clear out the useless chatter in it.
“How does this look?” she asked, holding up a tray of cut celery, carrots, and either cucumber or zucchini. “Some crudites?”
Behr shrugged. She put it down. “You’re right, don’t overthink it. Beer.” He followed her down an aisle and felt his feet slowing and his head turning. They were in the pharmacy area on the way to the beverage section. There was a shelf full of boxes-pastel pink with maroon script writing-that seemed familiar. He slowed to a stop. He knew why. There was a torn piece of cardboard in his bathroom trash can-a box flap, which contained a few letters but no full words-that he could swear was from the same product. Looking at it now he saw it was an at-home pregnancy test. Early Response. Doesn’t mean anything, he said to himself and glanced ahead at Susan, who was just turning the corner at the end of the aisle. He continued walking, no longer feeling his feet. Before long he was holding a twelve-pack of Heineken, then putting it down on the black rubber conveyor belt, paying for it, and they were back in the car.
Lake Monroe glittered like a handful of uncut diamonds had been thrown down on its surface. The trees were bunched thick and green along the shore. The sound of birds was ripped by the powerboats and WaveRunners that gnashed across the water. There was a small sprig of dock with a twenty-five-foot Bayliner tied to it, and not far away about a dozen people were clustered around a picnic table loaded down with cold cuts, coolers, grocery bags, and a sack of charcoal. Susan led the way in. Behr followed, carrying the beer.
“Hey, y’all,” she said, moving into the group, fake shoulder bumping a few of them. A round of “Susan!” went up. It was clear to Behr she was pretty high on the popularity depth chart. Susan turned, making room for him, and he plunked down the Heinekens on a corner of the table, and then she introduced him around. “Welcome, welcome,” said her boss, Ed Lindsey, head of circulation for the Indianapolis Star. He was an older man with curly hair and a potbelly, and Behr liked him immediately. The same didn’t go for Chad Quell, a twenty-five-year-old with a big white smile and an expensive haircut.
“So this is your better half, huh Suzy Q.?” Chad said to her as if Behr wasn’t there. “You told him lake not funeral, right?”
“Chad is in ad sales,” Susan said to fill the resulting awkward silence.
“Don’t underrate me, I am ad sales.” He smiled.
“And modest,” she said.
“It’s true, I’m not top dog. Yet. But the guy who is? He’s like forty-three, so it won’t be long before I run him down.”
“Hard to believe the newspaper business is collapsing with you in it,” Behr said, putting a pretty good pall over the proceedings. But Susan’s boss bailed him out.
“You just keep selling, Chad,” Lindsey stated, “the rest will work itself out.”
“So says the old hand,” the kid answered, before he ripped open the twelve-pack and helped himself to a beer. “It’s cocktail hour somewhere, isn’t it?” he said to the group. There were a few takers. He offered one to Susan.
“Too early for me,” she declined. Chad shrugged and started loading the rest into a cooler that already held a good supply of domestic light. Frank said hello to several other men and women from various departments on the paper, and also met the petite Mrs. Lindsey, “Call me Claire,” who appeared from somewhere holding a big bowl of German potato salad.
“Oh, come with me, Frank,” Susan said, pulling him away from the group to where a tall, thin man with salt and pepper hair stood smoking.
“Frank, this is Neil Ratay.”
Ratay turned. “Hello, Susan.”
