there. Here, it's on the end of the wire that goes to the blasting cap. This wire connects the clock to the battery, and this other one goes from the battery to the blasting cap. You see how it works? The hour hand comes around, touches the screw set for eleven o'clock, the circuit is closed and the dynamite blows. Only the screw came out 'cause somebody did a half-assed job putting it together. It's simpler if you use the old-fashioned kind of alarm clock with the bell on top, you don't need the screw. You run your wires, one from the bell, the other from the hammer, the dinger, set the alarm and when it rings, that's it. You're probably lucky they didn't use that kind. The screw wasn't set in tight enough. You threw the bag, it hit the diving board and that's when it probably came out.' Chris picked up the taped sticks of dynamite and placed them in the bag. 'Let me have a towel, okay? I'll get dressed and we'll put this somewhere.'
Donnell, hands on his knees, began to straighten with a thoughtful kind of frown, his mind working.
'Man, you knew it, didn't you? You look at this shit laying on the bottom, you knew it wasn't gonna go off. You run the price up on me with nothing to worry about.'
Chris said, 'That's why people like me like to get hired by people like you.'
Chris kept glancing at her, waiting, until finally he said, 'Well? What happened?'
Greta said, 'Have you ever noticed, the corners of his mouth are always sticky? He opens his mouth and you can see, it's like old saliva stuck there. I kept thinking about that time he kissed me.'
'Not the other?'
'Well, both, but I was looking at his mouth. He never wipes it. Anyway, I told him I wanted a hundred thousand.'
'You did?'
'What's the difference? Whatever I ask for, I'd just be picking it out of the air.'
'What'd he say?'
'You won't believe this. He asked me to marry him.'
Chris looked at her and the Cadillac jumped lanes and he had to get straightened out before he said, 'Come on.'
'I'm not kidding. I said, 'Look, let's just settle this and I'll leave. There's no way in the world I'd ever marry you.' '
'Yeah?'
'And then he tells me how he's worth a hundred million dollars and we'd share it, a hundred million.'
'Jesus Christ.'
'I said, No, I wouldn't. He said, Think about it.'
'Yeah?'
'That's all.'
'What do you mean, that's all? Are you thinking about it?'
'Of course not. He said we should get to know each other before I decide.'
'Jesus Christ.'
'And if I'd rather have a hundred thousand than a hundred million he'd give it to me.'
'He said that?'
'Well, not in so many words. It took him a while.'
Chris turned east on Eight Mile and for several moments had to concentrate on the traffic. Greta was silent.
'What're you doing, thinking about it?'
'No, I'm not thinking about it.'
'What're you doing?'
'I'm not doing anything, I'm sitting here.'
'What about the settlement?'
'I go back, tell him I've thought about it . . . I guess, and then he gives it to me.'
'You mean you're gonna think about it?'
'No, but I have to tell him I did.'
'Why? Just tell him you want the hundred thousand.'
'I feel sorry for him.'
'What does that mean?'
'Why're you so picky? Can't I feel sorry for him?'
'I guess if you want to,' Chris said, reaching into his inside coat pocket. 'I didn't get a proposal of marriage, but I didn't do too bad.' He brought out Woody's check and handed it to Greta. 'Twenty-five grand, for cleaning out his swimming pool.'
'Hi, it's me,' Robin's voice said.
Donnell said, 'It is, huh?'
He stood at the desk in the library. Mr. Woody, over watching Arnold Schwarzenegger killing dudes with his big two-hand sword, hadn't even looked up when the phone rang.
'Are you all right?'
'Just fine.'
'I waited for the six o'clock news before I called. You want to tell me what happened?'
'I'll tell you something,' Donnell said, 'but not on the telephone.'
'Great, I was hoping you'd say that,' Robin's voice said. 'Can we meet?'
'You want to take the chance, we can.'
'What does that mean?'
'Girl, I don't have nice things to say to you.'
'I'll bet you a million dollars,' Robin's voice said, 'you change your mind.'
Chapter 21
Chris and Greta were in his dad's king-size bed with both the gooseneck lamps, mounted above the headboard, turned on: Chris reading Robin Abbott's May-August 1970 journal, Greta reading photocopied material from various Donnell Lewis case files. She told Chris her first husband never read in bed, he watched TV. Then corrected that. 'I mean the only husband I ever had.' Chris said, 'Uh-huh.' He had on a pair of his dad's reading glasses, and she felt she was seeing another side of him. Greta looked over one time and said, 'Excuse me, do I know you?' About eleven thirty he went out to the kitchen and brought back two cans of beer. Greta looked at him in his underwear and said, 'You have scars on your legs,' sounding surprised. 'What in the world happened to you?' He got back in bed and told her about the old Vietnamese guy standing on the hand grenade, Greta sitting up chewing on her thumbnail, not saying a word. He finished and she kissed him, her eyes moist. They kissed some more and Greta asked Chris who did he think he was, Woody Allen? Woody was always making out in bed with Diane Keaton or somebody with his glasses on. In movies, anyway. They let it happen and made love, trying to take their time but then hurrying to get there. While they were drinking their beer Greta said, 'Whenever you feel like showing me your scars, you can.' Then after a few minutes she said, 'Here your glasses, Dad,' and they got back to reading, feeling at home with each other propped up on their pillows.
They would tell each other about parts they were reading.
Greta said Donnell Lewis had been arrested fourteen times but only went to prison once. She asked Chris, 'You ever hear of being charged with creating an improper diversion? Violation of ordinance N.H. 613.404.' He was selling Black Panther newspapers in downtown Detroit when he spotted a couple of undercover detectives watching him. So he pointed to them and told everybody that came by to look out for the pigs. He also called them fascist buffoon fools. The detectives said they were watching for pickpockets and when Donnell revealed their identity, that was the improper diversion. Three other times, while he was selling Black Panther papers, he was arrested for resisting and obstructing. Once he had to go to Detroit Generalto get ten stitches in the top of his head. The arresting officer said Donnell ran into a wall trying to avoid arrest. He was in a store collecting money for their kids' breakfast program and was arrested for attempting to commit extortion. The charge was reduced to soliciting for a
