Razzamatazz

'Annie told you?' he asked, slightly annoyed.

'Everyone but. People saw your car. Or you. You can't do anything in secret here.'

'Except kill people.'

'I guess,' she sighed.

'Church was interesting. A lot different from what I grew up with. I never heard a woman preacher before. She's good.'

'The best.'

'Is she seeing anyone?'

'You mean dating?'

He nodded.

'No. I think she's still getting over her husband's death. A few men have asked her out but she hasn't been interested.'

'She seems nice.'

Sarah smiled. 'She is nice, Colin. And so are you.'

'Matchmaker.' He smiled.

'Sorry.'

'It's okay. See you later.' At the typesetter's room he stuck his head in the door. 'Sparky, let me know when you have Page Three set.'

'Yo,' Sparky answered.

In his office Colin pushed aside the hospital material and began shuffling through items for the back of the book, but he still couldn't concentrate. He kept thinking about Annie and-Nancy. Dr. Safier had warned him about this. It was inevitable, he'd said, that when Colin met a woman whom he found appealing, he would compare her to Nancy.

Colin couldn't believe he was doing it already. There really was nothing to compare. He'd spent forty-five minutes alone with Annie. But even in that short time he'd found he liked her. She was smart and funny, interesting and attractive. So had Nancy been. Fuck it.

He switched over to the bound issue of the Seaville Gazette of twenty-five years before, opened it up and ran his finger over the columns until he came to one that looked interesting.

Due to numerous complaints regarding the speeding of motorcars and the disturbance caused by blaring car radios and exhaust cutouts by teenaged motorists, the Seaville Police Department started a drive this week against teenaged motorists who create disturbances late at night.

As they said in his youth, Colin thought, rots of ruck! Twenty-five years later they still had the same problem in Seaville. It was just like the dog leash law. According to Mark, an article on that subject had been in the paper every year at the beginning of summer for the last thirty years. He decided to use the teenage-motorists piece and marked the place with an index card. As he was opening the book for fifty years before, Babe Parkinson came into his office.

'You're looking mighty dour,' she said.

'Am I?'

'Mmmm. Rough weekend?' She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

'A rough weekend for everybody.'

'Ah, yes, that. Terrible. You were on the scene again, I hear.'

Had he heard an incriminating hint in what she said or was he just imagining it? 'Me and about two hundred other people,' he responded.

She touched a hand to the back of her hair. 'Don't get testy, sport.'

'I'm not. It's just that your lack of sensitivity boggles the mind.'

'Really? Well, my mind's boggled by your lack of ambition.'

'What's that mean?'

'Mark's given me the Higbee kid story to write. How come?'

He played with a paper clip. 'I guess he thinks you'd do a good job. Why look a gift horse-'

'Puleeze, Maguire, don't treat me like some asshole just 'cause I was born and bred here. I've been to the big city, you know.'

He felt uneasy, under fire. And he was pissed off at Mark; he'd thought he'd write the story himself, not draw attention to Colin's abdication. 'I didn't want to write it.'

Babe said, 'Clearly. The question is, why not?'

'I don't think I have to answer to you, Babe.'

She leveled her green eyes at him. 'You can't blame me for wondering, can you?'

He couldn't. Had it been reversed he would have had the same questions. Still, he didn't know what reason to give her, so he remained silent.

She said, 'No, Babe, can't say that I blame you. Good, Maguire, I'm glad you see it my way. Sure thing, Babe. So, Maguire, how about answering why you gave up a super story, something that doesn't come around too often in the career of a small-town journalist? Well, Babe, its like this-' she gestured toward him, palm up, indicating he was on.

'Give me a break,' he said softly.

'No, you have it backwards. It's you who's given me a break. And I appreciate it, I do. But what's the catch?'

'No catch.'

'You just didn't feel like writing this story. You'd rather do something fascinating like covering the zoning board meeting or maybe another little piece on how Temik is polluting our water? Sure, that makes perfect sense.'

'It's really none of your business why I don't want to do the story, but I'll tell you anyway.' He took a deep breath, having no idea what he was going to say. 'Something happened when I was a kid, to my sister,' he lied. 'I'm not going into it. Suffice it to say I have a hard time writing things-bad things-about kids. Okay? Can we leave it at that?'

'Sure. I'm sorry.'

She didn't look sorry, Colin noted.

'Want to have lunch?' she asked.

'Can't. I have too much work.'

'You have to eat.'

'Not today.'

She stretched, giving him an eyeful of her breasts. 'Catch you later.'

He watched her walk away, ass swinging. Now he found himself comparing Annie to Babe. Feature by feature maybe Babe was better looking but Annie had class, sweetness, and strength. Babe was strong but had no vulnerability. What bothered him most about Babe was her ruthlessness. There were reporters like that in Chicago and he'd never liked any of them. When his family was murdered there were two of them who'd taken advantage of their relationship with him; he'd expected it from one but the other surprised him. And it had hurt. At least Babe could never hurt him; he knew exactly what to expect.

In a moment Annie was back in his mind. Then it hit him. How the hell was he going to explain why he had to meet her at the restaurant instead of picking her up? And what about after dinner? Would she invite him back to her house even though they were in separate cars? Maybe he should forget the whole damn thing. But that wasn't acceptable. Besides, she undoubtedly knew about his problem from the way he'd behaved the first day they met.

Recalling her laugh, her eyes, her mouth, he decided that nothing was going to stop him from seeing her Saturday night. Not nerves, panic attacks, revelations, or comparisons. Nothing.

At the counter of the Paradise, Babe Parkinson stared down at her scoop of tuna on a leaf of worn lettuce. She kept going over her little chat with Colin. About the sister. Why couldn't he tell her what had happened? Babe could only think of two reasons: Either the sister had died some terrible way and Colin was responsible for it, or he was lying and there was a whole other reason he couldn't write the Higbee story. She didn't know why but she favored the second.

Then she got an idea and smiled, thinking if somebody was drawing this they'd put a light bulb over her head. She reached inside her red Sportsac bag and pulled out a battered address book, turned to R, and ran her finger