“You’re a good citizen, Donovan.”
The hostess brought out waiter to us, and we followed him to our seats. Of course, everyone in the bar and restaurant gave Quinn a wide berth. As we walked past him, a drunk guy said to a friend, “Gimme your cell phone, I think I just sighted Bigfoot,” but instead of laughing, his drinking buddy moved away. Quinn seemed not to notice. He was actually chuckling.
“What are you laughing at?” I said.
“I just remembered the name of the movie star you look like.”
“Stop!” I said, “don’t tell me.”
“Fine. But you know who I’m talking about.”
“I feel like an idiot, taking this face out in public.”
“Th e chicks seem to like it,” he said. “You’re getting more fingers pointed at you than William Shatner at a Star Trek convention.”
Although I felt it was more likely the fingers were being pointed at Quinn, I said, “This is my test drive. So far so good, meaning, you’re the only one who’s laughed.”
“I’m not used to you with—what is it, sandy blond hair?”
“Light brown.”
“How often you have to dye that?”
“Regularly.”
“And the eyebrows?”
“Let’s change the subject,” I said. “How’s Alison these days?”
“Ouch. How would I know? I haven’t seen her in years. How’s Kathleen?”
“The same. What happened with Afaya?”
“He never showed up. One morning his “cousin” was at work in Denver, took his usual lunch break, never came back.”
“Someone tip him off ?”
“That’s what Darwin thinks, but it doesn’t matter. The threat went away.”
“How’d you and Alison start dating?”
“Who said we did?”
“Lou Kelly.”
Quinn stared at me a moment. “I guess you could call it dating. It lasted a couple of weeks, is all.”
I nodded, took a sip of my drink. He knew I was waiting for him to tell me how he and Alison got together sexually, when he was supposed to be training her to kill people. He finally did.
“She thought with you dead, maybe I’d give her the high-paying job you promised. I didn’t discourage her from thinking that.”
“You dog.”
“Woof. So anyway, when she realized that wasn’t gonna happen, she bolted.”
“You never heard from her again?”
Quinn laughed. “I know. You’d think, sensitive guy like me, she’d call whenever it rains or when she’s feeling blue,
