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.I think he enjoyed the friendly atmosphere around here.He could relax and just be young.I think Lewis tried to act much more sophisticated than he really was.The young people have fun around the table, as well asgetting a decent meal.I don t preach at them with every mouthful, you know. He smiled dryly. As you know, he presumably never made it.His reply was sharp and fast. There was nothing presumable about it! Neither my wife nor I saw Lewis that night nor since, obviously.His wife! I had forgotten all about her.Where the hell was she and their toddler, a little girl, I thought. Oh, yes, Mrs.Bartles.Aunt Mae thinks so highly of her, I fabricated without a qualm. And your little one.I had hoped to meetthem. I looked up at him and knew, as well as I knew it was Friday, that he was about to lie to me. Well, another time, I m sure, he gushed. Emmy s gone to the supermarket.Sometimes it seems to me one of us is always at the supermarket, ha ha.Well, she ll be sorry to have missed you, but I mustn t keep you. Hewalked to the door, so I really had no choice but to follow.He bowed and thanked me out and closed the door firmly.As I walked past the garage I noticed a stack of freshly cut logs and, past them, a frost-nipped vegetable garden mulched with sawdust.I got in the car and sat for a moment.I turned to Fargo and scratched that special placeon his ribs that makes him kick his back foot. Darling dog, I said,  yes, I saw the garden.Now.you and I know very little about children, but if you were a mother going grocery shopping, would you prefer to leave your two-year-old at home with daddy or drag her withyou? He wiggled, which may have been a shrug, but I took it as agreement to my own doubts.I started the car and we took what would be the normal route from the Rev s to the market.We did not pass the van headed home.We did not find it in the market parking lot.Of course, she might have been anywhere, doing other errands or visiting a friend.But I didn t think so.I thought she was gone, as in packed up and gone.That would account for the piled-up dishes and for the lack of babyparaphernalia lying around the kitchen.Why had she gone, and where?I pondered the possibilities as we headed for Beech Forest and a run.Maybe there had been illness or other emergency in her family.Maybe she just needed a break and was spending a few days with a relative or friend.Butany of those would be a perfectly normal reason for her absence, and no reason for Bartles to lie.Maybe they had a fight and she went home to Mums.That would be normal enough, too, actually.I assumed preachers and their spouses had occasional rows.And probably for the same reasons we all had.I had no reason inthe world to think her absence had anything to do with Lewis.I really didn t.But I did.Maybe her body would turn up on Harmon s next driftwood hunt.Obviously Fargo didn t intend to brood on it.The minute I pulled into the parking lot near the picnic area of the forest and opened his door, he spotted a browsing rabbit and took off.He was a hundred yards down the trail andbarking joyously before I was out of the car.I didn t blame him for his joy.It was a lovely place to be this autumn day.Some of the copper leaves had fallen, but most were still attached, rustling in the light air like the skirts of anEdwardian lady pacing her garden path.I shrugged and began to walk along the quiet way.I would catch up with him sooner or later.It was later.Fargo circled the entire pond in happy pursuit of anything that moved.Finally, Isimply sat on a concrete bench and nabbed him on his second lap.Chapter 16When I finally got home, there was a small package inside a supermarket bag tucked in the back screen door.It was beautifully wrapped in lavender flowered paper with a purple bow, and I knew what it was.Sure enough, itwas the tape of Peter s performance, with a hand-painted label entitled Peter Mellon Remembers Judy and a photo of Peter in costume.I was delighted, and, when I opened the little card that accompanied it, touched. Peterand Wolf will remember Alex with fondness and gratitude.I reminded myself not to get too sentimental.Murderers, I had learned the hard way, did not always have little horns and cloven hooves to make the I.D.easier.Maybe I d run the tape tonight.Right now I had to go through a pile of mail so high it was about to spill off the desk, do a little bookkeeping and that sort of fun activity almost, but not quite, as bad as housekeeping.I turned onMSNBC, more for background noise than any real hope of interesting news at this time of day.I had made some inroads into the paperwork when a commercial penetrated my consciousness some bank touting its  friendly ATM service.How could an ATM be friendly, I wondered.Then I jumped.Friendly or not, I dbetter get to the one at the bank.I was very nearly out of cash.It was also a good excuse to quit what I was doing.I took the car.I d had enough walking pursuing the damn dog around miles of trail this morning.When I got to thebank parking lot, I saw that the ATM had a line either it had eaten someone s card again or it was into its sulky mode, repeatedly flashing,  That is not a valid command. I went inside.After I completed my brief business with a teller and turned to leave, I heard Mr.Ellis s fruity voice. Alexandra, my dear, wait up and meet Cynthia Hart, our new Financial Services Manager.I put on my official welcoming smile and turned to meet again the blonde, serious young woman I had last seen at Kudlow Securities in Providence.Instead, I faced a petite young woman with crisp dark curls and a widemobile mouth beneath a nose that just missed being Roman, and brown eyes that were right up there with Fargo s for warmth and expression.My smile became quite genuine, as I realized that whomever I had teased inKudlow s hallway, it had not been Cynthia Hart! Ms.Hart, Ellis continued,  meet Alexandra Peres, not only a valued client of our bank, but also an outstanding nature photographer, whose work we plan to exhibit in a few months.My dear  he shook her hand warmly inboth of his  I have some calls backed up.If you will forgive me, I will say goodbye here, and I ll see you a week from Monday.Cynthia and I stood, smiling at each other, but seemingly with nothing to say.Finally, I indicated the side door. Are you parked out here? She nodded, so I said,  Okay, I ll walk you out.We got to my car first and Fargo stuck his head out the window.Cynthia reached out and began gently to scratch his cheek.His neck stretched and his nose went up in ecstasy. Oh, yes, lovely boy, that s a great spot, isn t it?she asked. Fargo, meet Cynthia. Oh, call me Cindy, please.Cynthia makes me think I m back in school. Ah, then I can revert to Alex.Thank God we ve cleared that hurdle.May I buy you a drink or coffee? I d love it.But right now, I m on sort of a tight timetable, and Mr.Ellis is.well. She glanced at her watch. I m in kind of a bind, she said. Perhaps you could help.I was hoping that today or certainly by tomorrow, I mightlocate I guess an apartment, although I d dearly love a cottage if it s not too expensive.I need a year-round rental.Am I in trouble? What would you say is my best bet? The paper? A realtor? She ran out of breath [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]