Ill see if I can get the waitress, Susan said pleasantly.
Again the waitress was alert. She had nothing else to do. And she was over with Jills second wine almost at once.
So. Jill had a third of her second glass inside her. She sprawled back in her chair and rested her head and looked along her nose at me. You dont fetch things.
I shook my head. You usually bring your girlfriend along when youre protecting someone?
If shell come, I said.
Jill got that crafty, you-have-fallen-in-my-trap look that drunks get at the right point in their drinking.
So if someone tries to kill us, who will you protect first? she said.
Susan, I said.
Jill started to speak and stopped and stared at me. You son of a bitch, she said, finally, and drank the rest of her wine. The waitress knew she had a live one and was right there for the refill.
The point is it isnt likely to work out that way, I said. I dont think someone will try to kill us. If theres trouble, it will be directed at you. Susan will get out of the way, and Ill explode into action.
But youd save her first, ahead of me?
Yeah.
Jill twirled her wineglass slowly by the stem. Now that she had some in her, and more available, she could afford to take it slow. Her eyes were fixed on me. Susan sat quietly, listening, interested as she always was about everything. Two couples with plaid pants and cameras came into the bar and sat at the far side from us. One of the women looked over and whispered to her husband and they stared over.
Then the other two stared. One of the men nodded. The other man said something and all four of them laughed. One of the women slapped her husbands hand as she laughed.
Jill twirled her wineglass,a little.
Well, she said finally, I guess I know where I stand.
I saw something change in Susans face. Jill, she
said, this whole conversation inane.
Excuse me? Jill said.
Youre not worrying about who hell protect. Youre mad because you thought youd have him to yourself today and instead, I showed up and spoiled it.
Well, thank you, Dr. Ruth, Jill said.
From your point of view Im an intruder, Susan said. I understand that. But thats because you have personalized the relationship. If you see it as a professional endeavor, in which he protects you because hes hired to, then the sense of intrusion goes away.
Jill stared at her for a moment. She drank some of her wine. Then she said, Fuck you.
Susan nodded thoughtfully.
Interesting point, she said. Let me put this another way. Since Spenser was hired to protect you, you have been trying every way you can to climb into his lap, and I came along today so that if you tried it again I could kick your fat little butt out into Park Square.
Jills eyes widened. Fat? she said.
Fat, Susan said, and, if I may say so, gone south a little.
Jill began to breathe faster, her eyes still very wide. Tears formed and began to roll down her face. You are through, she said. Both of you are not going to work on my goddamned show again.
Curses, I said.
Take me home, Jill said. Now.
It was a strained and sullen trip back to the Charles Hotel. Jill sat in the back in haughty silence and smoked cigarettes which she lit herself, in a kind of self-imposed martyrdom. She got out when we got there and stalked into the hotel without a word. I drifted along behind her to make sure security was alert. They were. A guy picked her up in the lobby and went up with her in the elevator.
Back in the car I looked at Susan.
I knew youd get her to see it our way, I said.
I shouldnt have lost my temper at her. But Susan shrugged.
Hard not to, I said.
And that damned coquettish Czarina act that she does with you
I nodded. We were cruising along Memorial Drive, heading into town, with the river on our right.
What would you like to do now? I said.
Lets go to your place. You make a fire. Ill make a lunch. Well open a bottle of wine and see what transpires.
Im pretty sure I know what will transpire, I said.
No fair, Susan said. Youre a trained detective.
I nodded and turned right onto the Western Avenue Bridge.
I dont think her fanny is fat, I said.
Susan smiled, the way she does when her face lights up and her eyes get brighter, and you know just what she looked like when she was sixteen. Alls fair in love and war, she said.
Chapter 13
I PICKED Jill up Monday morning and took her to the I studio as if I hadnt been fired. She made no mention of Saturday. It had begun to snow late Sunday night and there was about three inches of soft feathery snow accumulated with no sign of slowing. I had the Cherokee in four-wheel drive and drove with the arrogance that only a man in a four-wheel-drive vehicle can feel. The California guys at the studio were all bundled up like Admiral Byrd as they stumbled around the studio parking lot.
The drivers were gathered in fur-trimmed parkas, holding coffee in thick-gloved hands and kibitzing in the cafeteria downstairs. I followed Jill to the wardrobe office. The door was ajar, and we went in. There was no one there.