Do you like your sandwich? Christy asked me as the goodolddays talk started to wind down.
It is very good, I said. Thank you for making dinner.
Mary Jo gave me a look. Id have thought that just having flown in and being hurt, someone else could have cooked tonight, Christy.
That was my job, said Jesse. But Mom said
I told her that I wanted to make her favorite dinner because I dont get much chance to see her. Christy looked up, her blue eyesJesses eyesswam with tears that she bravely held back. I know thats my fault. Im not a good mother.
She wasnt lying. She believed everything that she said. I had to give her credit for accepting the responsibility for what shed put Jesse throughbut the thing was, she was looking at Adam when she said it. Then she looked around the table. She didnt look at Jesse. This wasnt an
apology; it was a play for sympathy. I wasnt the only one who noticed.
Jesse put her fork down, carefully. Thank you for dinner, Mom. It was good. I just am not feeling well tonight. Im going to head up and do some homework.
She picked up her plate and carried it into the kitchen and left us in silence. If I said anything, I worried shed make Jesses leaving or her bad parenting my fault, so I kept my mouth shut. I dont know why no one else said anything.
You see? said Christy huskily as soon as Jesse was out of human earshot. I dont know why I said that, I knew it would upset her. She doesnt want to hurt my feelingsbut she cant lie, either.
Id lived through Christys drama for a while now Sorry, Jesse, I know I was supposed to pick you up or you were supposed to fly down, but it just isnt convenient right now with reasons that varied from new boyfriends to trips to Rio. Work trips, really. I knew that she was good at manipulating people, and still the expression on her bruised face made me feel bad for her.
Its all right, Mary Jo told her. Youll have time now to fix things between you.
And abruptly all my sympathy died away, washed away by dismay. Just how long was Christy planning to stay?
I dont know, Christy murmured sadly, her fork playing with the remnants of her salad. Id like to think so.
Adam patted her on the shoulder.
I ate with steady determination that was not helped at all by the fact that the food was good. I could cook anything that went into the oven as long as it had sugar and chocolate in it. Beyond that, I was a pretty indifferent cook. Adam was a lot better than I, but his exwife was practically a gourmet chef. Shed made the mayonnaise on the BLTs from scratch.
So, Warren said, putting his silverware on his empty plate. If you are through eating, Ive got some questions about this exboyfriend of yours.
Shes hurt and tired, said Mary Jo. Cant questions wait until shes had a chance to recover?
No, said Adam. We need to deal with him, so Christy can go back to Eugene and get on with her life.
Christy turned her wet blue eyes on my husband, and said, Ive been thinking of moving back home.
The food I had just swallowed went down wrong and sent me off in a paroxysm of coughing.
3
Well, now, said Warren over the top of my coughing, Texas thick in his voice. I dont know bout all that, Miss Christy. Where you live is up to you. But the sooner we get rid of the man who is scaring you, the safer you are going to be. So Im going to ask you to tell me how you met him and everything you can remember about him.
Christys eyes got bigger at the solid authority in his voice, and she looked as though she were sixteen instead of the over forty I was sure of. Okay, she said.
He reached behind him and grabbed the notebook hed tossed on the floor when wed sat down, and said, Lets start with the first meeting. When and where?
A couple of months agoearly February, I can check for the exact date. My girlfriends and I were out gambling, a weekend in Reno. Wed gone to a show and were finishing up the night with dinner in one of the casinos. There were a lot of people around, and since we do this once a month, there were even a lot of people we knew. She played with her plate. This man came up to our table. He was beautifulyounger than me, in a suit that You know that bluegray suit you had that was so expensive?
Adam nodded, and I found that I was jealous of her memory of seeing him in a suit, even though he wore suits a lot. But Id never seen him in the bluegray suit that she was talking about.
She kept her eyes on my husband as she continued. It reminded me of that, not in color, but in the way it was shaped. He looked expensive, but not in a kept man or Im going to impress you kind of way. His eyes were bright, and he ignored the others, just looked at me. Tall, golden hair, swarthy skinnot the warm tones you usually see with South American Hispanics. More like Mediterranean dark. He was big.
How big?
She looked at Warren. Taller than you. Heavierbut all muscle. Like a bodybuilder. Her eyes strayed to Adam. He must spend a lot of time in the gym because the only other man Ive seen quite that muscular is Adam. And when he looked at me, he saw me. Intense.