Spencerville

The Porters arrived twenty minutes late, which for ex-hippies was pretty good. Out on the porch, Keith took a canvas bag of herbs from Gail, and Jeffrey carried a cardboard box filled with plastic containers. Gail said, "I cooked everything. We wouldn't eat for hours otherwise. You only have to heat it."

"I think I have a stove."

Inside, Gail said, "What a charming house. You grew up here?"

"I was born and raised here. I haven't grown up yet."

She laughed, and Keith showed them into the kitchen. They put the food down, and Gail said, "Curry In A Hurry."

"Excuse me?"

Jeffrey explained, "In Antioch, they had this great little Indian carry-out place called Curry In A Hurry, and every time Gail doesn't want to cook now, she says, 'Call Curry In A Hurry.' But I don't think they'd deliver to Spencerville."

"Worth a try. Hey, I'm sorry to put you out like this."

Gail replied, "No problem. You owed us dinner, and we're glad to deliver it for you."

Jeffrey went back to the car for the wine. As Gail and Keith found pots and pans, she said, "We brought jumper cables. Didn't you buy that car new?"

"There's nothing wrong with the car."

"Oh. I thought..."

"I'll explain later."

"Maybe I can guess. The fuzz is harassing you."

Keith began setting the table. "You got it."

"That's disgusting. You have to fight back, Keith."

"It's a long story. If you brought enough wine, I'll tell you."

"Okay."

Jeffrey returned with three bottles of red wine, and Keith opened one. He emptied a bottle into three big water glasses. "The stemware is out being monogrammed. Cheers."

They drank, then sat at the kitchen table, where Gail had set out crackers and some sort of multicolored spread. Keith asked, "What's this?"

"Vegetable pate."

"Looks like Play-Doh. Tastes good."

They drank wine, ate, talked, but clearly there were some unanswered questions at the table. Gail related to Jeffrey what Keith said about the police, and Jeffrey remarked, "You can't stay here trapped like an animal."

Gail inquired, "When is the last time you've eaten?"

"Am I being a pig?"

"Keith, this is not like you," Jeffrey said. "You can't let the police intimidate you."

"It's a long story. Hey, how are the sales of True Confessions?"

"Incredible," Jeffrey replied. "Sold five hundred copies already. They're being passed around, so we can assume a few thousand people have read it. That's a lot of people for a small county. I think we have this guy on the run. In fact, that's what I was going to tell you on the phone. Who do you think shows up at our door and asks to buy a copy?"

Keith sipped his wine. "Who?"

"You have to guess."

"Cliff Baxter."

Gail laughed. "Close."

"Come on," Jeffrey said, "I told you it was an old friend of yours."

"Annie Baxter."

"Bingo! Can you believe that?"

"I can."

Gail said, "That took some courage." She smiled at Keith. "She looked good."

"Good."

"In fact, for a woman whose husband is being exposed as a blackmailer, graft-taker, and adulterer, she seemed pretty cooled-out. Almost cheerful."

"Maybe she's got a boyfriend."

Gail observed, "That could explain her mood."

Jeffrey said, "We gave her the transcript for free, of course, and we invited her in. I was surprised she accepted. She had a cup of tea. It was nice talking to her again. We caught up on old times." He added, "I told her you were back, and she said she'd run into you outside the post office."

"Right."

Gail inquired, "Did you feel a little thump-thump?"

"Sure."

"Well; I wouldn't be surprised if she's on the market soon," Gail said. She added, "You know, I felt a little bad. I mean, we never intended to cause problems for her at home, but I guess that was a natural result of what we had to do to get at him. But he brought it on himself."

"I suppose. If you play, you pay."

"Unless you have an understanding like Jeffrey and I do. No one can come between us with evidence of infidelity."

"That's an interesting observation. But what if one of you fell deeply in love with a lover?"

"Well..." Gail seemed actually uncomfortable, and obviously something like this had happened to one or the other or both, once, twice, or more times. Gail said, "People fall in love across a room. It's actually less likely to happen with casual sex partners." She added, "Love has less to do with sex than with missing a person when they're not around. Didn't you say your heart went thump when you saw Annie? I mean, after twenty-some years, there's still something there. How many women have you screwed since her?"

"Counting foreigners?"

She laughed, then said, "And why hasn't a good-looking man like you gotten married?"

"I should have called Curry In A Hurry."

Jeffrey smiled. "Leave him alone, Gail. This subject obviously bothers him."

"Right," Keith agreed. He asked, "Are the Spencerville cops giving you guys any trouble?"

Jeffrey shook his head. "Not yet. I mean, Gail is a city councilwoman. I think they're waiting until after the election. We'll see who's still standing then."

Keith looked at both of them. "You ought to be careful in the meantime. Baxter is unstable."