Oren
I raised the glass of tea and toasted it. ‘To Kay Jakobson.’
She raised her glass and said to Walter, ‘Edgar digs up bodies for pay.’
‘I’m a procurer,’ I said.
Walter slapped a yellow fly that had landed on his neck. ‘Drink your tea, buy your painting, and move along,’ he said.
‘We haven’t even started talking, honey,’ Kay said.
I said, ‘I would like to stay a day or two, if that’s all right.’ Act One, Scene One, Paul called this. I called it Poking Walter and Kay with a stick.
‘No, that’s not all right,’ Walter said.
I said, ‘I’ll pay for room and board. I don’t want to put you out.’
Walter said, ‘You sure as hell—’
I said to Kay, ‘I want to know how you do what you do, and the thoughts that go into your work. For me, it’s all about the method.’
She shook her head. ‘We really have no room—’
‘I’ll sleep on a couch,’ I said. ‘Or here on the porch. I’ll be no trouble.’
Walter moved close. I was taller than he was but I knew what he could do. He said, ‘My wife said no.’
I put my tea on the floor and pulled a roll of bills from my pocket. I counted eight fifties and tried to give them to him. ‘For two nights,’ I said.
He looked at the money. ‘You would pay four hundred dollars to sleep out on a porch?’
‘Or inside on a couch,’ I said.
He looked at Kay. She shook her head, but he snatched the bills from my hand. ‘One night only,’ he said. ‘And then you go out the gate and down the road.’
I counted another three fifties and handed them to him. ‘In case we want more time,’ I said. ‘If we’re done after one night, I’ll go, and you can keep the money.’
Walter stared at me as if he knew that I had tricked him. But he couldn’t see the angle. He said, ‘We’ll give you the couch.’
Kay said, ‘No, we’ll give him Cristofer’s room.’
I said, ‘I don’t want to inconvenience you.’
‘You passed that marker a mile back,’ Walter said.
‘Cristofer can sleep in with us or on the couch,’ Kay said. ‘If we’re putting you up, the least we can do is give you a bed.’
‘The boy’s room is dirty,’ said Walter. ‘Holes in the walls.’
I said, ‘I’m sure I’ll be comfortable.’
‘The room smells,’ Walter said. ‘But the boy can’t help it.’
‘I’ll open a window,’ I said.
Walter shook his head. ‘The window is nailed shut. And we’ve put locks on the door – the outside of the door. For his own good. We won’t lock them while you’re here.’
‘I’ll be no trouble,’ I said, and the time seemed right to cause more trouble. I got my cell phone and started to dial.
‘You won’t get a signal unless you go out by the bridge,’ Lexi said.
So I hung up and put the phone away. I said, ‘Can you open the gate so my driver can bring in our things?’
Walter said, ‘Our things?’
‘His and mine,’ I said, like it was obvious. ‘You didn’t think I walked from Atlanta?’
Kay said, ‘We thought you flew – or drove yourself.’
Walter said, ‘You can spend the night. Only you. One night only.’
‘He’ll sleep on the floor next to the bed,’ I said. ‘No trouble at all.’
‘Send him out by the airport,’ said Walter. ‘There’s motels. You can call him in the morning and he can pick you up.’
‘I want to leave as soon as my business is done,’ I said.
Open the gate, said the plan. Then open it wider.
I said, ‘You won’t even know he’s here.’
‘Let him stay,’ Lexi said.
Walter turned on her. ‘Did we ask you?’
‘You never ask me,’ she said. Her eyes glinted the way they did when she named me Edgar Allan.
‘That’s because your opinion isn’t worth knowing,’ he said.
‘Let him stay,’ Kay said.
Walter looked at her as if she was betraying him.
‘It’s just one night,’ she said. ‘They’ll leave tomorrow. Isn’t that right, Edgar?’
‘If you want us to,’ I said.
Walter said to Kay, ‘Don’t be a fool. You don’t know who this man is.’
She said, ‘He looks like a boy I used to know.’
I felt a shiver. ‘I get that all the time,’ I said.
‘Shall I open the gate?’ Lexi asked.