“Well,” Rita said as we drove back to Boston, “that went well.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever seen you take offense before,” I said.
“Can’t remember it myself,” Rita said. “What did he do to offend you?”
“Asked me if I’d had sex with you.”
“And you were ashamed to admit you hadn’t?” Rita said.
“No, it was the way he asked,” I said.
“Yes,” Rita said. “There’s such contempt.”
“He’ll be tough to defend,” I said.
Rita nodded.
“Everyone on the jury will hate him,” I said.
“I’d probably try to avoid a jury trial,” Rita said.
“We could dump him,” I said.
“Nothing would please me more, but we won’t,” Rita said.
“Neither one of us?”
“Neither one,” Rita said. “You know it and I know it.”
“I might,” I said.
“Nope,” Rita said. “It’s ego. We both think we’re the best there is at what we do.”
“Well, yeah,” I said.
“And we both want to know what happened in that hotel room.”
“True,” I said.
“It’s what we do,” Rita said. “Plus, you have this gallop-tothe-rescue fixation.”
“Like I was telling you,” I said. “I would never dump Jumbo.”
“I admire that in you,” Rita said. “But since we have both called him an asshole and stomped out of the room, how are we going to go about this?”
“How about Zebulon Sixkill?” I said.
“I don’t like talking to him,” Rita said. “He scares the hell out of me.”
“Was he around that night?” I said.
“I assume so,” Rita said. “He always is. They had a twobedroom suite in the hotel. Before the studio tried to hide him out here.”
“You know he was there?”
“Says he was in the living room,” Rita said. “Watching television.”
“Maybe I’ll talk to him,” I said.
“How you going to get him alone?”
“Maybe I won’t,” I said. “Maybe I’ll have to talk with him in front of Jumbo.”
“Won’t Jumbo tell him to throw you out again?”
“Might,” I said.
“Doesn’t Zebulon Sixkill scare the hell out of you?” Rita said.
“He does,” I said. “But I’ll try to work around it.”
“Actually, it was a silly question,” Rita said. “We both know you’re not afraid of him.”
“No?” I said.
“You should be,” she said. “But you’re not.”
“Why do you suppose that is?” I said.
“Because you’re heroic?” Rita said.
“That would be my thinking,” I said.