contact, and then a thin smile came to his lips. I turned away, not acknowledging our brief connection. It was not the circumstances that kept my expression in check, but my sudden awareness that the police didn’t believe Carolyn’s death had been an accident.
5.
Nicky wanted to return to his own house that evening.
“I’ve imposed on you and Anne enough,” he said.
I told him it was too soon, but Anne pulled me aside and said that Nicky was right. Not that he’d imposed on us, of course, but that he had to get back to living his life at some point, and there would never be a right time. At least if he did it tonight, she reasoned, I could go with him and help him settle in.
“Make sure he’s got food in the refrigerator and throw out anything that smells. That type of thing. And, of course, make sure there are no reminders of Carolyn’s death. After he’s settled, you can take the train back into the city.”
As soon as we arrived at Nicky’s place, he made a beeline to the kitchen. He returned with two tumblers and took them over to the credenza in the living room that he kept stocked with alcohol. He pulled out a bottle of Johnnie Walker.
“Pour one for me and I’ll join you in a minute,” I said, trying not to make my agenda obvious.
The master bedroom was on the first floor, at the back of the house. The bathroom was not en suite but located a few feet down the hall. It had been four days since Carolyn’s death, and in that period, scores of law enforcement personnel had traipsed through. If I’d hazarded a guess at what I would find, it would have included some blood, if Carolyn had indeed struck her head. Perhaps water that had collected on the floor but not yet evaporated. At a minimum, I assumed that towels would be strewn about. To my surprise, though, the room was pristine. Not so much as a Q-tip out of place.
Carolyn’s presence was everywhere, however. Her toothbrush, contact lens case, glasses, hairbrush, makeup bag, and magnifying mirror were on the bathroom sink, and her towel and robe were on a hook beside Nicky’s. I was tempted to hide it all but feared that Nicky would find the absence of Carolyn’s things even more unsettling, so I left everything exactly as I’d found it.
When I joined Nicky again in the living room, he was on the sofa, his glass now half-empty. A second glass, untouched, awaited my return. When I took my drink, I contemplated toasting Carolyn’s memory but thought better of it. Perhaps, I thought, Nicky wanted some time to reflect in silence. So I sat beside him, and we drank without saying a word.
Finally Nicky said, “I know it’s what everyone says, but I really can’t believe she’s gone. She should be here with us right now. Not . . . six feet underground in a box.”
“It’s a terrible, terrible tragedy,” was all I could think to say.
“We were talking about having a baby,” he said. “In fact, the last discussion we had was about that. How wonderful it would be to have a child. I asked her if it was the right time for her, career-wise, and you know what she said?”
I shook my head.
“She said that any time is the right time to have a baby.” He shut his eyes and winced. “What day is it, anyway?”
It took me a moment to recall. “Thursday.”
“I don’t remember if I ever called the bar to tell them that I wouldn’t be coming in.”
“You asked me to do it,” I said. “Remember, nearly the entire staff were at the funeral?”
The reference to the funeral apparently required him to finish the rest of his drink. Then he walked back over to the credenza, grabbed the bottle, and brought it back to the sofa.
“Slow down there, cowboy,” I said.
As if I hadn’t spoken a word, Nicky poured himself another double, then topped off my glass. “If you can’t get stinking drunk with your best friend on the day of your wife’s funeral, alcohol should never have been invented in the first place.”
Within the hour, the whisky began working its magic. Like everything else in Nicky’s life, he had mastered alcohol. It took much more than he’d imbibed to get him drunk, but it was enough for him to smile from time to time and allow his mind to range to matters other