In the night room Page 0,102

warm gleam shared by the pretty little table before the window and the curving arms of several chairs. There were low lamps beside a soft, patterned sofa, a handsome leather chair of remarkable depth with a matching footstool, stacks of books, and vases with cut flowers.

“Philip, this room is beautiful,” he said.

“We’re happy with it. Won’t you please sit down? Can I get you a glass of wine or anything?”

Willy asked for a Coca-Cola, and Tim reeled before the evidence that this formerly fanatical teetotaler had alcoholic beverages in his house and was willing to serve them to his guests.

“I’ll have a Coke, too, Philip. We have an appointment for an interview at the Foundlings’ Shelter in about an hour, so it’s better if I don’t drink. But you’re one surprise after another.”

“Pop might have been an alcoholic, but there was no reason I shouldn’t let myself and my guests enjoy one of life’s simple pleasures. Why are you being interviewed at the Foundlings’ Home?”

“I’m not. I’m interviewing someone for a new project.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it when I get back.” Philip smiled at them, let his gaze linger on Willy for a moment, then smiled again at Tim before he left the room.

Tim smacked his forehead. “That’s not Philip. That’s one of those pod people from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Do you know the shit he used to put me through about drinking?”

“Dimly,” Willy said.

“She got him to change this room,” he said, musing. “That must have required brain surgery and a heart transplant. He would never have done anything to this room.”

“Who is ‘she’?” Willy asked.

Philip, carrying a tray with two glasses filled with ice and Coca-Cola into the room, had heard this question. “She, dear Willy, is China Beech, the woman who rescued me from grief and depression and made a human being of me. I wish she were here now, but she had some business to attend to. You’ll meet her at our wedding, though. I know you’ll love her. Everyone loves China.”

“What kind of business?” Tim asked.

“I’m not too sure. Something to do with one of her buildings, probably.”

“Her buildings?”

“China has buildings here and there, all over town.”

“What do you mean, she has buildings?”

“She owns them. Some are commercial, some are residential, but the apartment buildings are more trouble than they’re worth. I tell her she should cash out, let somebody inherit the worries, but she’s a little sentimental about those apartment buildings. They were where her father started, you know.”

“Your fiancée inherited property from her father?” Tim felt as though he were trying to run uphill through a muddy field.

“Well, yeah, Bill Beech.”

Apparently, land mines dotted the muddy field.

“China’s father was the William Beech?” William Beech had once owned half of downtown Millhaven.

“Didn’t I just tell you that? Willy, how did you and Tim get together? Were you a student of his? That’s how I met China—she was one of our student teachers, and I was, well, her mentor, I guess you could say.”

“We met at a reading of his,” Willy said. “When he learned that I was from Millhaven, too, we decided to drive out here together.”

“You drove?”

“All the way. I thought you told me that your girlfriend was an exotic dancer.”

“That was kind of an in-joke. She’s a tango dancer. So am I, although I’m not nearly as good as she is. She makes me look okay, though. We’re thinking of entering contests one day.”

Philip not only made jokes, he made in-jokes. He danced the tango. He was thinking of entering contests.

“You took me seriously, huh? That’s pretty funny. An exotic dancer is really a stripper, isn’t that right? China’s going to love that. I hope she gets back before you have to go.”

“How long have you known her?”

Philip looked a bit embarrassed. “I met China in September of last year. She helped me deal with my grief. I should say, she helped me to feel my grief.”

He paused. For a short time, it seemed likely that he would start crying. “I never dreamed a woman like that could want to marry me. It’s unbelievable. She let God into my life, and everything has been getting better and better ever since.”

“It seems to have done you no end of good.”

“ ‘No end of good,’ ” Philip said. “ ‘No end of good.’ What a beautiful phrase.” He hesitated. “I don’t suppose you’d like me to talk about my faith, and salvation, and Jesus Christ, and all that?”

“I want