Shakespeares Counselor Page 0,12

about five foot ten, his hair is still all black, and his eyes are hazel. He has a scar, a very thin one - a razor scar - running from the hairline close to his right eye down to his jawline. It puckers a very little. He has a narrow, strong nose and straight eyebrows. He's been a private detective since he got urged to resign from the Memphis Police Department about five years ago.

"I like the outfit," he said, as we walked to his car.

"In this heat, I feel like one big smell," I said. "I want to shower and put on something cotton and loose."

"Yes, ma'am. You just happy to see me, or did something interesting happen at the gym?"

"A little bit of both."

When we were in the car and on our way back to Shakespeare, the town where I've lived for five years, I began to tell Jack about my day. "So it was Mandy Easley all along," I concluded. "I guess I found myself a little disappointed."

"You just want to catch Byron doing something," Jack said. I turned, huffing in exasperation, in time to catch the amused curl of his lips flatten out into a serious expression.

"Being a stupid jerk isn't a jailable offense," I admitted.

"Jails wouldn't be big enough," Jack agreed.

"What will happen now?"

"I'll call Mel when we get home."

While Jack was on the phone, I peeled off the nasty unitard and dropped it in the hamper. The shower, in the privacy of my own bathroom, cramped as it was, was just as wonderful as I had anticipated. Drying off was sheer bliss. I fluffed up the wet blond curls that clung to my head, I checked to make sure I'd gotten my legs very smooth, and I put on a lot of deodorant and skin cream before I came out to join Jack. He was putting steaks in a marinade. We didn't eat much beef.

"Special occasion?"

"You caught your first thief."

"And you're going to congratulate me with dead cow?"

He put down the pan and eyed me with some indignation. "Can you think of a better way?"

"Ah ....es."

"And that would be?"

"You're slow on the uptake today," I said critically, and took off my robe.

He caught on right away.

We'd returned to Shakespeare too late to attend karate class, so later that night we took a walk. Jack had spent most of the day sitting down, and he wanted to stretch before bed.

"Mel says thanks," Jack told me, after we'd been clipping along for maybe twenty minutes. "I think he'll call us again if he has any problems. You did a good job." He sounded proud, and that lit an unexpected glow somewhere in my chest.

"So, what next?" I asked.

"We've got a workman's comp job I'm sure you can handle," Jack said. "I get a lot of that kind of case."

"The person is claiming he can't work any more?"

"Yeah. In this case, it's a woman. She fell on a slippery floor at work, now she says she can't bend her back or lift anything. She lives in a small house in Conway. It can be hard watching a house in some neighborhoods, so you may have to be creative."

That was not the adjective that sprang to my mind when I thought of my abilities, so I felt a little anxious.

"I'll need a camera, I'm assuming."

"Yes, and lots of time fillers. A book or two, newspapers, snacks."

"Okay."

We paced along for a few more minutes. A familiar car went by, and I said, "Jack, there's my counselor. And her husband, I think."

We watched the beige sedan turn the corner onto Compton. That was the way we'd planned to go, too, and when we rounded the same corner, we saw the car had stopped in front of an older home. It was built in a style popular in the thirties and forties, boxy and low with a broad roofed porch supported by squat pillars. Tamsin and the man with her had already left their car, and he was at the front door. She was standing slightly behind him. Under the glare of the porch light, I could see he was partially bald, and big. The clink of keys carried across the small yard.

Tamsin screamed.

Jack was there before I was. He moved to one side as I caught up, and I saw that there was a puddle of blood on the gray-painted concrete of the porch. I cast my gaze from side to side, saw nothing that could have produced it.

"There," Jack