‘Can’t hurt. Like I told Jackie Garner, hard to see the evening recovering from the death of the birthday girl.’
I took the coffee pot to the table, refilled our cups, then gave it to one of the waitresses to bring back. Marielle Vetters sipped delicately from her cup. Her lipstick left no mark.
‘It’s a nice bar,’ she said.
‘It is.’
‘How come they let you use it for . . . this?’
Her left hand drifted lightly through the air, her index finger raised, a gesture that contained both elegance and amusement. Something of it was in her face too: the faintest hint of a smile despite the nature of the story that she was engaged in telling.
‘I work the bar sometimes.’
‘So you’re a part-time private investigator?
‘I prefer to think of myself as a part-time bartender. Anyway, I like it here. I like the staff. I even like most of the customers.’
‘And I guess it’s different, right? Different from “not hunting animals”.’
‘That’s right.’
‘You weren’t just kidding either.’
‘No, I wasn’t.’
The smile came again, a little uneasier this time. ‘I’ve read about you in the newspapers, and on the Internet. What happened to your wife and child – I just don’t know what to say.’
Susan and Jennifer were gone, taken from me by a man who thought that, by spilling their blood, he could fill the emptiness inside himself. The subject of them frequently came up with new clients. I had come to realize that whatever was said came with the best of intentions, and people needed to mention it, more for their own sakes than for mine.
‘Thank you,’ I said.
‘I heard – I don’t know if it’s true – that you have another daughter now.’
‘That’s right.’
‘Does she live with you? I mean, are you still, you know . . .’
‘No, she lives with her mother in Vermont. I see her as often as I can.’
‘I hope you don’t think that I was prying. I’m not a stalker. I just wanted to find out as much as I could about you before I started sharing my father’s secrets with you. I know some cops in the County,’ – nobody in Maine ever referred to it as Aroostook County, just ‘the County’ – ‘and I was tempted to ask them about you as well. I figured they might be able to tell me more than I could find online. In the end, I decided it would be better to say nothing and just see what you were like in person.’
‘And how’s that working out?’
‘Okay, I guess. I thought you’d be taller.’
‘I get that a lot. Better than “I thought you’d be slimmer,” or “I thought you’d have more hair.”’
She rolled her eyes. ‘And they say women are vain. Are you fishing for compliments, Mr Parker?’
‘No. I figure that pond is all fished out.’ I let a few seconds elapse. ‘Why did you decide not to ask the police about me?’
‘I think you know the answer already.’
‘Because you didn’t want anyone to wonder why you might need the services of a private investigator?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Lots of people hire investigators, for lots of reasons. Cheating husbands—’
‘I’m not married anymore. And, for the record, I cheated on him.’
I raised an eyebrow.
‘Are you shocked?’ she asked.
‘No, I just wish he’d had my card. Business is business.’
It made her laugh.
‘He was a jerk. Worse than a jerk. He deserved it. So why else do people hire you?’ she said.