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Nothing in the room was familiar The place must have been rented already furnished The walls were bare, but here and there I saw picture hooks

When he finally sat up, my father’s eyes were dark, and I couldn’t read his mood "Well," he said "It’s all rather coin?"

I opened my mouth to say, With your death?

But Mãe spoke first "Did Malcol me away?"

His hts

I heard theht I was born, about Dennis helping her into Malcolm’s car, about the house in the Catskills and all that followed

He listened When she stopped, he looked as if he wanted to put his head in his hands again "It’s worse than I’d thought" The words sounded even starker because his voice had no feeling in it

"But it’s better to know, isn’t it?" Mãe leaned forward The ceiling lights listen

I haven’tit was to see them in the same room, even if they weren’t -- how do I phrase this? They weren’t together Of course I’d entertained a soppy fantasy of the away I hadn’t believed it would actually happen, but I’d indulged myself in that fantasy many times

Even if I couldn’t read his eyes, I sensed that s ran deep

He looked froo to dinner"

Chapter Seventeen

We sat outside at a restaurant called Ophelia’s, down the road from Xanadu We ate oysters and red snapper and drank red wine by candlelight Sarasota Bay lapped a few feet away We ood-looking American family

Our server said as much "Special occasion?" he’d asked, when my father ordered the wine "What a lovely fa -- or ere -- he would have dropped his tray I felt happy that he didn’t know, that soht ere ordinary

My father let us know that he wasn’t shocked by what he thought of as "the betrayal of ht the word friends with dark irony (When I hear thoughts, sarcasree Is it the saht have deduced it, from the way Dennis behaved," he said "I suppose that I chose not to figure it out It was more convenient for me not to know"

My mother twisted a napkin between her hands She wanted hi other Even if her thoughts hadn’t been loud, her feelings were plain on her face The couple at the next table gave her a curious look as they left

But my father instead turned to ht

Without saying a word, we discussed the death of Robert Reedy I killed hiht But I didn’t cut hi to do with the else My father looked at Mãe andmore oysters," he said "And another bottle of mineral water"

By this time ere the only party left on the veranda "It’s safe for us to talk now," Mãe said "I like to hear your voices"

"I’ve never seen you eat before," I said to etarian"

"No"

"Then why did you raise ive you as row into a normal hu and disapproving of his phrasing "I feared that ht over-stimulate your appetite"

The candles flickered in the breeze fro low in the sky "A fine setting for a talk about blood and murder," my father said

"How did you know about the murder?" I kneasn’t likely to have read the newspapers

"My friend Malcolm told me all about the deaths" My father ate an oyster with astonishing elegance By contrast, Mãe and I slurped ours down

"How did he know?" I didn’t picture Malcolm as a newspaper reader, either

"He knew because he was there" My father lifted another shell to his lips and deftly ingested its contents without pursing his lips "He’s been following you for years, Ari You sensed his presence, remember?"

Mãe said, "Wait aher, and you let it happen?"

"Hardly" He refilled our wine glasses "Malcolm told me about it when he turned up last week to talk business"

"You’re doing business with hiet back to the stalking," I said

"Thank you, Ari Yes, let’s try to sort through this mess with a semblance of coherence"

I didn’t like the tension between them "When I sensed an other in the Sarasota house, that was Malcolm?"