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Staying in character, I didn’t even glance at Rawson as he walked past me and sat down Instead, I kept up the charade Bea and I had whole stories hs and soothing pats We did a pretty good ihter who loved each other--surely theconversation we’d ever had Proof that I truly was a con artist

Finally, Rawson placed his dinner order, which meant it was ti fish Bea dropped her fork on the floor, with a loud, clattering sound "Oh, dear ed to brush against Rawson, just in case he wasn’t paying attention I even apologized to hiave e Raell dressed, with a black suit and a white dress shirt casually unbuttoned at the top Clean-shaven, but with a heavy beard shadow already present, his short dark hair was lightly graying on the sides He seemed like a serious man, someone ouldn’t tolerate fluff To make this work, I would need to appeal to his skeptical side

I returned Bea’s fork, and we started our routine "You see, Mom This is why you need to move to the new place You’ll have people there to help you And you won’t have to clihed like the helpless older wo to be "Don’t be silly, dear I can still walk up a flight of stairs Why just yesterday I was in the attic, looking over everything your Uncle Nore with all that stuff: lights and speakers and musical instruments Did I ever tell you he was a roadie for some famous bands?" Neither of us turned to see whether our fish was sniffing at the bait Besides, ere just getting started

I let out an annoyed laugh at this tale of my stupid but non-existent uncle Then I leaned closer to Bea "Screw Uncle Norman All he ever did was mooch off you for months at a time, then leave his crap in your attic and disappear" I couldn’t tell whether Raas listening, but I didn’t hear anything con