“No, not in detail, and I didn’t want to ask unless he offered, you know.”

“How long’s Kenny been married?”

“I don’t know exactly. He’s about my age. Probably as long as we have, I’d guess.”

“Have you ever met his wife?” Sarah asked. She seemed to have a lot of questions.

“No, she’s never come into the shop when I was there, or if she did, I didn’t know it was her.”

“Do you know her name? In case you wanted to send a card?”

“What did he say? Mary? Marian? Something like that?”

“Could it have been Gary?”

I looked at Sarah, who had stopped putting away clothes and was staring right at me.

“Gary?”

“That’s right.”

“What is that short for? Gariella or something?”

“No, just Gary.”

“Why on earth would you think Kenny’s wife would be named Gary?”

Sarah paused a moment, like she was working up to something. “Kenny phoned here tonight, while you were out.”

Houston, we have a problem.

“He did.”

“Yes. He called to tell you that that thing you wanted had come in, and he’d hang on to it whenever you had a chance to drop by.”

“Okay.”

“And then I told him how sorry I was that his wife was not well. And you know what he did then?”

“No. What did he do then?”

“He started laughing. So hard that he started choking. He thought that was a very funny thing for me to say.”

“So his wife’s not sick after all?”

“Kenny doesn’t have a wife,” Sarah said. “But he does have a companion.”

“A who?”

“Kenny said he couldn’t believe you didn’t know that he wasn’t exactly the marrying kind. He said he lives with a man named Gary, and that Gary is very well, thank you very much.”

This was enough to make me forget all the events that had transpired in the last couple of hours. “Kenny’s gay?”

“Evidently.”

“No shit. Kenny’s gay?”

“I don’t really think that’s the issue here,” Sarah said.

“How long I been going to that store? Eight, ten years, maybe? Way before we moved out here. You’d think maybe in all that time I’d have learned to read the signals.”

“You’ve missed plenty of others before.”

“I’d never have guessed. But now that you mention it, he never has talked about a wife or kids or—”

I knew instantly I’d made a blunder. “So,” Sarah said, “he’s never mentioned a wife. Yet if I’m to believe anything you say, not only does he have one, but she’s under the weather.”

“Sarah, listen, I know I may have seemed a bit odd tonight.”

“Gee, I hadn’t noticed.”