“We just came in every day and mostly sat around except when the Nazi wanted to talk about stuff no one understood. One day, she came in and said, ‘There’s no coherence, we need coherence.’”

Sanfelice said, “Cohesiveness. ‘There’s no cohesiveness.’”

“Means the same, Teen. Anyway, Helga-notz said we need to have something social to get co-hesiveness, so we went out for drinks.”

“Just the women,” I said.

“Girls’ night out. Gerrrrls’ niyett ote. Like it had been something she’d heard in a chick movie or something, like she had been trying to be American, you know? But what the hey, she’s paying, why not? She found a place near the airport, you heard planes coming in, they served these humongous margaritas. Remember those glasses, like for a plant, Teen?” Rubbing my leg for emphasis.

“How’d the topic turn to Des Backer?”

“It had just kinda happened. You remember how, Teen?”

Head shake.

Passant said, “I guess we had been talking about stuff and that started it to talking about guys. And that started it to talking about it being a girls’ night out. And that started to someone saying I wonder how Des would have liked this, being with all these girls.”

“Who said that?”

Bettina Sanfelice said, “Sheryl.”

“I did?”

“Yes.”

Passant grinned. “If she says I said it, then I said it. I was pretty much happy-time happy. I don’t worry about what people think, anyway, always just say what’s in my head.”

I said, “So you brought up Des and—”

“And everyone piled on. Like Truth or Dare without the dare.”

“Everyone piled on except Helga.”

“Everyone with a beating heart.”

I said, “What did Helga do during the discussion?”

“Sat back and listened. I started and told them about Des and me and then Tina broke in and said, ‘I was with him, too.’ Now, that had freaked me out because Tina had always been the shy one and she’d never told me nothing.” To her friend: “Nothing like four margaritas to get truth past the dare, huh? Go, girl.”

Sanfelice stared at the table.

I said, “So Marjorie Holman spoke last.”

“It was almost like she had been feeling left out, you know? Wanted to be young. Like us, younger and hotter and doing it with Des.”

“Still, she was your boss. That was pretty uninhibited.”

“She drank more than anyone and she wasn’t the real boss, anyway. Helga was. And the way she said it—Marjorie—was weird. Not coming out, more like a … something weird.”

Bettina Sanfelice said, “She said, ‘That experience is common to yours truly, as well.’ When I figured it out, it really shocked me, Ms. Holman always seemed so stern.”