A young man was playing the harp, and most tables were occupied by attractive, well-dressed men and women who probably knew little about life beyond the publishing houses and high-rise businesses that consumed their days.

I was struck by my sense of alienation. I felt lonely as I looked across the table at Marino’s cheap tie and green corduroy jacket, at the nicotine stains on his broad furrowed nails. Although I was glad for his company, I could not share my deeper thoughts with him. He would not understand.

‘Looks to me like you could use a glass of wine with lunch, Doc,’ Marino said, eyeing me closely. ‘Go ahead. I’m driving.’

‘No, you’re not. We’re taking a taxi.’

‘Point is, you’re not driving so you may as well relax.’

‘What you’re really saying is that you’d like a glass of wine.’

‘Don’t mind if I do,’ he said as the waitress appeared. ‘What you got by the glass that’s worth drinking?’ he asked her.

She did a good job of not looking offended as she went through an impressive list that left Marino lost. I suggested he try a Beringer reserve cabernet that I knew was good, and then we ordered cups of lentil soup and spaghetti bolognese.

“This dead lady’s driving me crazy,’ Marino said after the waitress was gone.

I leaned closer to the table’s edge and encouraged him to lower his voice.

He leaned closer, too, adding, ‘There’s a reason he picked her.’

‘He probably picked her because she was there,’ I said, pricked by anger. ‘His victims are nothing to him.’

‘Yeah, well, I think there’s more to it than that. And I’d also like to know what brought his ass here to New York City. You think he met up with her in the museum?’

‘He might have,’ I said. ‘Maybe we’ll know more when we get there.’

‘Don’t it cost money to go in there?’

‘If you look at the exhibits it does.’

‘She may have a lot of gold in her mouth, but it don’t look to me like she had much money when she died.’

‘I would be surprised if she did. But she and Gault got in the museum somehow. They were seen leaving.’

‘So maybe he met her earlier, took her there and paid her way.’

‘I’m hoping it will be helpful when we look at what he was looking at,’ I said.

‘I know what the squirrel was looking at. Sharks.’

The food was wonderful, and it would have been easy to sit for hours. I was tired beyond explanation, as I sometimes got. My disposition was built upon many layers of pain and sadness that had started with my own when I was young. Then over the years, I had added. Every so often I got in moods that were dark, and I was in one now.