“It is.” I took a little more. Second pull and the bottle was almost empty. Maybe Rolling Rock just sort of naturally went down easy after a hard day of dealing with women who hung on to their lies as if the lies were living things. I had most of the rest of it.

The bartender said, “I was a kid, I wanted to go out there. I used to think about it all the time, palm trees and people roller-skating at the beach and cruising down the freeways in a convertible.” The knife went through another lime. Thunk. “Sometimes things just sort of get away from you.” Thunk. She stopped cutting and looked at me. “You want a piece of lime in your beer?”

“No, thanks.”

“I heard people in California put lime in their beer.”

“No.”

She looked disappointed.

I left a two dollar tip and went next door into the restaurant. Two guys in plaid flannel L.L. Bean shirts and bright orange hunter’s caps sat at a formica counter, holding heavy white coffee mugs in coarse hands. A chalk board that said Today’s Special: Homemade meat loaf sat on a little easel on the counter across from a row of booths. Farther back, there were tables and chairs for people with a greater sense of formality. I sat in a booth by the windows with a delightful view of the parking lot.

A short woman in a black waitress outfit brought a menu and a glass of ice water, and asked whether or not I’d care for a drink before dinner. The first Rolling Rock had been so good I told her that I’d have a second. Without lime. She wrote on a little pad and said, “We have a special tonight. It’s the meat loaf. It’s very nice.” She was in her sixties.

I handed back the menu without looking at it. “Then that’s what I’ll have.”

She gave me an approving smile and went away. I felt the warmth of her smile and was glad that someone approved of me. Karen Shipley probably didn’t. You have me confused with someone else. Not much you could do with that. A stranger walks in off the street and tells you that everything you’ve worked for was about to change. Who you gonna call? Gumshoebusters?