“Sure, I’ve thought about that. She was young and in her own way she was innocent. A small-town kind of girl. She had experience with men, but she didn’t know anything about the world at large. I can’t picture her in a big town like San Francisco or LA. I can’t even picture her in the state. California’s as expensive now as it was back then, relative to income. Given the cash she had-which probably didn’t amount to much-I’m guessing she’d go someplace she could afford. Midwest, the South-someplace like that.”

“You heard about her money?”

“Half a dozen times. She’d get on a tear and threaten to pull out if Foley didn’t straighten up and fly right.”

“Like that was ever going to happen,” Tannie put in.

The subject shifted. There were only so many ideas you could bounce around with so little information. At 10:30, Padgett made his excuses and headed for the door.

Daisy, meanwhile, was feeling no pain. She’d had enough to drink that some merrier, more loquacious personality had taken over her ordinary self. She was flirting with some guy, laughing too loudly. From a distance, she appeared to be having fun. Up close, I was betting, she was out of control. It was the first indication I’d seen of the trouble she was capable of getting into. Tannie followed my gaze, and the two of us locked eyes briefly. “Once she reaches this point, it’s all over,” Tannie said. “He’ll end up in her bed and things will go downhill from there.”

“We can’t intervene?”

“This time, sure, but she’ll be in here again tomorrow night and the night after that. You want to take on that kind of responsibility? Because I sure don’t. After this round, at any rate. Tannie to the rescue. What an idiot. Wish me luck.”

She left the table and joined Daisy, who was dancing with her cowboy. She took some persuading, but she did return to the table without her new best friend. By the time we were ready to part company, it was 11:00 and I’d had one too many glasses of wine. I was fine for the short haul, but I didn’t like the idea of driving all the way home. “You know what, guys? It’s not such a hot idea my being on the road. Is there a motel around here, or maybe a B-and-B?”

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