“It’s getting there, And, by the way, before you ask, she’s twenty years younger than I am, but she thinks it’s fifteen. I lied and you’re not to give me away. We worked together in 1960, not 1955.” He lifted his cup in a salute. “To love, in all its glory, Bobo.”

“To love,” I said.

We drank from our coffee.

“And are you learning anything about love up at the Inn?” Carter asked lightly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“The word’s out.”

“What word?”

“The stockbroker and the judge’s wife,” Carter said. “They’re back.”

“You know about them?” I asked in surprise.

Carter laughed. “We may be humble mountain folk, Bobo, but we’ve got our little underground, our little network of gossip.” He grinned. “A little like you rednecks.”

“I always knew we were alike,” I told him. “So, what should I learn from the stockbroker and the judge’s wife?”

“A lot of things,” Carter answered philosophically. “What it’s like to have balls, for one. Arrogance, for another. I saw them in a restaurant one time. They were at the table next to me, and you know me—just naturally curious, I guess. I listened. They were talking about some loss he’d taken in the market. She asked him how much it was and he told her, ‘Seventy thousand.’ You know what she did, Bobo? She took off her ring and her watch and put them on the table in front of him. ‘That would cover it,’ she said. I wanted to get up and smack the shit out of her, the pretentious little bitch.”

“Sounds like she’s managed well,” I said.

“Yeah.” Carter replied. He laughed at the memory of the judge’s wife, then he said, “Let’s get the business out of the way. What do you need?”

“I want to leave you all the papers dealing with Avrum,” I told him. “Everything’s been left to me, but I want you to do whatever legal mumbo jumbo necessary to have it all transferred to the Home.”

“All of it?”

“Take out your fee, but everything else, give it to the Home,” I said.

Carter waved away the remark. “This one’s on the house, Bobo. Hell, I liked that old man. He was crazy as a loon. Besides, if it hadn’t been for him, you wouldn’t have been coming back all these years.”

“Thanks, Carter,” I said. “The Home can use whatever it can get. I’ve changed my mind about that place. I used to think they didn’t give a damn, but I was wrong. They do.”

“How much is in his estate?” Carter asked.

“I have no idea,” I told him. “I didn’t even look at his financials, just his instructions.”

“Okay, I’ll check it out. Maybe we should bargain for an Avrum Feldman Room, or something.”

“No, don’t.”