“You—”

“Don’t tell me a story. I saw her. We talked about what she was, remember? I told you that she’d make a grab for you. His ex-patient? His friend. He saw you move into her house. What else did he see?”

There was no answer.

“I’m not the person I was, Joe,” she said. “I did it to you worse than this. But I thought we were past those days. Do you remember last weekend? Do you? And Monday night? Tuesday I slept alone and it wasn’t easy. I wanted you. You can be a bastard when you want to be. You left me high and dry for months after you caught me with Jerry, even after you knew I wasn’t seeing him. This time, you saw something that interested you and you were gone. You couldn’t wait. Oh, sure, you were married this week, but it wasn’t to me!”

“You calm yourself! It was before you went to bed Tuesday night that Roberts brought it up. I was in Manitou most of that day. I hadn’t been in Port Smith five hours. He told me that he was assuming things from her behavior, but I have reason to doubt that, too, now. He tried everything else first. I wish you could ask him. He’s involved with men who may steal fifty million dollars in the next ten years. It’s no game, Karen. They have twelve, fifteen million already. Colin MacIver started it, organized it. And before he died, he went around stealing letters that Roberts wrote to other members of the conspiracy. Mike has the letters in Manitou. We don’t know yet what everything means, but we do have the stuff to get some of the people. I know what Roberts tried to do to me. Don’t give me the swell guy business. Until this is over, just don’t give it to me.” He had almost said that he had had it from Norma, too.

“Jerry was never wrong about people,” she said. “That was one good thing about him.”

“What the hell are you talking about? He was wrong about you. You said that yourself long ago. He was wrong about me. Roberts had some beautiful ideas about me. Don’t give me anything about Jerry Palmer, either.”

“I won’t call him,” she said. “Don’t worry. I don’t know what you’ve done to our marriage, but you don’t have to worry about me calling him. He’s had enough of me.”

He stayed quiet.

“What is it?” she asked. “I can see you there.”

“I don’t want to talk anymore. I’ll be in the living room.”

“What is it? What did you do? Did you see him?”

“No.”

She followed him. “Joe, look at me. I want to know what happened. You lied to me before. It was in your tone. You saw him.”

“You just said something common. You didn’t have to bring him into this.”

“That isn’t it. All right, it was common. I’ve been common before. There’s something wrong.”