“If it was a mistake, why did you take it further? Something could have happened.”

“No. Absolutely not.” He rubbed her leg. “We had things in common, he and I. I liked both his wives. You wouldn’t, Mike wouldn’t, but I did. I liked his home. I have an allergy to cars, but there’s something awesome about this one. It’s fun. I thought that I was getting a sense of his life. I was in it, sort of. I was in his territory. I enjoyed the weather from where he saw it.”

“It’s still a mistake,” she said. “You aren’t a thief. You haven’t killed yourself. You aren’t him.”

“Being a thief enhanced him. He moved with important people. It gave him a good home and set him up with a good wife. It doesn’t add up to putting an end to himself.”

“Don’t you see that that’s your opinion? You liked his first wife, but he divorced her.”

“The thing is, I think I know why he did that. When she’s not going well, she’s a demanding, irritating individual.”

“So am I.”

“Demanding, but never irritating. She wears thin quickly. You’ve always been an exciting, interesting person to know. A man has to tolerate her bad times. I’d get bored. I’m never bored with you.”

“I’ll remember that,” she said.

“He put up with her as long as he could, then he made up his mind to get rid of her.”

“Didn’t you say he had a girl friend? That isn’t putting up with anybody.”

He kissed her arm.

“You know it’s a mistake,” she said. “You’re still making it. You’re seeing him in terms of what you would feel. He did something completely sneaky and underhanded. You’ve never done that. If I had been on the ball this week—well, this week would do things to any man.”

“That’s what I mean. Any man. That’s as far as I want to take it.” He massaged her back. “You might as well grab that nap. The man went off the roof of a racetrack, he was dealing indirectly with people who have been known to kill. He had information that would make them kill.”

She wanted to know about that. He gave her an outline of the conspiracy and asked her what she remembered of the conversation she had heard at the Flamingo.

“They were engineers. One of them said something about test borings. There are faults in the rock.”

He sneered. “Well, it might have amounted to something.”

“Joe, you still aren’t seeing Wendell Roberts correctly. I wouldn’t lie to you about him. I came close to meeting his wife and him on two occasions—”

“She’s dead, too. Mrs. Roberts.”

“That’s horrible! Jerry said so many good things about her. Oh, that’s awful, Joe. It must be so bad for him. They weren’t young when they met.”

“I know.” He was thinking of the meaning of MacIver’s possession of the letters. He was fighting to keep himself from going in circles. Karen kissed his forehead.