“A snake in the grass,” Jack said without hesitation. “But I don’t know how objective I can be. I’m obviously jealous. It bugged me how they kept touching each other.”

“It rubbed me the wrong way as well,” Lou said with another nod. “Like puppy love. It was disgusting. But I question my objectivity, too. Yet it all seems too quick to me, like the guy’s after her money even though she doesn’t have any. Of course that can be the cynical detective talking.”

Jack shook his head dejectedly. “We can sit here and say nasty things about him, but the fact is, he’s a lot more spontaneous than we are, and he’s got a lot more bucks. I mean, going to Paris for the weekend! There’s no way I could do that. Worrying about how much it was costing would drive me bananas, and I’d be miserable to be with.”

“It makes me mad to think that there are people that can do that sort of thing,” Lou said. “What with my alimony payments and raising two kids, I’m lucky to have two nickels to scrape together.”

“Envious might be a better word than mad,” Jack said.

Lou scraped back his chair and stood up. “I got to get home to bed before I get too depressed. I’ve been up for two straight days.”

“I’m with you,” Jack said.

The two men wormed their way out of the restaurant feeling all the more depressed in light of the festive atmosphere.

EIGHT

______

EIGHT

Monday, October 18

10:15 P.M.

After Curt and Steve left, Yuri had gone down to his beloved lab. The first thing he did was repair the damage Connie had caused when she’d pried off the padlocks. To be on the safe side he bolted the hasps to the door rather than replace the screws. With that setup, an intruder would most likely need something more powerful than a crowbar to pull them loose.

While he worked, he thought about Curt and Steve’s disturbing visit. He was taken aback by their anger, particularly their anger about his stopping by the firehouse. The explanation that he was a security risk because he was a foreigner with a Russian accent didn’t ring true. New York was much too cosmopolitan a city. Every other person had an accent.

Yuri thought there had to be another reason why they didn’t want him seen there. Although he couldn’t think of what it might have been, it made him feel uncomfortable. For the first time Yuri began to question where he stood with Curt and Steve. He knew they were strong on prejudice, so the thought passed through his mind they might be prejudiced against him, and if that was the case they certainly weren’t the friends he imagined.