Page 32 of Wrong Mail

I've been carrying it since Thursday. I’ve not told anyone.

And now a detective is sitting on my sofa asking me for anything unusual. I have a choice. I make it in about two seconds. I don't like how easy those two seconds were.

"Peggy was flirtatious," I say.

David's head turns.

"How so?" Rodriguez asks.

"The crowd was mostly locals, but random men showed up too. Different ones each time." I keep my hands still in my lap. "It wasn't hidden, exactly. Everyone saw and nobody said anything. She liked being the center of attention. She liked being wanted, she would say."

"Did her husband know?"

I shrug. I have no idea.

"Any names? Anyone who stood out?"

"None come to mind. Like I said, outsiders were a regular sight. Not all of them returned." That isn't evasion. I genuinely don't know who they were. "Half the people at those parties I couldn't tell you the names of, and I've been going for almost two years,” I say.

"Almost two years." Rodriguez looks up. "So that's how long you've been here?"

I nod.

"And how long have you been married?"

"Close to two years."

"So what brought you to Hunts Point?"

"David's job." I glance at him. "Isn't that right?"

"Among other things," David says.

"Other things?"

I look at David.

"My wife was in an accident," he says.

"A car crash," I say.

Rodriguez points his pen between us. "And you were her surgeon?"

I smile, and David rests a hand on my knee.

"What can I say," David says. "Love turns up in strange places, at the strangest times."

Hanson makes a face, impressed or startled, I can't tell which.

"And?" Rodriguez says.

"And what?" says David.

Rodriguez looks up from his pad. "You said among other things. What were the other things?"

I get there before David does. "It was a fresh start. For both of us. My memory hasn't been what it was since the crash. David's divorce was only a few years behind him, and the offer in Washington seemed too good to pass up."

He nods. "Washington. So before this, you were...?"