Interiors

Originally written Thursday, January 4, 2006

I had a date with Jeanine last night. Right before I left for it, I checked my email and saw I’d gotten a message from Richard. It said something about having seen Moshe, so I made a quick mental note of it before heading out the door. I’ll have to call him tomorrow. He’s left me a few email and voicemail messages in the past couple of days, but I’d thought he was trying to contact me in order to shuffle around the charms or something silly like that. I don’t know what he’s up to, but I’m pretty happy with where they are right now. This was the first time he was specific in his message about why he was trying to reach me, and it seemed significantly more important. So I’ll get back to him after all.

I was able to finagle the plans with Jeanine so that we had dinner at her house. Cooking was a dual effort—I brought the pizza crust and she scrounged together some toppings—so it’s not like I was inviting myself over so that she could wait on me. She simply has more counter space. And, of course, possibly the third charm. And an ulterior motive. But who am I to talk?

I discovered fairly quickly that there was no charm in her apartment. Mine produced nary a ripple from where it hid on my wrist, disguised as a bangle, under a long-sleeve cardigan in case she were to recognize it. The absence of a charm in this particular location did not necessarily prove Jeanine’s innocence, but it was reassuring. Also reassuring, despite contributing further to the complexity of our relationship, was our conversation over dinner. I only wanted to engage in a long-delayed debriefing, not expecting it to take the turn it did, when I asked:

“So how’d things go that night at the Crypt after we got separated? Get the chance to hang out with your friend? He was really cool, by the way. I’m really glad I met him.”

“Yeah, Joey’s totally cool. He was like the first person I met here. He was my neighbor, actually, for like a month, before he moved into his girlfriend’s apartment. She’s awesome, too. Hey you know what? We should get together sometime, the four of us. Have a couples night.”

Cute coupley activities aren’t really my thing, but Joey did seem like a nice guy, so I agreed to keep it in mind.

“So did you end up knowing that woman?”

“What woman?” I didn’t realize she’d gone back to the Crypt, subject-wise.

“The one outside, the one Patrick thought you could I.D.”

“Oh yeah, no, no I didn’t; but Trudy and Moe did.”

“Wow, that sucks. Did they know her well?”

“I don’t think so, but remember that guy Trudy was with? I think she was a good friend of his.”

“Oh, geez, I’m sorry.” She paused for a suitably timed friend of a friend of a friend’s death moment. “You know, everyone was talking about it afterward. Joey and the bartenders. I ended up hanging out with them late into the morning after closing.”

The events of this day to be continued...