The Man Who Wasn't All There by David Handler (book recommendations website TXT) 📕

He frowned at her. ‘My loss?’

‘Your brother Austin.’

‘Miss Nash, an angry, tormented psychotic was put out of his misery. I don’t consider that a loss. Whoever killed Austin did him a favor,’ he said as he walked unsteadily out the door toward his waiting convoy.

Merilee watched the Suburbans turn around and speed away before she closed the door. I sat there inspecting Michael’s check for a hundred thou.

‘What are you going to do with it?’ she asked me.

‘Hand it to you.’

‘And what am I going to do with it?’

‘Put it in the fire.’

She narrowed her green eyes at me. ‘Are you sure?’

‘I’ve never been more sure of anything.’

She crumpled it up and tossed it in the fire. ‘I knew you wouldn’t keep it.’

‘How?’

‘It’s blood money. You’re very moral, in your own way. It’s one of the things I love most about you, you know.’

‘Really? I had no …’ I trailed off. The room had started to spin again.

She studied me with concern. ‘Darling, are you fading on me again?’

I didn’t nod my head. I’d learned not to do that by now.

‘You’ve had a lot of visitors. Maybe you should lie down.’

‘Maybe I should.’ I got up, made my way back to the bedroom and stretched out. Lulu hobbled in after me, climbed her stool and curled up on my hip. My dizzy spell soon subsided.

Merilee came in with a glass of water and two Tylenol. After I’d taken them she stretched out next to me, yawning. ‘I’m a bit jet-lagged myself. I’m not even sure what day this is anymore.’

We lay there in blessed country silence for a few moments. Right up until the Hardy Boys resumed thudding the storm windows into place.

She let out a weary laugh. ‘Shall I send them away?’

‘No, never. They’re here. There’s no telling if we’ll be able to get them to come back.’

‘You don’t suppose they killed Austin, do you?’

‘Tedone considers them persons of interest. Austin poisoned their dog when they were kids.’

‘What an awful thing to do.’

‘He was an awful person. Yet I found him strangely pathetic, too.’

She took my hand. ‘You and Lulu could come visit me in Budapest, you know.’

‘I appreciate the invite, and I’d love to be with you, but I’m a man on a mission. I haven’t felt this excited at the typewriter in a long, long time.’

‘I’m so happy for you, darling. Can’t wait to read it.’ She turned on her side, studying my face. ‘Do you know yet?’

I lay there getting lost in her green eyes. ‘Do I know what?’

‘Who Austin’s murderer is.’

‘I’m the guy who’s concussed, remember? It’s still a major challenge to figure out how to spell “world” backwards. Besides, that’s Lieutenant Tedone’s job, not mine.’

‘So you’re not going to get involved this time?’

‘That’s correct.’

She reached over and stroked my forehead gently with her fingers. ‘That’s another one of the things I love best about you.’

‘What is?’

‘You’re such a terrible liar.’

SIX

For dinner we had Annabeth’s chicken noodle soup, which I must admit was the best I’ve ever eaten. The chicken tasted like actual chicken. The vegetables were fresh, noodles firm. Merilee agreed, although she was just a bit more restrained in her enthusiasm, I couldn’t help notice. We ate it at the kitchen table with Pilot crackers, a green salad and a bottle of Chianti. I was allowed only one small glass. Merilee was very insistent about that. She also sent me straight to bed while she did the dishes, fed Lulu and closed up the house for the night.

It was nice and warm in the old farmhouse with the storm windows back up. When they left for the day the Hardy Boys promised they’d come back tomorrow to check the new glazing compound they’d applied and put a coat of primer on it. Tony told me that back when they’d first started out doing handyman jobs, glazing compound took two whole weeks to cure before it was dry enough to prime. Now they made this new-fangled stuff that actually cured overnight. I’d never heard anyone talk so excitedly about glazing compound before.

I definitely needed to get back to the city.

I was fast asleep by the time Merilee joined me. I don’t even remember her coming to bed. What I do remember is that some time during the night I became aware that she’d snuggled close to me in the darkness, thrown her bare leg over mine and was stroking my face gently. I stroked hers, put my arms around her and held her close, never wanting to let her go. Not ever. Then her mouth found mine and we lay there kissing and kissing until she reached down in search of what had started growing down there, helped it to grow a good deal larger with some deft, artful strokes and slid me deep inside of her.

Home.

We didn’t so much as move a muscle for a good, long while. Just savored the bliss of the moment. When we finally did move we took our time, and if arriving at our destination had ever been any sweeter I sure couldn’t recall it. I was still inside of her when her breathing got deeper and slower and she drifted off to sleep, purring softly like a big cat. I was awake a few moments longer in a state of profound contentment before I dropped off, too.

I was so sound asleep the next morning that I don’t remember Merilee getting up to feed Lulu and put the coffee on. It was the delicious smell of the coffee that woke me. I was still right where she’d left me when she came in carrying a tray laden with two glasses of orange juice, two huge, steaming mugs of rich, strong cappuccino and toasted English muffins with blackberry jam. She was wearing her silk target dart dressing gown, the one that used to be mine until she stole it because it looked better on her than it did on me. Her