“I didn’t even know he’d been married.”
“He was never married. His daughter was born right after he moved to Portland so for almost two years he’s been maintaining two relationships a couple hundred miles apart. He’s marrying the mother of his child, for his daughter’s sake, he says.”
“I guess I’m happy for the little girl but, Jesus, why the hell didn’t he think of that before now?”
“I’m trying to believe I’m better off but I can’t quite get there yet. And I feel used.”
“I’d say you should feel lucky.”
For the rest of the afternoon and on into the evening they went over every detail of their respective love lives ending up with Fiona saying, “Well, all I can say is, the results don’t seem to turn out any different whether you have the right man or the wrong one. You have the right man. I had the wrong one but here we are, spending the weekend with each other and a pan of brownies.” She took another square from the pan. “At least Tony adores you. I’d kill to have someone look at me the way he looks at you.”
“Right now, the way he looks at me could be classified as a lethal weapon.”
They finished the bottle of wine and made a salad for dinner to make up for eating an entire batch of brownies. After promising each other they would be more cheerful the next day, they went to bed early.
Pulitzer woke Margo at seven, so Margo got up and fed her. By the time her hostess came into the kitchen, she had a pot of coffee going and was reading the Sunday paper.
“How about we go out for brunch someplace?” Fiona suggested. “Maybe on the river?”
“I live on the river. How about Kenny and Zuke’s?” Margo suggested. “I haven’t been there in ages.”
They showered, dressed and headed out in Fiona’s car for downtown. After brunch, during which they didn’t discuss their love lives at all, they headed back to Fiona’s. Margo was packing her things so she could go home when her cell phone rang. It was Sam and he was pissed.
“Where the hell are you, counselor? You were supposed to let me know where you were.”
“Sorry, Sam. I forgot.”
“Don’t do it again. I’m up to my ass in alligators and I don’t need to be worrying about you.”
“What’s going on?”
“The kid who beat up Mr. Todd came back and … ”
“Oh, Jesus, did he get hurt again?”
“He’s fine. Mr. Todd saw him from inside his house this time, called 9-1-1 and we picked the kid up. He got bailed out five minutes after we brought him in but not before we confirmed he has Russian gang connections. I discovered you weren’t home when I went to talk to Mr. Todd.”
“I’m at Fiona’s, in St. Johns.”
“Stay there. It’s easier to keep tabs on you there than at the marina.”
After the phone call, Margo emailed Viktor: “WTF? The cops told me a kid with Russian gang connections was responsible for trying to break into my house — again. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? After all, we have a deal. Don’t we?”