It was around midnight and the rain had finally stopped. There was a nice cool breeze and the moon was full.
Vicki and Jan Sleet lay on lounge chairs on the deck. Jan Sleet was smoking a pipe, an activity Perry had absolutely banned inside the house.
"Hey," said Vicki tentatively after a few minutes.
"What?" Jan Sleet asked.
"Well, I'm sorry about showing you off before, like you were a prize-winning pumpkin or something. It just threw me to find her here, and she always gets my goat. It was the only thing I could think of to do except hit her, and I can't do that anymore."
"Oh, don't apologize. I kind of liked it. I don't get called 'famous' very often. And mostly people don't boast about me. Usually they talk about me like I'm their idiot cousin who happens to be able to memorize phone books."
"And how the hell do you know SarahBeth?" Vicki demanded.
Jan Sleet said, "Well, that's a long story. I met her when I was on the Sane Woman case. She had been stalking Perry, but in the process she'd fallen in love with Sarah Little, the sister of Sam. He's my mother's boyfriend. Our mother's boyfriend. When we found Perry, she decided to stay with her lover. But I guess at some point she changed her mind."
Jan Sleet puffed in silence for a time until Vicki said, "And to think I was boasting that I'd get to meet Perry Nelson before SarahBeth did." She made a face. "I wonder how long she's been sleeping with him."
The reporter chuckled wryly. "She hasn't been sleeping with him."
"What? She acts like she's the queen of the castle here."
"Well, she may be that," Jan Sleet said with a laugh, "but she's been sleeping in the living room."
"How do you know that?"
"While you and she were screaming at each other on the porch, Perry and Marshall went to the car to get the luggage. While they were gone, I poked around a little. Down at the end of that day-bed in the living room there's a small duffel bag. It's kind of tucked in between the day-bed and that bookcase there. I looked in, and it's obviously hers. She's got all her clothing in there, one section for clean clothes and one for dirty laundry. So, she's been living out of it. But, if she's been sleeping in his room, why is all her clothing in the living room? I looked under the cover of the day-bed, and it's all made up with sheets and blankets, and between the sheets I found a couple of threads that must have come from the red flannel nightgown I found on top of the duffel."
Vicki chucked. "Johnny Mac's nightshirt. Heh heh."
Marshall appeared, pulling a folding chair from the porch. He set it up so he was near Jan Sleet, but where he could see both of them.
"I could use a drink," Jan Sleet said, restarting her pipe.
"God, me too," Vicki said.
"There isn't anything," Marshall said. "I looked. So much for the idea that all novelists are drunks."
Jan Sleet shook her head. "He's never going to win a Nobel Prize that way."
Perry opened the door and stepped hesitantly out onto the deck, almost as if he was the uninvited guest instead of the host. They turned to look at him, and he walked forward with a little more determination. "Before we all go to bed," he said, pulling over another chair, then he hesitated. "I wanted to ask about Alex," he said finally. "Have you seen her? She's basically cut me out since that last time you were here."
Glancing nervously at Vicki, who was looking off into the darkness, Jan Sleet said, "I assume you've heard about her book?"
He looked surprised. "Book? Did she really write the book?"
Jan laughed. "And they say we're cut off from the outside world. Yes, she finished it, and it's being published very soon. I've seen ads already. The–"
Vicki got up and went into the house, closing the door quietly behind her. Perry had noticed her expression, and he turned back to Jan.
She shook her head. "Alex is her mother, too, and she just found out. She loves Alex, but when Alex tried to raise her, I gather it was very difficult. So, she left Vicki with the Wassermans, SarahBeth's family, and she was raised there. That didn't go very well either."
Perry sat down. "I gather not," he said, "based on how they seem to feel about each other. Does Vicki get along with anybody?"
"Practically everybody, except family," Marshall said.
Perry laughed. "Now that you put it that way, that's not unusual, I guess. I'll have to remember not to mention Alex when Vicki is around."
Jan Sleet yawned and used her cane to get to her feet. "Perry, we've been assuming we could stay here tonight, but I realize we never asked–"
He nodded. "Not a problem. There's a big double bed on the porch, and I have a sleeping bag. You and Vicki can share the bed–"
"Actually," she said with a smile, "Marshall and I will share the bed, but we thank you for the offer in any case."
Perry blushed. "Oh, that's... I mean, you're welcome." She turned toward the glass doors to the porch, but Perry spoke again. "I do have to ask one thing, though," he said, his cheeks still burning. "I want to find out why you're all here. I gather it's not for Nicky. I mean SarahBeth, I guess."
Marshall shook his head. "We had no idea she was here, or that 'Nicky Porter' was really Vicki's cousin."
"We're here for something much more important than that," Jan said, limping over and knocking her pipe against the edge of the deck. "As you know, we're pretty deeply involved in U-town, and I think you're not being responsible in the articles you've written about it."
Perry started to speak, but she continued. "You and I have both covered the war in Bellona, and you did go there before you wrote about it. You were there for a month or so, and then you wrote the series you wrote, which I'd like to talk about also. Your facts were mostly accurate–"
"Jan," he said sharply, "I appreciate your position, but the biggest difference between the two situations is that in Bellona we were both observers, we were both reporters, but in the case of U-town, you are the story, and you can't dictate how I express my opinions about you and your friends."
He turned. "Good night," he said. "I'll see you in the morning."
in perry's
bed