9
Johnna and I were walking northeast along Middle Street approaching Congress on our way to Market Street. We had settled in at our bed and breakfast. The proprietors were friendly, helpful and when they learned we had been to Portsmouth many times before, left us to our own devices.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Portland, Maine had much in common including neat places to eat and drink. The Portsmouth Brewery, very much in both categories, was tonight’s destination.
“So it seemed to me that sending her to Chelsea for the weekend was the best thing to do. At the very least, I won’t have to go back up to Portland on Monday to get her. I suppose I might have brought her here. She could stay with us…” I said as we walked.
“Yeah, right Finn.” Johnna was shaking her head. “You might have put her on the train. I just wonder about the wisdom of giving your car and your condo to a woman you met four hours ago. That’s all.”
“You would be a fool not to wonder, but I got five days of per diem from her in cash. The roll from which that money had been peeled was big enough around that I lost all fear it was a ruse to abscond with my car and go through my underwear drawer.” I waited for a chuckle. I couldn’t hear it but I saw her shoulders bounce, exactly twice.
“Besides, Michael will be waiting for her in Chelsea when she gets there tomorrow to see she settles in and doesn’t have any boys over.”
“ Funny. This of course means you’ll owe Mr. Devlin another dinner at the Border Café?”
“ Hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. Money well spent. Listen, it’s as fool-proof as any plan based on naiveté, greed and stupidity can be.”
“This means I have to drive you home Sunday, though, too, right?” Johnna was shaking her head again. Perhaps she had never stopped.
“I should have cleared that with you, you’re right. I suppose you could put me on the train in Newburyport, I guess. That’s…”
“I don’t mind taking you home.” Johnna was redirecting my path into a gallery of art and artifacts. I held the door for her and took her hand.
“Not knowing where we are going in New York or with whom we’re to meet is a little disquieting,” I admitted. “And the fact that when I told her this afternoon that Ivana was dead there was no real manifestation of anything I would call emotion. That gives me pause, too.”
“She might have been in shock, you know, hearing for the first time that her friend is dead from you…some guy she just met.”
“Maybe. A guy who was indirectly responsible for it, too. Or, she might have already drawn the conclusion Ivana was dead based on things I don’t know.”
“ Or, don’t know yet. Seems to me there’s going to be a lot of information at your disposal that isn't now once she speaks to this guy in New York.”
“Yup. So it seems.”
“She’s not... is she expecting, I don’t know, body guard I guess is the word, services is she? No danger involved?”
“She says all she wants me to do is hear what she has to say to this guy, whoever ‘this guy’ is. She intimated I might want to continue on after I do, but that option is mine and mine alone.”
Johnna had picked up a Save the Children Christmas ornament. It was glazed porcelain.
“Pretty isn’t it?” She asked.
“ It is.”
“What happens after you’ve sat through her chat?” We were moving toward the door.
“For her? I’m not sure. She told me after she speaks to the guy I’m done. As I said, I can come home. Maybe the Mets are in town. I could sneak out to Queens.”
“Or maybe the Yankees,” she said without looking at me.
“The Yankees? Are they still in the league?”
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