Aces and Knaves

do it on the cheap."
    "Does Elma still have relatives there?" my father asked. "Maybe she can call them and ask..."
    "Her parents are dead," Arrow said. "She has no brothers or sisters. And her parents moved to Wick from someplace else so she has no other relatives there."
    "Arrow should go with Karl," Jacie said.
    We looked at her in surprise.
    "It makes sense. This affects the future of Dionysus and she's an employee, whereas Karl isn't. And she's met this bastard, James."
    Jacie was beginning to sound like my father. Was I doomed to have Arrow tagging along everywhere I went? Was Jacie trying to keep Arrow from having daily meetings with my father in the master bedroom? Did Jacie swim in the nude?
    "Jacie is right," my father said, touching her arm in a loving gesture. "Arrow, pack your bags."

    Chapter 20 SCOTLAND
    "There aren't any houses down there. Nobody lives here!"
    Arrow looked out the window of the 777 and marveled at the emptiness of northern Canada.
    "Who said the earth was overpopulated?" I stood up and leaned over Arrow to look at the barren countryside below, softly lit by the setting sun and punctuated with lots of small bodies of water, but no people. I bemoaned the fact that she had tricked me into giving her the business-class window seat and vowed that I would get it on the return flight.
    "If you think this is destitute, wait until we fly over Greenland," I said with the superior knowledge of someone who has done it before. Arrow had never been to Europe.
    "Explain to me again why the shortest route from Los Angeles to London goes so far north," Arrow said, looking at the route map in the airline magazine.
    "If you form a plane—a geometric plane, not an airplane —using three points: the center of the earth, Los Angeles and London, the arc created where the plane intersects the surface of the earth is the shortest distance between LA and London, and it goes through Greenland. It has something to do with both cities being in the northern hemisphere."
    "It has something to do with bullshit. And what time will it be when we arrive in London?"
    "There's an eight-hour time difference so it will be tomorrow morning about 10 a.m."
    "So it's well after midnight there now."
    "Right," I said, consulting my watch.
    "In that case, maybe we should get some sleep."
    It wasn't a bad idea. We had both done a lot of running around since the lunch yesterday, making reservations, packing and doing all the things one has to do before one leaves town. Except that one usually has more than 24 hours in which to do them.
    We turned out our reading lights and Arrow lifted the armrest between us, saying, "I have trouble sleeping on airplanes. May I use your shoulder for a pillow?"
    That sounded like a reasonable request so we arranged a blanket to cover both of us. In order to get comfortable and balanced I had to put my arms around her. Her curls tickled my cheek. She placed her hands on mine and arranged them against her sweater.
    My fingers enjoyed the smooth feel of the wool until they came to a couple of hills that a quick mental review of female anatomy told me were her breasts. I verified that fact by locating a nipple before I realized that this wasn't a good idea. I quickly readjusted my hands to a position lower down.
    Arrow stirred and said, grumpily, "What's the matter? You are certainly more squeamish than Richard."
    I jerked my hands away from her and sat up straight. I stared at her. "Arrow, did you sleep with my father?"
    She kept her face averted so I couldn't see it and muttered, "What if I did?"
    I couldn't speak. I just stared at her. She finally turned her head and looked at me. She said, "If it will make you feel any better it happened before he met Jacie. Even before I was his assistant. I was new in the company but I went on a business trip with him to handle some grunt work he needed done."
    She paused, but when I still didn't speak she continued. "It was all very glamorous for me then—and your father was a god. Karl, you may not believe this but your father is a very sexy man. We only used one hotel room that trip, although of course we charged the company for two."
    I was still tongue-tied. Arrow said, belligerently, "Don't get on your high horse with me. It's not the first time a woman slept with her boss and it won't be the last. All the laws in the world won't stop that. And so what if he is your father? He was a very lonely man until he met Jacie."
    Arrow jerked my part of the blanket