Bride & Groom

immediately sorry that I’d mentioned Buck, who was a good father in his own eccentric and sometimes infuriating way. I said, “The salad’s ready.”
    Steve was setting the table with the precision of the surgeon he was. He aligned the knives and forks exactly where he wanted them. His vet techs and assistants always remarked on what a neat surgeon he was; similarly, he never left dirty dishes for me to clean up, but rinsed them and stowed them in the dishwasher.
    When we sat down, he said, “Beautiful. Shrimp. Avocados. Cheese. Maybe if you’d written a cookbook for people, you’d’ve turned into a great cook for dogs.”
    “I am a great cook for dogs.” Then, to avoid returning to the subject of my father, I said, "You know that woman who died? The one Ceci kept going on about? Nina Kerkel. Did you have the feeling that Mac’d had something going with her? Because while Mac was talking about her, Judith kept whispering remarks in my ear. That when Nina was a receptionist, she was all too receptive. That kind of thing. And what Ceci implied was, as Ceci’d say, that Nina was no better than she should’ve been. Meanwhile, Mac looked pretty nostalgic. And he had nothing but good things to say about Nina.”
    Steve shrugged. “Maybe. But Judith was in an awfully good mood.”
    “She was? Not while Mac was talking about Nina. Then, she wasn’t exactly in a good mood. Or a bad mood. In a strange mood, maybe. Or a vindictive mood.”
    “When we were all eating, after you were done signing, Judith was smiling a lot. I noticed because when we first got to the store, she looked real serious. And then later, she was all lighthearted. She was hitting the wine. I wondered if that was why.”
    “Maybe Mac had an affair with Nina, and Judith was glad that Nina was dead.”
    “Hey, I meant to tell you. This guy Mac.”
    “Yes?”
    “He has this habit of putting his hands on people.”
    “I know. Mac reaches out to people. He likes to make contact.”
    “Keep your eye on Rowdy when he does that.”
    “Steve, Rowdy doesn’t bite! How could you say such a thing about Rowdy?”
    “I didn’t. What I meant is that Rowdy doesn’t like it. “Who is it who doesn’t like it? Rowdy? Or you?”
    He took a second helping of salad, heavy on the shrimp. “Rowdy.”
    “People’ve told me this before,” I conceded. “And I’vi noticed, too. Rowdy doesn’t like strangers to touch, me, Especially men. That’s true. Not that Mac is a stranger. Rowdy has been to his house with me. But Rowdy won’t do anything. I don’t need to keep my eye on him. And in case you wondered, I have no interest in Mac, and he’s never been anything but friendly with me. He’s never come on to me. Never. Nothing even remotely like that. Besides, Mac may be young for his age, but he’s old enough to be my father.” j “There are women who like that,” Steve said.
    “I’m not one of them,” I said.
     

CHAPTER 4
     
    Five days after the launch party at The Wordsmythe, on the evening of Thursday, August 22, a woman was bludgeoned to death in the underground parking garage of a fancy Cambridge hotel. Steve and I learned of the murder early on Friday morning. I’d just spooned scrambled eggs onto our plates, and in compliance with Cambridge law, we were listening to National Public Radio. As proof that I’m neither lying nor exaggerating about Cambridge lunacy, I’ll present the relevant city ordinance in its entirety:
     
Section 9.08.021
Consumption of certain breakfast foods in private places
     
No person shall consume any breakfast foods as defined in Chapter 138, Section 1045 of the General Laws while on, in or upon any private place between the hours of 5:00 AM and 10:00 AM without simultaneously listening to National Public Radio as defined in Chapter 1046 of the General Laws. Whoever violates this section may be arrested without a warrant by an officer authorized to serve criminal process. All breakfast foods being used in violation of the section shall be seized and safely held until final adjudication of the charge against the person or persons arrested or summoned into court, at which time they shall be returned to the person or persons entitled to lawful possession. Anyone found guilty of the violation of this chapter shall be punished by a fine of not over one thousand dollars and immediate deportation and permanent exile from the City of Cambridge.
     
    So, as I was saying, to avoid getting booted out of the