Spencerville

suspect of adultery.
    Harriet came to the defense of her son-in-law and said, “Fred wouldn’t even
think
of fooling around.”
    People liked the topic of adultery, Keith had discovered, here or in Washington, Rome, Paris, Moscow, everywhere. But as interesting as it was in the abstract, or in specific cases at hand, it always got touchy and too close for comfort, and so, though everyone at that table was free of sin—except for himself—the topic was dropped. Harriet said to Keith, “I’ll tell Annie I saw you. I’m sure she’d tell me to say hello to you.”
    “Thank you. Please send her my best regards.”
    “I certainly will. Maybe you’ll run into her someday.”
    “You never know.” Keith made a mental note to tell Annie to send Harriet a postcard from Rome.
    Aunt Betty announced, “We have lime gelatin with marshmallows for dessert. Does anyone want coffee? I have instant, decaffeinated. I can boil water.”
    Keith stood. “I hate to eat and run, Aunt Betty, but I promised someone I’d meet them at five.”
    “It’s only a quarter to. Have some dessert first.”
    Keith recalled that Aunt Betty always had some problems with chronological reasoning, so he said, “I like to drive slow. Thank you, it was a terrific meal.” He kissed her and shook hands all around, saying to Fred, “Stay out of trouble,” and to Harriet, “My best regards to your sister and to Mr. Prentis.”
    “They’ll be thrilled.”
    “I hope so.”
    He left, said good-bye to the boys, who were throwing a football around, and got into his car.
    On the way home, he replayed parts of the conversation. What interested him was not what was said about Cliff Baxter, or Annie Baxter, but that good old Harriet was playing Cupid. Keith laughed. There were people, he thought, who, no matter how old they were or how they were raised, had romance in their hearts. Poor Lilly and Fred had no spark of it and probably never did, and neither did Aunt Betty. But old Zack and Harriet still looked at each other with a gleam in their eyes. Lovers, Keith decided,
were
special people, and all lovers recognized other lovers, so he knew that Harriet heard his heart beat every time she mentioned Annie.
     
    *  *  *
     
    The next three days, Monday to Wednesday, Keith spent at home. He did not want to risk even one foray away from the farm, not one incident or confrontation with Baxter or his men. He was too close to the goal line, to use football analogy, the clock was ticking, and it was no time for anything fancy or risky. The last play would be a running play.
    Although he was safely within the confines of his own home, and under the law he was king in his own castle, he had another concern. While he couldn’t imagine that Baxter could present a judge with any reason to approve a phone tap, it had occurred to him that Baxter might put a tap on the line anyway. One of the standard gadgets in Keith’s briefcase was a bug alert which he’d never thought he’d use again, but he had swept the house with it a few times, discovering nothing. He also checked the inside phone connection in the cellar every time he left the house and returned. There was a device to detect a telephone pole line tap, but he didn’t have the device in his bag of tricks. Another possibility was a directional microphone aimed at his house, but he could see for a mile in any direction from his second-floor window, and he never saw a vehicle parked for a long time. He doubted if the Spencerville police had any high-tech eavesdropping devices anyway. But you never knew.
    Keith knew, prior to Saturday, that Baxter had not had a tap, legal or illegal, on his phone, because if he had, then Cliff Baxter would have been at Reeves Pond on Saturday, and one of them would be laid out at Gibbs Funeral Home today. But even if there had been no tap on his phone Saturday, there could be one today, and he’d operate on that assumption. In any case, he didn’t think he needed to use his phone to finalize or change any plans.
    Some weeks ago, when Keith thought he was going to stay around, he had considered buying a cellular phone, and he was also going to call his former colleagues in Washington and do a complete electronic check as well as a search of court records to see if anyone had requested a tap. The National Security Council was as interested in his phone security as he was, though in this case for different reasons.
    With that thought in mind, Keith wondered why he