Swan Dive

that.”
    ”What can I do, John? She’s really rattled by this Marsh thing, not that I blame her. I’m in and out a lot, so she feels safer with Fotis and Nikos here for a while.”
    ”Nikos another cousin?”
    ”Right. He’s with Eleni. In the kitchen.”
    I didn’t respond, so Chris said, ”So, what can I do for you?”
    I settled back in my chair. ”You can explain why you didn’t let on that Marsh was into the drug trade when you hired me.”
    Chris moved his tongue around against the inside of his cheek. ”John, I didn’t have any proof of that. Just the wife’s say-so, for chrissake. I might have tried to use it if things went bad at the settlement conference, but the way we were going...”
    ”Chris, you asked me to bodyguard because you were afraid of the guy. It might have been nice for you to warn me about what you suspected instead of giving me that ‘insurance salesman’ line.”
    ”John, I’m telling you, I didn’t know for sure. Christ, you’d think I’d been a customer of his or something.”
    ”Were you?”
    ”Oh, John, c’mon...”
    ”Look, Chris, somebody set me up, understand? Somebody who knew enough about Marsh, and me, to see me as a good patsy. Now that isn’t a whole lot of people.”
    ”What do you mean, set up?”
    I explained about the mugging and the cops’ visit to my door. When I got to the gun, Chris said, ”Holy shit.”
    ”Now do you see what I mean?”
    Chris kneaded his hands. ”Jeez, John, I’m sorry. When the cops called, they didn’t say anything about the gun.” He looked away. ”So somebody hits you and then plants your gun in the room. God in heaven.”
    ”Chris, who knew about my blowup with Marsh at Felicia Arnold’s office?”
    ”Aw, I don’t know. Felicia, Hanna. I told Eleni a little bit about it.”
    ”What about that guy in Arnold ’s office?”
    ”What guy?”
    ”I think his name was Paul Troller.”
    ”Oh, he’s... Look, I don’t know him too well, you understand? But he isn’t the first young stud lawyer Felicia’s hired, if you get my drift.”
    ”Any reason he’d have for doing Marsh?”
    ”Jeez, John, how would I know? Wait a minute. When did you say you got mugged?”
    ”Maybe five-fifteen, give or take a couple of minutes.”
    Chris shook his head. ”No, that lets Troller out.”
    ”Why?”
    ”The county bar association dinner was last night over in Salem , and they always do a cocktail thing beforehand. Troller was on line, a couple people in front of me, ordering a drink.”
    ”And what time was this?”
    ”No later than five-thirty. I remember thinking that if the bartender didn’t speed things up, I’d never get another round in before dinner.”
    ”What about Felicia?”
    ”Didn’t see her. But I talked with her this morning, and I can’t see how she could have anything to do with it.”
    ”What did you talk about?”
    ”What do you think? Marsh’s dying kinda screwed things up for me, you know.”
    ”I don’t follow.”
    Chris spread his hands on the desk. ”Couple decides to get divorced, even if the papers are filed and everything, it isn’t effective till it’s final.”
    ”Meaning?”
    ”Meaning Marsh’s dying like that ends the divorce action.”
    ”The law makes sense after all.”
    ”You’re not getting it. Hanna doesn’t need me anymore.”
    ”What about the settlement?”
    ”It’s off. She doesn’t need it now.”
    ”Why not?”
    Chris made a face. ”Because she gets everything anyway. Felicia told me this morning Marsh was too fucking cheap to make a will, like to try to disinherit her. You can’t really do that in this state, and some of it is gonna have to go into the kid’s name, but basically everything goes to Hanna like she and Marsh were still lovey-dovey.”
    ”Hanna gets the house?”
    ”Like I said. Everything.”
    I thought about somebody putting Marsh through the window and shooting Ten Angel. Then I thought about Hanna’s broad, sturdy body and her determination about the family hearth in Swampscott.
    I looked up at Chris, but he was already standing and shrugging into a sports coat that hung very lopsided on him, as if there was a great weight in his pocket.
    ”John, I’m sorry, but I really got to get on the road here.”
    ”What’s in the coat?”
    ”Huh?”
    ”The pocket.”
    ”Oh.” He reached in, then withdrew his hand again. ”I got a permit to keep one in the house a long time ago, back when Eleni first... got sick and couldn’t