Hit Man

Too many people, Keller thought. Give it another day.

The next day he arrived at the same time and the hostess led him to the table he’d reserved. Dinsmore’s table had two places set, and aRESERVED sign in place. Keller got to his feet and went to the men’s room, where he locked himself in a stall.

A few minutes later he left the men’s room and threaded his way through the maze of tables, passing close to the Dinsmore table on his way, bumping into it, reaching out to steady himself.

As far as he could tell, nobody paid him any attention.

He returned to his own table, sat down, waited. At 12:30 Dinsmore’s table was still unoccupied. What would he do if they gave it to somebody else? He couldn’t try to undo what he’d just done, could he? He didn’t see how, not with people sitting at the table.

Risky plan, he thought. Too many ways it could go wrong. If he’d been able to talk it through with Nelson first-

Get a grip on yourself, he told himself.

He was doing just that when Dinsmore and the wrestler turned up, the executive in a testy mood, the bodyguard looking sullen and bored. There was a bad moment when the hostess seemed uncertain where to seat them, but then she worked it out and led them to their usual table.

Keller longed to get out of there. He’d been picking at his veal ever since it had been placed in front of him. It tasted flat, but he figured anything would just then. Could he just put some money on the table and get the hell out? Or did he have to sit there and wait?

Fifteen minutes after his arrival, Dinsmore cried out, clutched his throat, and pitched forward onto the table. Half an hour after that, Keller turned in his rental car at the airport and booked his flight home.

In the cab from the airport, Keller had to fight the impulse to have the driver stop so he could pick up something for Nelson. He’d changed planes in St. Louis, and he’d spent most of his time between flights in the gift shop, trying to find something for the dog. But what would Nelson do with a snow shaker or a souvenir coffee mug? What did he want with a Cardinals cap, or a sweatshirt with a representation of the Gateway Arch?

“You hardly touched that,” the waitress in Omaha had said of his veal. “Do you want a doggie bag?”

He’d been stuck for an answer. “Sorry,” he said at length. “I’m a little rattled. That poor man…” he’d added, with a gesture toward the table where Dinsmore had been sitting.

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll be all right,” she said. “He’s probably sitting up in his hospital bed right now, joking with his nurses.”

Keller didn’t think so.

“Hey, Mist’ Keller,” the elevator operator said. “Ain’t seen you in a while, sir.”

“It’s good to be back.”

“That dog be glad to see you,” the man said. “That Nelson, he’s a real good dog.”

He was also out, a fact the attendant had neglected to mention. Keller unlocked the door and entered the apartment, calling the dog’s name and getting no response. He unpacked, and decided to delay his shower until the dog was back and the girl had gone for the day.

He could have had several showers. It was fully forty minutes from the time he sat down in front of the television set until he heard Andria ’s key in the lock. As soon as the door was open Nelson came flying across the room, leaping up to greet Keller, tail wagging furiously.

Keller felt wonderful. A wave of contentment passed through him, and he got down on his knees to play with his dog.

“I’m sorry you had to come home to an empty house,” Andria said. “If we’d known you were coming-”

“That’s all right.”

“Well, I’d better be going. You must be exhausted, you’ll want to get to bed.”

“Not for a few hours,” he said, “but I’ll want a shower. There’s something about spending a whole day in airports and on planes-”

“I know what you mean,” she said. “Well, Nelson, what’s today? Tuesday? I guess I won’t be seeing you until Friday.” She petted the dog, then looked across at Keller. “You still want me to give him his regular walk on Friday, don’t you?”

“Definitely.”

“Good, because I’ll be looking forward to it. He’s my favorite client.” She gave the dog another pat. “And thanks for paying me, and for the bonus. It’s great of you. I mean, if I wind up having to get a hotel room, I can afford it.”

“A hotel room?”

She lowered her eyes. “I wasn’t going to mention this,” she said, “but it’d give me a bad conscience not to. I don’t know how you’re going to feel about this, but I’ll just go ahead and blurt it out, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I’ve sort of been staying here,” she said.

“You’ve sort of… ”

“Sort of been living here. See, the place I was staying, it didn’t work out, and there’s one or two people I could call, but I thought, well, Nelson and I get along so good, and I could really spend lots of time with him if I just, like-”

“Stayed here.”

“Right,” she said. “So that’s what I did. I didn’t sleep in your bed, Mr. Keller-”

“Why not?”

“Well, I figured you might not like that. And the couch is comfortable, it really is.”

She’d tried to keep her impact on his apartment minimal, she told him, stripping her bedding from the couch each morning and stowing it in the closet. And it wasn’t as though she were hanging out there all the time, because when she wasn’t walking Nelson she had other clients to attend to.

“Dogs to walk,” he said. “Plants to water.”

“And cats and fish to feed, and birds. There’s this couple on Sixty-fifth Street with seventeen birds, and there’s something about birds in cages. I get this urge to open the cages and open the windows and let them all fly away. But I wouldn’t, partly because it would make the people really crazy, and partly because it would be terrible for the birds. I don’t think they’d last long out there.”

“Not in this town,” Keller said.

“Just the other day one of them got out of his cage,” she said, “and I just about lost it. The windows were closed so he wasn’t going anywhere, but he was swooping and diving and I couldn’t think how to get him back in his cage.”

“What did you do?”

“What I did,” she said, “is I centered all my energy in my heart chakra, and I sent this great burst of calming heart energy to the bird, and he calmed right down. Then I just held the cage door open and he flew back in.”

“No kidding?”

She nodded. “I should have thought of it right away,” she said, “but when you panic you tend to overlook the obvious.”

“That’s the truth,” he said. “Let me ask you something. Do you have a place to stay tonight?”

“Well, not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“Well, I didn’t know you were coming home tonight. But I know some people I can call, and-”

“You’re welcome to stay here,” he said.

“Oh, I couldn’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Well, you’re home. It wasn’t really right for me to stay here when you were out of town-”

“It was fine. It meant more company for the dog.”

“Anyway, you’re home now. The last thing you need is a houseguest.”

“One night won’t hurt.”

“Well,” she said, “it is a little late to start looking for a place to stay.”

“You’ll stay here.”

“But just for the one night.”

“Right.”

“I appreciate this,” she said. “I really do.”

Keller, freshly showered, stood at the sink and contemplated shaving. But whoever heard of shaving before you went to bed? You shaved in the morning, not at night.

Unless, of course, you expected to have your cheek pressed against something other than your pillow.

Cut it out, he told himself.

He got into bed and turned out the light, and Nelson sprang onto the bed beside him, turned around the compulsory three times, and lay down.

Keller slept. When he awoke the next morning, Andria was gone. The only trace of her presence was a note assuring him that she’d come walk the dog at her usual time on Friday. Keller shaved, walked the dog, and rode the train to White Plains.