Hit Man

That was the thing about dogs, he thought. They didn’t get bored the way people did.

After a couple of blocks he found himself talking to Nelson about what had happened in St. Louis. “They didn’t say anything about a woman,” he said. “I bet she wasn’t registered. I don’t think she was his wife, so I guess she wasn’t officially there. That’s why he sent her to the bathroom before he opened the door, and why he didn’t want to open the door in the first place. If she’d stayed in the bathroom another minute-”

But suppose she had? She’d have been screaming her head off before Keller was out of the hotel, and she’d have been able to give a certain amount of information to the police. How the killer had gained access to the room, for a starter.

Just as well things had gone the way they did, he decided. But it still rankled. They hadn’t said anything at all about a woman.

There was only one bathroom. Andria used it first. Keller heard the shower ru

Keller showered and put on a robe. Andria was on the sofa, reading a magazine. They said goodnight and he clucked to Nelson, and the dog followed him into the bedroom. When he closed the door the dog made that sound again.

He shucked the robe, got into bed, patted the bed at his side. Nelson stayed where he was, right in front of the door, and he repeated that sound in his throat, making it the least bit more insistent this time.

“You want to go out?”

Nelson wagged his tail, which Keller had to figure for a yes. He opened the door and the dog went into the other room. He closed the door and got back into bed, trying to decide if he was jealous. It struck him that he might not only be jealous of the girl, because Nelson wanted to be with her instead of with him, but he might as easily be jealous of the dog, because he got to sleep with Andria and Keller didn’t.

Little pink toes, each with the nail painted a different color…

He was still sorting it out when the door opened and the dog trotted in. “He wants to be with you,” Andria said, and she drew the door shut before Keller could frame a response.

But did he? The animal didn’t seem to know what he wanted. He sprang onto Keller’s bed, turned around once, twice, and then leaped onto the floor and went over to the door. He made that noise again, but this time it sounded plaintive.

Keller got up and opened the door. Nelson moved into the doorway, half in and half out of the room. Keller leaned into the doorway himself and said, “I think the closed door bothers him. Suppose I leave it open?”

“Sure.”

He left the door ajar and went back to bed. Nelson seized the opportunity and went on into the living room. Moments later he was back in the bedroom. Moments after that he was on his way to the living room. Why, Keller wondered, was the dog behaving like an expectant father in a maternity ward waiting room? What was all this back-and-forth business about?

Keller closed his eyes, feeling as far from sleep as he was from Sardinia. Why, he wondered, did Andria want to go there? For the sardines? Then she could stop at Corsica for a corset, and head on to Elba for the macaroni. And Malta for the falcons, and Crete for the cretins, and-

He was just getting drifty when the dog came back.

“Nelson,” he said, “what the hell’s the matter with you? Huh?” He reached down and scratched the dog behind an ear. “You’re a good boy,” he said. “Oh yes, you’re a good boy, but you’re nuts.”

There was a knock on the door.

He sat up in bed. It was Andria, of course, and the door was open; she had knocked to get his attention. “He just can’t decide who he wants to be with,” she said. “Maybe I should just pack my things and go.”

“No,” he said. He didn’t want her to go. “No, don’t go,” he said.

“Then maybe I should stay.”

She came on into the room. She had turned on a lamp in the living room before she came in, but the back lighting was not revealing. The pink fla

“I have a feeling this is a big mistake,” she said, “but I don’t care. I just don’t care. Do you know what I mean?”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Keller said.

Afterward he said, “Now I suppose you’ll think I put the dog up to it. I wish I could take the credit, but I swear it was all his idea. He was like that donkey in the logic problem, unable to decide between the two bales of hay. Where did he go, I wonder?”

She didn’t say anything, and he looked closely and saw that she was crying. Jesus, had he said something to upset her?

He said, “ Andria? Is something wrong?”

She sat up and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “I’m just scared,” she said.

“Of what?”

“Of you.”

“Of me?”

“Just tell me you’re not going to hurt me,” she said. “Could you do that?”

“Why would I hurt you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, why would you say something like that?”

“Oh, God,” she said. She put a hand to her mouth and chewed on a knuckle. Her fingernails weren’t polished, just her toenails. Interesting. She said, “When I’m in a relationship I have to be completely honest.”

“Huh?”

“Not that this is a relationship, I mean we just went to bed together once, but I felt we really related, don’t you think?”

Keller wondered what she was getting at.

“So I have to be honest. See, I know what you do.”

“You know what I do?”

“On those trips.”

That was ridiculous. How could she know anything?

“Tell me,” he said.

“I’m afraid to say it.” God, maybe she did know.

“Go ahead,” he said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“You-”

“Go ahead.”

“You’re an assassin.”

Ooops.

He said, “What makes you think that?”

“I don’t think it,” she said. “I sort of know it. And I don’t know how I know it. I guess I knew it the day I met you. Something about your energy, I guess. It’s kind of intangible, but it’s there.”

“Oh.”

“I sense things about people. Please don’t hurt me.”

“I’ll never hurt you, Andria.”

“I know you mean that,” she said. “I hope it turns out to be true.”

He thought for a moment. “If you think that about me,” he said, “or know it, whatever you want to call it, and if you were afraid I might… hurt you-”

“Then why did I come into the bedroom?”

“Right. Why did you?”

She looked right into his eyes. “I couldn’t help myself,” she said.

He felt this sensation in the middle of his chest, as if there had been a steel band around his heart and it had just cracked and fallen away. He reached for her and drew her down.

On the floor at the side of the bed, Nelson slept like a lamb.

In the morning they walked Nelson together. Keller bought the paper and picked up a quart of milk. Back at the apartment, he made a pot of coffee while she put breakfast on the table.

He said, “Look, I’m not good at this, but there are some things I ought to say. The first is that you have nothing to fear from me. My work is one thing and my life is something else. I have no reason to hurt you, and even if I had a reason I wouldn’t do it.”

“I know that.”

“Oh?”

“I was afraid last night. I’m not afraid now.”

“Oh,” he said. “Well, the other thing I want to say is that I know you don’t have a place to stay right now, and as far as I’m concerned you can stay here as long as you want. In fact I’d like it if you stayed here. You can even sleep on the couch if you want, assuming that Nelson will allow it. I’m not sure he will, though.”