Baltimore Blues

As the class moved into the cool-down phase, Ava rushed from the room, mopping at her sweaty face with one of the club's white towels. Only minutes later, glancing at her watch, she popped out of the locker room. She had not showered, although her makeup was fresh and her hair neatly combed. She still wore the tiny shorts and bra, with a filmy linen shirt thrown over them. The see-through shirt only emphasized all the bare skin beneath it.

No longer in a rush, Ava sauntered toward the lobby and stopped at the water fountain. Although she pressed her mouth against the arc of water, she didn't seem to swallow, Tess noticed, and her eyes were busy darting from side to side. When a Waspy white-haired man with a squash racket walked by her, she straightened up like a jack-in-the-box, greeting him in a sweet, clear voice.

"What a surprise! I didn't expect to see you here."

Across the lobby Tess pretended a sudden interest in a poster showing the cardiovascular system, but she could hear only snatches of their conversation. The two seemed to know each other, if not terribly well. Ava was unusually deferential, possibly because of the man's age, her eyes fastened on his face as if everything he said was fascinating.

"-come here for the massages as much as anything else," the patrician-looking man was saying. Tess was straining to hear Ava's reply, when she was knocked breathless by a huge hand smacking her between the shoulder blades.

"You want those membership detes now?" Dale, fitness ambassador, had sneaked up behind her, an ominously thick three-ring binder in hand.

"Detes?"

"Details."

"Oh, of course. Just let me go out to the Beamer and grab my checkbook."

Checkbook, the magic word. "Beamer" didn't hurt either.

Dale beamed, smacking Tess one more time. As she ran to her car, she wondered if he treated all the female clients like this, or only those at least a foot taller.

She waited in her car for Ava to leave, watching her through the club's glass front. She seemed in no hurry now as she talked to the man with the squash racket. Animated, almost flirtatious, she leaned toward him and touched him frequently, i

When the man finally walked away, Ava's face seemed to shut down. She wouldn't frown like that, Tess thought, if she knew how her face settled in deep lines along her mouth and forehead. Ava ran toward her car and shot out of the parking lot so quickly, Tess almost lost her on Federal Hill's narrow streets. She caught up on Light Street and trailed her back to Eden 's Landing. The Toyota, usually so well behaved, sputtered and backfired, begging for attention. Tess kept it in second and hoped Ava remained oblivious.

Once inside her apartment, Ava refused to answer the phone. Tess knew this because she called at regular intervals from the pay phone at Vaccaro's, a gelato place in Little Italy, a block away. Not even a machine picked up. How could someone ignore ten, fifteen rings? Ava didn't strike Tess as a particularly tolerant person, or one who could walk away easily from a ringing phone. Perhaps she was on the other line, so involved in another conversation that she refused to heed the click of call-waiting. Or she had unplugged the phone so no one could call her. So Rock couldn't call her.

Tess ate a pistache gelato and thought about what she had learned so far. Ava shoplifted. Ava worked out. Ava, in all likelihood, had breast implants. And more muscle than one might imagine. It didn't seem like much. It also seemed pretty damn boring. She totaled up her hours in her head-7:30 A.M. to 12:30 P.M., then another two hours tonight. It came out to $210. Boring, but profitable. In fact she wouldn't mind several such boring days, although she knew she should quit before her billable hours reached $1,000. She didn't want to put too big a dent in Rock's nest egg.

Chapter 5

After the easy rewards of her first day, Tess discovered why surveillance work pays well. On her second day, the Friday before the Labor Day weekend, Tess waited outside the Lambrecht Building until 2 P.M., but Ava did not leave until Rock came to pick her up for an Eastern Shore weekend. Tess watched Rock carry Ava's bags to his car-two, she noted, for a three-day weekend. Suddenly he reached out and caught Ava by the wrist, as if afraid she might dart off. He gathered her to him and hugged her hard. It made Tess's ribs ache just to see it. But Ava only arched her back, submitting her body to the embrace while craning her neck away from Rock, staring above his head at something Tess could not see. They headed for the expressway in Rock's seldom-used Honda, his shell strapped to the roof of the car.

Why are you two engaged? Tess wondered as the car disappeared. She had seen Rock in the grocery store, absentminded and indifferent about everything except his coffee beans. "The biggest one is always the best buy, right? If this kind of rice costs more, it must be better, right?" He was a few years older than she, and the life he glimpsed through his microscope, as Tess understood it, encouraged one to reproduce, to squiggle on.

And there was Ava, beautiful, accomplished, and willing. He would never question why she wanted to marry him. He would see it as a sign of extraordinary good fortune, proof that the expensive rice is always the best.

Tess spent the weekend at the bookstore, trying to make up the hours she owed Kitty. Too soon it was Tuesday, time to take up her now-familiar post outside Eden 's Landing. Then Wednesday, Thursday. The days passed uneventfully. Ava walked to work, she ventured out for lunch, she went back inside, she went home. On Wednesday she met Rock for di

On Friday morning she sat on her bench outside Ava's office and watched the cops rousting panhandlers. Beggars were not new in downtown Baltimore -Tess remembered a legless man at Lexington Market who had chased her down the street on his little wheeled cart when she was eight-but now war had been declared. The city had enlisted "safety guides" who patrolled the streets, making them safer and friendlier for those who asked only for directions. The street people called these guides the Purple People, a reference to their snazzy caps. Maybe city officials thought they would lose their new football team if the NFL found out Baltimore had panhandlers. Then again, it would have been a great name for the team: the Baltimore Beggars. No-the Baltimore Hollow Men. If only T. S. Eliot had died in Charm City instead of Poe, it could have been the Hollow Men instead of the Ravens.

Most of the panhandlers went peaceably, including Tess's seatmate, who had been prying a dollar a day from her with the same routine. But she didn't ask the cops or the Purple People if she scared them, she just kept moving. "I know how not to get arrested," she muttered to Tess as she hurried off, surprisingly lucid. "I'll be up at McDonald's." Stu

A few feet away a gentleman in a shiny blue suit refused to yield his ground. Tall and ski

Tess knew the line well; it was a local favorite. Most people tried it and moved on. But this man would not give up, no matter how the cops cajoled or threatened. She was so entranced by this tableau that she almost missed Ava heading out the front door. She was heading toward the Gallery, briefcase in hand. But instead of one of her perfect suits-Tess so far had seen her in gray, black, red, and a stu