lmost
defiant gesture she speared it and put it in her mouth.

"Atta girl," he said.

"Mind your own business," she said. "How do you mean they're phonies?"

"I spent all Monday investigating _them_!"

"A fine way to make a dollar," she said. "What do you care who they
are?"

He gave her a knowing smile. "That's my fat-headed girl. Like to visit
me in a nice jail, wouldn't you? One with a prestige address, of course.
Let me tell you. They rented that shack, and the dump heap next to it
for a pretty fancy figure. Robert Reeger said they were going to do
printing in that shack. They paid in full for the two years rental, in
nice crisp hundred-dollar bills...."

"I get it! They were phony," she exulted.

"How can you be so stupid? I know. For you it's easy. Of course the
bills were genuine. But the printing business--what were they going to
print with, typewriters? Another thing. There's no business record I
could find on them; they're not listed. So how did they get a million
dollars, and Robert said more. 'Report here, no matter what the time.' I
don't get it. I drove them out. There was no garage, no car I could see,
and the place is miles from food. How do they live out there?"

"Maybe they have friends who pick them up," Deena said.

"Maybe. Robert also said there was a rumor or something about the
government going to use the area for a missile depot. I tried to run it
down. Nothing."

"Which proves nothing," she said.

"True. But I couldn't even smell smoke. No, the whole thing just smells
bad. So I think I'm going back there and tell them to forget it."

"Oh, don't be an idiot," she said. "This is your big chance to make some
real money, get a reputation, and because you're chicken, you're going
to throw it up."

"I won't get into anything crooked!" his voice rose.

"The way you're thinking you couldn't follow a straight line."

"They can't draw a straight line."

"Well, you do what you want. Only, the next time I have to pay for a
dinner don't give me that martyred look."

"Okay. Okay. What do you want for dessert, spumoni?"

"After this, bicarbonate."

"Very funny."

And for the first time in several years she did not kiss him good night,
when they parted.

* * * * *

He turned off the blacktop and started down the rutted path. He switched
the headlights off about halfway to the shack, and parked it a hundred
or so yards away from it and walked the rest.