red in the dark. “We’re running a G-rated consortium here. This time, anyway.”
“Hey, yourself,” Gideon growled back, leaving his arms where they were, “go find your own parapet.”
But after another lingering moment with their arms wrapped around one another they separated and resumed their slow tour of the ramparts, their fingers entwined.
“ This time?” Gideon said. “Meaning, ‘As opposed to last time’?”
Julie nodded. “It got pretty torrid around here a couple of years ago.”
“Rats,” Gideon said. “I was hoping it was just something about me that brought out the beast in Cheryl.”
“’Fraid not, the beast in Cheryl is pretty easy to bring out. But it wasn’t just Cheryl-well, it was, but the hanky-panky was really pretty general. I mean, I know this stuff happens at conferences, but that was the first time I’d ever experienced anything quite like that.”
“Not first hand, I hope.”
She squeezed his fingers. “Not a chance. Edgar was at the center of it all, and I guess I wasn’t his type. He made only one move on me that could be construed as a pass-about as subtle as Cheryl’s move on you-and then quit.” She smiled. “I suppose I should have been insulted, because I was the only one he didn’t keep after. He managed to have affairs-well, to have sex with-all three of the other women. Not that he had to try too hard.”
“In one week?”
“Well, you know, the man was brilliant, famous, moody, edgy, good-looking in a dangerous sort of way… the kind that appeals to a lot of women.”
“But not to you, I take it.”
“Ugh, no!” He was absurdly pleased by her enthusiastic shudder. “Not that I have any objection to brilliant, famous, and good-looking, but I like my men a lot bigger, and sunnier, and friendlier… and I already have me one of those.”
You sure do, Gideon thought. And just you try and get rid of him. “But I thought Villarreal was supposed to be some kind of loner, a recluse-preferred living with the bears and the wolves to being around people. Was that all hype?”
“No, as far as I know it was true. He spent a lot of the year in the wilds. When he left here he was heading straight out to the Alaskan wilderness to spend the summer all by himself, keeping tabs on a cluster of bear families-you know, tracking their eating, and mating, and migration activities. All alone with the bears, that’s what he loved.” She shook her head. “But when he was around people-women, anyway-he got very, um, shall we say, social.”
“Yeah. Well, who knows, maybe I would too, if I spent my summers all alone, watching bears have sex.”
They walked on a few steps, still hand-in-hand. “You said all three of the women,” he said. “That means Cheryl, which is not exactly a huge surprise, and Liz-which is a surprise, because I wouldn’t have pictured her going for a one-night stand-but who else was there?”
“Victor Waldo’s wife, Kathie, was here with him too, and she-”
“Ah, that’s right. You asked after her when we met him on the boat and he said they were separated, and you and Liz gave each other a couple of ‘aha’ glances.”
“Really? Was it that obvious?”
“Hey, don’t forget you’re talking to the Skeleton Detective here. Not too much gets by me. So you think they broke up on account of what went on between her and Villarreal?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. She and Victor had a real wingding when it came out. It was pretty bad. I’m surprised you didn’t hear them back in Port Angeles.”
They had taken four turns around the ramparts now, and had them all to themselves, with Liz having gone back inside, and they stopped to lean their elbows on the parapet, overlooking the lights that were beginning to twinkle on in Hugh Town.
“It started right on the first night,” Julie mused, “the night of the opening reception.”
You’d have to have been out to lunch, she told him, not to notice that Cheryl and Villarreal
“Hey, yourself,” Gideon growled back, leaving his arms where they were, “go find your own parapet.”
But after another lingering moment with their arms wrapped around one another they separated and resumed their slow tour of the ramparts, their fingers entwined.
“ This time?” Gideon said. “Meaning, ‘As opposed to last time’?”
Julie nodded. “It got pretty torrid around here a couple of years ago.”
“Rats,” Gideon said. “I was hoping it was just something about me that brought out the beast in Cheryl.”
“’Fraid not, the beast in Cheryl is pretty easy to bring out. But it wasn’t just Cheryl-well, it was, but the hanky-panky was really pretty general. I mean, I know this stuff happens at conferences, but that was the first time I’d ever experienced anything quite like that.”
“Not first hand, I hope.”
She squeezed his fingers. “Not a chance. Edgar was at the center of it all, and I guess I wasn’t his type. He made only one move on me that could be construed as a pass-about as subtle as Cheryl’s move on you-and then quit.” She smiled. “I suppose I should have been insulted, because I was the only one he didn’t keep after. He managed to have affairs-well, to have sex with-all three of the other women. Not that he had to try too hard.”
“In one week?”
“Well, you know, the man was brilliant, famous, moody, edgy, good-looking in a dangerous sort of way… the kind that appeals to a lot of women.”
“But not to you, I take it.”
“Ugh, no!” He was absurdly pleased by her enthusiastic shudder. “Not that I have any objection to brilliant, famous, and good-looking, but I like my men a lot bigger, and sunnier, and friendlier… and I already have me one of those.”
You sure do, Gideon thought. And just you try and get rid of him. “But I thought Villarreal was supposed to be some kind of loner, a recluse-preferred living with the bears and the wolves to being around people. Was that all hype?”
“No, as far as I know it was true. He spent a lot of the year in the wilds. When he left here he was heading straight out to the Alaskan wilderness to spend the summer all by himself, keeping tabs on a cluster of bear families-you know, tracking their eating, and mating, and migration activities. All alone with the bears, that’s what he loved.” She shook her head. “But when he was around people-women, anyway-he got very, um, shall we say, social.”
“Yeah. Well, who knows, maybe I would too, if I spent my summers all alone, watching bears have sex.”
They walked on a few steps, still hand-in-hand. “You said all three of the women,” he said. “That means Cheryl, which is not exactly a huge surprise, and Liz-which is a surprise, because I wouldn’t have pictured her going for a one-night stand-but who else was there?”
“Victor Waldo’s wife, Kathie, was here with him too, and she-”
“Ah, that’s right. You asked after her when we met him on the boat and he said they were separated, and you and Liz gave each other a couple of ‘aha’ glances.”
“Really? Was it that obvious?”
“Hey, don’t forget you’re talking to the Skeleton Detective here. Not too much gets by me. So you think they broke up on account of what went on between her and Villarreal?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised. She and Victor had a real wingding when it came out. It was pretty bad. I’m surprised you didn’t hear them back in Port Angeles.”
They had taken four turns around the ramparts now, and had them all to themselves, with Liz having gone back inside, and they stopped to lean their elbows on the parapet, overlooking the lights that were beginning to twinkle on in Hugh Town.
“It started right on the first night,” Julie mused, “the night of the opening reception.”
You’d have to have been out to lunch, she told him, not to notice that Cheryl and Villarreal
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