“Because most menaren’tsmart,” Kate said.
“I think—” Jack began.
“What doyouremember about Cheryl?” Sara loudly asked Gil. “And let’s move to the couches.”
When they were settled, Gil said, “I haven’t thought of anything else since Jack called me. Cheryl and I were in the same class, but she was above my league.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Sara said. “You were a football star and your parents live on the west side of town. Cheryl lived—” She waved her hand. “You know.”
“Sometimes in school things like that get lost. Cheryl was smart and the teachers loved her. And she wore nice clothes all the time. It was like she lived in a world all her own. She was different from the rest of us.”
“Who were her friends?” Sara asked. “In my experience, high-school girls travel in packs. Snarling, sneering, dangerous little packs.”
“Were you part of one?” Jack asked.
Sara smiled. “Not at all. I’m an outsider and I’ve always been one.” She looked at Kate in question.
“Sorry. I had lots of friends. Very muchnotan outsider.” She looked at Jack but he said nothing. But then, she already knew. Good-looking, athletic boys ruled high schools everywhere.
“Those girls used to scare me to death,” Gil said. “But I don’t think I ever saw Cheryl with anyone else.”
“What about in a couple?” Kate asked. “Boyfriends?”
“Definitely no.” Gil looked a bit embarrassed. “Unfortunately, there was a lot of locker talk about her. She was so damn pretty. And that body! I had—” He cleared his throat. “I had a dream or two about her.”
“Any actual conversations with her?” Sara asked.
“Only once. I was about fifteen, and we’d had a late football practice. I went to the front of the school to meet my dad. Cheryl was there waiting for her mom to pick her up.” He paused. “I was always awkward around girls, but it was just us there. I asked her if she’d go to the school dance with me that weekend.” He smiled. “She was really nice. She said she wasn’t free, but if she were, I’d be the boy she most wanted to go out with. She said, ‘You’re my second favorite.’ That’s when her mother showed up.”
Gil shook his head. “Now,therewas a hard-core mom. She looked at me as if I’d tried to rip her daughter’s clothes off. She got out of the car and marched over to me like she was going into battle. I swear that if she’d had a gun, she would have shot me. But then, at fifteen I was six feet tall. Bigfoot in person.”
Sara laughed. “What exactly did her mother say?”
“The usual, that she knew boys my age had only one thing in mind and that I’d betterneverget near her daughter.”
“What did Cheryl say?” Kate asked.
“Not a word. I still remember my shock at it all. I don’t want to brag, but mothers were usually nice to me.”
“Why not?” Sara asked. “You were a catch—star athlete, smart, salt-of-the-earth personality.”
“You make me sound dull,” Gil said.
“You’re a single father who works hard,” Sara said. “Nothing dull about that.”
“Another saint,” Jack said. “Tell them about Cheryl’s mother. They’re interested in her profession.”
Gil’s face turned a rosy pink.
“It looks like you know about Mrs. Morris’s, uh, ‘outside job,’” Sara said.
Gil nodded.
“What do you know about it? Especiallywho,” Sara said.
“I didn’t know about her until later, but back then, my dad told me to stay away from both of them.”
“Bothof them?” Jack said. “What does that mean?”
