Ben followed him grudgingly to the sidewalk, and they turned in unison and sat down on the broad steps of the post office.
“I got a ticket the other day,” Liam said.
“Was it for ramming a stationary cop car?”
“Uh, no. I wasn’t quite that ambitious. But the cop who pulled me over knew me. I had no idea who he was.”
Well, that wasn’t too interesting, but it was betterthan thinking about whatever the hell Laura Doncaster was up to. “You were in town?”
“No, the highway. But I think the guy knew me from here.”
“Paul Dixson is a state trooper. Do you remember Paul?”
“Maybe. Shit, yeah, it might have been him.”
“He didn’t sign the ticket?”
“I guess he might have, but I didn’t look.”
“So it’s not like you actually care who it was. Not like this conversationis of any value to you.”
“I was trying to be of value toyou. I thought it might be good if you were distracted from yelling at Laura Doncaster.OfficerDoncaster.”
“Don’t do me any favors.” And then, because it was even more surreal and awkward to sit andnottalk to Liam than it was to sit and talk to him, Ben added, “Why are you here? What’s the sudden interest in North Falls these days?”
Liam sighed. “I’m not totally sure. I guess maybe—”
The tow truck arrived and Liam stopped talking. He and Ben watched in silence as Seth climbed out of the truck, stared at the two conjoined cars, and started laughing. Yeah, he recognized Ben’s Toyota. Asshole.
Seth looked over at Ben, did a classic double take when he saw Liam, and made a sort of exasperatedWTF?gesture in his direction, thenlooked back at the cars and started laughing again.
Ben let himself collapse at the waist and cradled his head in his hands. “Why are you here?” he whined. He wasn’t sure if he was addressing the question to Liam or to himself, but regardless, he didn’t get an answer.
