Pastime Read Online Free PDF

moment, then went to a bleached oak table and got a pair of half-glasses and put them on and came back looking further at my license. "Well," she said. "A hard man is good to find."
    She smiled. I smiled. Paul smiled.
    "Come on in," Caitlin said. "Want some coffee? All I got is instant, but I can microwave it in no time."
    Paul and I declined. Caitlin led us into her sitting room, her prominent little butt waggling ahead of us as we followed her. With its bleached woodwork and stark white walls and ceiling, and anodized combination windows, the room was standard condo modern. It appeared to have been furnished by Betsy Ross. There was an old maple standup desk, an antique pine harvest table, a pine thumbback rocker, a coffee table made from a cobbler's bench. It went with the room the way Liberace goes with Faust.
    "I love early American," she said as we sat down. Paul and me on the sofa.
    Caitlin on the thumbback rocker, where she crossed both legs under her.
    "When I got divorced I made the bastard give me all the furniture."
    "Great," I said.
    "You're my mother's best friend?" Paul said.
    "Oh, absolutely," Caitlin said. "Patty and I are like twins. She's always talking about you."
    "What does she say?"
    "She talks about how successful you are. You're in the movies, I think?"
    "I'm a dancer in New York," Paul said. "I was on screen for a minute and twenty-six seconds in a film about American Dance that played on PBS."
    "Yuh, I knew it was something like that. Anyway, we been really close ever since we were in aerobics together at Sweats Plus. Something about us, you know, we just hit it off. Both been divorced and all. I don't have any kids, but, well, we knew something about pain, and recovery."
    "Know her current boyfriend?" I said.
    "I introduced them."
    "Tell us a little about him," Paul said.
    "He's a real doll. Friend of my brother's. I knew Patty was looking to go out, and I knew Rich was single. So I…" Caitlin spread her hands and shrugged. "They really connected, you know, right from the start. It was something. You worried about her? Maybe she and Rich just went off, they were crazy like that, I don't mean anything bad about your mom, Paul, she was just ready for fun anytime. I bet they just went off somewhere for a while on the spur.
    "They have a place they usually go?" I said.
    "Oh, they'd go anywhere. I don't know. Miami, Atlantic City, Club Med. You name it."
    "What's Rich's last name?" Paul said.
    "Beaumont. Rich Beaumont." She pronounced it with the stress on the last syllable.
    "Where's he live?" I said.
    "Over in Revere someplace, I think. On the water. I think he's got a condo on the beach."
    "Got an address?"
    "No, not really. I don't think I ever knew it exactly."
    "Phone number?"
    Caitlin smiled and spread her hands. "I'd always meet him through my brother."
    "Can we talk with your brother?" Paul said.
    "Marty? I don't know what Marty can tell you." "How's your brother know
    Rich?"
    "I don't know, they play handball together. Double date. I think they did some business sometime."
    "What's Rich's business?"
    "Consultant."
    "You know what he consults in?"
    "No, just some kind of consulting business."
    "What's your brother do?"
    "Marty's a paving contractor. Hot top, you know, that stuff."
    "And his last name?" I said.
    "Martinelli."
    "Martin Martinelli?" I said.
    "Yeah. My mother was a lunatic. How about Caitlin Martinelli? My old lady was nuts."
    "What was it like being my mother's friend?" Paul said.
    "Huh?"
    "What's she like?"
    "You're her kid," Caitlin said. "You should know-better than anybody."
    "I should but I don't. What does she care about?" The question was too hard for Caitlin. She frowned. "What did she care about?"
    "Yeah."
    Caitlin lifted her shoulders. "Ah…" Caitlin waved her hands vaguely.
    "She, ah. She liked aerobics. You know she cared about her body, and how she looked. And she knew a lot about makeup."
    Paul nodded.
    Caitlin had a thread to follow out of her confusion. She