The Devil's Cook Read Online Free PDF Page A

campus.”
    â€œWell, she must have gone out that way. Maybe it was a shortcut. In the same direction she was going, I mean.”
    â€œOf course. There’s nothing odd about using the back door. All of us do on occasion.”
    Having reached the first floor, they ascended the longer flight of stairs to the second. Beyond the Bowers’s door, someone moved in response to Jay’s knock. It was Otis Bowers himself who opened. Behind Otis, wearing an apron and holding a dish towel, and watching curiously from the kitchen, was his wife Ardis.
    Otis was approximately the same age and height at Jay. He had a weight problem, as Jay did, but in reverse. Where Jay was lean, with the prospect of growing leaner, Otis was fat, with the prospect of growing fatter. He was an assistant professor of physics. Ardis was a graduate student and instructor in the Department of English. Her claim to prettiness, which had some basis, was disputed by a hint around eyes and mouth of chronic acrimony; even her speech had a sour flavor.
    â€œHello, Jay,” Otis said. “Farley. Come in. We’ve just finished our dinner.”
    â€œSorry to intrude, Otis,” Jay said, stepping into the room with Farley at his shoulder. “We won’t be a minute.”
    â€œNo intrusion at all. Sit down and stay a while. We have nothing planned for the evening.”
    â€œThanks, Otis, but we just came up to ask if you’ve seen Terry. She invited Farley to dinner, and she seems to have gone off and forgotten all about it.”
    Ardis had retreated into the kitchen. She now reappeared, as if on cue, without her towel and apron.
    â€œOtis hasn’t seen her,” she said. “Have you, Otis?”
    â€œNo, no, I haven’t seen her. Sorry, Jay.”
    Otis’s chubby pink face, normally benign, was a picture of misery. As they all knew, Ardis’s abrupt interception of Jay’s question was an oblique allusion to a painful episode involving Otis and Terry. The affair, if it could be so exaggerated, had been incited by Terry, not Otis, and he nursed no ill feelings. Ardis, however, would neither forgive nor let Otis forget.
    â€œI meant the question to include you, Ardis.” Jay’s face was again wooden. “She might have been on campus. If so, you might have seen her.”
    â€œWell, we didn’t. Neither Otis nor I.”
    â€œThat’s right, Jay,” said Otis. “We haven’t seen her today at all. She’s probably been delayed by something or other.”
    â€œYes,” said Ardis. “Something or other.”
    Jay turned to the door. Otis hurried forward and held it open in a gesture of courtesy. His embarrassment was still pinkly evident.
    â€œI’m sorry, Jay. I wish I could help you.”
    â€œForget it, Otis,” Jay said.
    He and Farley went out into the hall, and the door closed behind them. Ardis’s voice immediately began beyond the door.
    â€œWhat a bitch!” Farley said.

4
    Farley’s remark, as it developed, was a cue. The door across the hall swung open and Fanny Moran popped out.
    â€œDid someone mention me?” she said.
    Farley stared at his half-sister in amazement, as if he had witnessed a minor miracle when it was least expected.
    â€œWould you mind telling me,” he said, “how in hell you managed to hear me through that closed door? By God, you must have rabbit ears!”
    â€œNo such thing. The door was cracked open, as a matter of fact. I was listening.”
    â€œSpying, you mean. Has anyone ever told you that you have acquired some deplorable habits?”
    â€œThere was no spying to it. I was curious, that’s all. I heard you two when you knocked on the Bowers’s door, and I was waiting for you to come out. What did you want to see Ardis and Otis about?”
    â€œI won’t tell you. It would only be rewarding your eavesdropping.”
    â€œJay will tell me. Won’t you,