The pub was rocking, but they found an empty table outside and ordered their beers and food. Valentine also had a vodka tonic and a slice of meatball pizza.
Tapshaw took a sip of her beer and said, “I think the Taiwanese are going to invest. Not the full amount I was initially looking for, but at least half.”
“That’s great, Jill,” said Devine. He didn’t know if she had heard about Chilton’s murder, and he was not going to bring it up.
Speers looked at her and said, “How did you get into the online dating space? I know your background because I googled you. You could be working for NASA or NSA.”
“I got offers from both while I was at MIT. But while NASA does many wonderful things, I’d rather focus on this planet. And the NSA? I don’t want to spy on people. I want to help them be happy.”
Valentine finished his vodka tonic in one impressive gulp. “But people can be happy alone. I am example of this. I do not need nobody to be, as you say, happy. I am happy with me.”
“Come on, Will, everyone needs somebody,” countered Tapshaw.
Devine eyed him. “How’d you end up in Mount Kisco doing what you do?”
“I can do what I do from anywhere. This is nice place. I move around a lot before, but this is nice place. I stay here.”
“Where were you before?” asked Speers.
“In big city of New York. But I did not like it. Too many people. Remind me of Moscow, only in Moscow people either stay home or go to bar. They do not, how you say, wander around. You wander around there, you get shot or arrested.”
Tapshaw said, “Well, I like it here, too. But I also like to travel. I did that to learn about what people wanted from each other. That helped me put my platform together. Other sites ask you all these questions to build a profile so they can match you with a person of like interests. And we do some of that, too—but what about the old saying, ‘Opposites attract’？ A great relationship doesn’t mean that the people are carbon copies of each other. Then it’s like you’re staring in a mirror every day. What about two very different people getting together and learning from each other? Changing what they like and dislike because they have someone who lets them see another slice of life?”
“Me?” said Valentine. “I want another slice of pizza. Then I am happy man.”
Tapshaw tittered at this, but Devine didn’t join in. Speers had eyed Valentine in a way that Devine didn’t like. A thought suddenly hit him.
Did these two know each other before? But if they did, why was she searching his room?
Then he thought about the picture in Valentine’s room. And the girl.
“Hey, Will, do you have family back in Russia? Brother? Sister?”
Valentine finished his beer before answering. “I have nobody, dude. Nobody. Way I like it.”
CHAPTER
79
IT WAS NEARLY FOUR A.M. when Devine rolled over in his bed and coughed. Then he coughed again, harder. The next moment he couldn’t catch his breath.
In his murky mind he thought, Am I having a heart attack?
He sat up in bed and his head felt like it was underwater. What the hell was going on? He’d had two beers, not ten.
Then he inhaled and the smell answered all his questions.
Shit!
He jumped out of bed and almost crashed against the wall. He ripped open the door and gagged. He pulled his T-shirt up over his nose and mouth, went down to his knees, and scuttled across the hall to Speers’s room. He tried the knob. It was locked. He rose and put his shoulder to it. It flew open and he saw Speers in the bed. She didn’t react to his crashing into her room, which was not a good sign.
He stumbled over and tried to wake her. He checked her pulse. Still there. Barely.
He lifted her up and carried her down the stairs and out the front door. He set her down in the grass and ran back in. He checked Tapshaw’s room next. Her door was not locked. She was unconscious on the floor. He confirmed that she was still breathing and carried her outside and set her next to Speers.
He ran back inside and knocked open Valentine’s locked door. He wasn’t in there. Devine looked wildly around and even checked under the bed, in the closet, and also the bathroom. The man wasn’t there.
After grabbing his phone, he ran back outside and called 911 and then the gas company’s emergency number. There was a garden hose next to the front door. He turned it on and sprinkled water over the women. Then he patted their faces, turned them on their sides, and applied pressure to their backs to help their lungs expand. Their breaths started getting deeper, and their color finally started returning; Speers even managed to sit up. She looked at Devine.