ITH HIS WEAK JAW AND LONG TEST-TUBE NOSE, TED RAINES did in fact resemble a bottlenose dolphin. Adding to the effect, at the moment his forehead and cheeks were shiny and gray.

Raines was slumped across Nolan’s sofa. Slidell stood glaring down at him, face sweaty and flushed. Both men were breathing hard.

Nolan and I were across the room in cheesy Kmart armchairs. She’d thrown a fuzzy blue robe over the naughty lingerie.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” No more Columbo. Slidell was furious.

Raines just kept panting.

“Do you know how many people are looking for you, you dumb shit?”

Raines’s head turtled down between his shoulders.

“Your wife’s got every cop shop in Dixie hunting your bony ass. BOLO dispatches are out in three states.” Slidell was so keyed up, he’d slipped into police code. Be On the LookOut.

“Stop harassing him.”

Slidell swiveled to face Nolan. “You got something to say?”

“Ted’s wife is not a nice person.”

“That so?”

“Ted needed some time out.”

“Time out?”

Slidell closed in on her with two angry strides. Nolan shrank back, as though fearful of a blow.

Across the room, Raines seemed to collapse inward even more.

“Time out? That what you call this?” Slidell flapped an angry arm between Nolan and Raines.

“You’re scaring me.”

“Be scared. Be very scared.”

“We haven’t done anything illegal.”

“Yeah? Well, you and lover boy are about to experience a busload of shit coming down on your heads.”

“We’re in love.”

“That’s so sweet I may puke.”

“It’s true.” Petulant. “Besides, we haven’t hurt anyone. Why are you being so mean?”

“Please don’t blame her.” Raines was still sucking air.

Slidell whipped around. “She thinks I’m mean? I’ll tell you what’s mean, you worthless piece of shit. Disappearing without a bump in your thoughts to enjoy a little poontang with Miss Sex Kitten Slut over here. Letting your wife and kid wonder if you’re dead in a ditch, and letting a hundred police officers spend time searching for you.”

“You can’t talk to us like that.” Nolan’s fingers were twisting her robe sash so tightly the knuckles bulged white.

“Ever hear of alienation of affectation? Maybe we should all query Mrs. Raines. See if she thinks anyone’s been hurt.”

I cringed at Slidell’s mangling of the legal term, but said nothing.

“Ted’s going to ask for a divorce,” Nolan said. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

Raines now looked like jelly on the couch.

“Ted?”

Raines’s gaze remained pointed at his knees. Slidell charged back across the room and jabbed a finger at him.

“While you’re here sharpening your Captain Winkie skills, you don’t give a flying fuck what kind of shitstorm you might be causing?”

Slidell’s face was now the color of claret. I thought it best to lower the intensity.

“Just for the record. How did you two hook up?”

Perhaps seeing it as safer ground than the topic of litigation, Nolan fielded my question.

“Ted’s a research assistant on a project that studies how poisons get blown around by air. The company I work for does sort of the same thing. You know. You were there.”

I nodded.

“Last January CRRI sent me to work the exhibit booth at a conference in Atlanta. Ted was there with his team. We met in the hotel bar.”

“And fell in lust.” Slidell’s voice was thick with disgust.

“It’s more than that.”

“Touching.”

“Where’s your husband?” I asked.

“Afghanistan.”

“We’ll order a medal to hang in your window,” Slidell snarled.

Nolan crossed her arms on her chest and puffed air through her nose, a look of blank insolence on her face.

“OK, lover boy.” Slidell finger-flicked the top of Raines’s head. “Let’s talk poison.”

Raines looked up, features gathered in a look of puzzlement.

“Let me tell you a little story.” Slidell had regained his breath, and his tone was now dangerously calm. “Two bodies turn up at a morgue. One tests positive for ricin. The other’s got abrin on board. As we both know, your average Joe can’t lay his hands on stuff like that.”

Raines’s eyes narrowed in uncertainty. Or perhaps he was considering answers to create the best possible spin.

“Fast-forward. A guy’s in the wind. Gets busted. Turns out this guy has access to abrin and ricin. You see where I’m going, Ted?”

“What are you saying?”

“I hear you’ve got a real interesting part-time job.”

“What does that have—”

“That’s a mighty big coincidence. You working with biotoxins.”

“You’re suggesting I killed someone?”

Slidell just looked at him.

“That’s insane.”

“Is it?”

“Who are these dead people?”

“Eli Hand and Wayne Gamble.”

Beside me, I heard a sharp intake of breath.

“I don’t know either of them. Why would I poison total strangers?”

“You tell me.”

“The substances I work with are strictly controlled. You can’t just waltz out of the lab with a jar in your pocket. Every gram of powder, every fricking red seed has to be accounted for.” Raines’s voice was taking on an edge of alarm. “Call my supervisor.”

“I’ll do that.”

“Do I need a lawyer?”

“Do you?” Slidell asked.

“I didn’t do anything!” Shrill.

“Why are you in Charlotte?”

Raines’s eyes bounced from Slidell to Nolan and back. He answered with a nervous snigger, conspiratorial, guy to guy. “Look, man. I was just getting a little on the side.”

“Bastard!”

I eased Nolan back into her chair.

“Your girlfriend knew Wayne Gamble.” Slidell kept his eyes on Raines as he spoke to Nolan. “Didn’t you, Mrs. Nolan?”

“What?”

“You gonna tell him? Or should I?”

“I knew his sister. Like, centuries ago. Wayne was just a kid.”

“Sweet God in heaven.” Raines flopped back like a rag doll, hands covering his face.

Slidell peeled his glare from Raines and turned it on Nolan. “You aware Gamble’s dead?”

“While Ted was getting a little….”—she spat the phrase at Raines—“we weren’t exactly keeping up with the news.”

“You don’t look real upset.”

“I haven’t seen Wayne Gamble since he was twelve years old.”

“Tell me what you overheard at the Double Shot.”

Slidell’s change of direction seemed to confuse her.

“I already did.”

“Tell me more.”

“Like what?”

“Describe the guy that was talking to Cale Lovette.”

“Kind of tall and thin. Old.”

“How old?”

Nolan shrugged. “Probably not as old as you. It was hard to tell because he was wearing a hat.”

“What kind of hat?”

“Like a baseball cap. Red with a big number above the brim. Oh. And it had a button pinned to the side. The button had a picture of a cowboy hat.” Nolan smiled, pleased with the brilliance of her recall.

I’d seen a hat like that. Where? Online? At the Speedway?

“What was the tenor of their conversation?” Slidell asked.

“Huh?”

“Friendly? Heated?”

“Like, they didn’t look happy.”

“What were they saying?”

“I already told you this.”

“Do it again.”

Nolan crossed her legs, raised her toes, and pumped one foot as she searched her memory.

“OK. The old guy said that thing about poisoning the system. Then Cale said something about it being too late. It was going to happen. Then the old guy said something about knowing your place.”

We waited out an interval of rapid foot pumping.

“When I passed them again, Cale was telling the old guy to, like, quit carping. Then the old guy told Cale not to act so holy. Then something about a bloody hatchet. But there was a lot of noise. I couldn’t really hear that part.”

“Go on.”

“Then I went back to the booth and sat with Cindi.”

“And?”

“She was all in a wad because Cale was taking too long, so she walked over there. Cale put his arm around her waist. That was nice. But it was creepy the way the old guy looked at her.”

“Creepy how?”

“Cold.” Nolan’s eyes did the saucer thing. “No. More than that. Like he hated her guts.”

“Then what?”

“The old guy said something. Then Cale said something, all in the guy’s face, like he was really mad. Then the old guy stormed out.”

“When Cale came back to the booth, did you ask him who he was talking to?”

“He said a jackass he wished he’d never laid eyes on.”

“You didn’t pursue it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Ask again.”

“Cindi told me to let it go. I mean, she didn’t, like, say it. She gave me this look, and I knew what she meant. I’m not stupid.”

Yes, I thought. You are irrevocably stupid.

“Honest to God, that’s all I remember,” Lynn whined. “I’m tired. I need to go to bed.”

“How come you never mentioned this man’s hostility toward Cindi before tonight?”

“Because no one ever asked me about, you know, what happened after. Just what they were saying at the bar.”

I looked at Slidell. Your call.

“OK, honeymooners. Here’s what’s gonna happen.”

When Slidell laid down the usual “don’t leave town” spiel, Nolan shot to her feet and pointed at Raines.

“Fine. But I want this jerk out of my apartment. Mr. Get a Little on the Side is not staying here.”

So much for true love.

En route to the Annex, Slidell and I shared impressions.

“They’re both moral invalids.”

“Yeah,” Slidell agreed. “But Raines doesn’t feel right for Gamble or Hand.”

“Where was he living when Hand went into the landfill?”

“Atlanta.”

“And what motive would he have for wanting Wayne Gamble dead?”

“Exactly. But I’m still going to give the dirtbag a real close look.”

“Nolan’s description of the old guy doesn’t fit Grady Winge,” I said. “Or J. D. Danner. Perhaps Eugene Fries, but he claims to be a victim.”

“I plan to squeeze Winge first thing in the morning.”

As we pulled in at Sharon Hall, a CMPD cruiser was pulling out. Slidell flicked a wave. The cop behind the wheel returned it.

“Guess we don’t need stepped-up patrols no more.”

“You’re convinced Grady Winge killed Cindi and Cale?”

“You kidding? You saw him at that grave site.”

“All that proves is that he knew where the bodies were buried.”

“Then why’s he so goddamn sorry?”

“What about Wayne Gamble?”

“Trust me. In a few short hours, Winge will be singing like a marching band.”

Slidell’s linguistic misadventures never ceased to amaze.

“The term is alienation of affection,” I said. “It’s a charge against the third party, not the spouse.”

“Yeah. Well, I hope the wife cleans Nolan’s shorts.”

The clock read two-ten when I dropped into bed.

In the brief period before my brain shut down, I replayed what Nolan had said.

Who was the man arguing with Cale Lovette? What system did they intend to poison? A water system? Where? Obviously they hadn’t done it. Or hadn’t done it effectively. Such an attack would have been big news.

Something bugged me.

The hat? Where had I seen a cap like that?

Had Nolan read the man correctly? Had he truly regarded Cindi Gamble with malice? If so, why? Or had the look meant something else?

And what was the bit about a bloody hatchet?

Then I was out.