Chapter 13. Won't you please sit down, the little old lady said with a gracious smile. Can I get

either of you anything? We're fine, Stella, Trixie said. Don't trouble yourself. The apartment was

spacious and largely free from the accumulation of mementos that usually characterizes a visit

to Grandma's house. Stella Simple might have been somebody's

grandma, but you'd never have known it. She was simply but elegantly dressed in clothes that seemed to be

of current style without running to the other extreme, the sad old lady who dresses like a young girl.

She was fit and full of verve, but she was probably about 70. She slid back a panel in a cabinet and revealed a well-stocked little bar.

Are you certain, she said, smiling like the gracious hostess that she had clearly always been.

I do hate to drink alone, but not nearly as much as I'd hate not having one at all.

I smiled at this and she saw me do it.

Mr. Justice? she asked again.

Well, I said, maybe just a small one.

Trixie glared at me for that, but I pretended that I didn't see her, which was almost,

but not quite as good as really not seeing her.

Stella Simple fixed me a bourbon and water and made a gin and tonic for herself.

She handed it to me with a sparkle in her eye.

I got it right, didn't I? She asked. The water probably isn't your usual, but I thought in

deference to the hour of the day. She trailed off a bit as though fishing. Not needy, but curious.

You got it just right, I said, because it was true. She smiled at that and motioned for us to sit. I have made a life's work out of reading

men who think themselves inscrutable, she said, and it all begins with a drink. Trixie probably

told you all about me. Trixie told me nothing, I said. She said that she knew someone we should see

and has been eating her heart out ever since, that I haven't asked. Stella Simple's eyes danced as she looked to Trixie.

...