Chapter 26

Richard

Five years went past. Five short years for Lee and me; we were unreasonably happy together, living a life finer and more full than we could ever have dreamed in our frenetic days back in Washington.

Well ensconced by now in our historic house, we were becoming full-fledged members of Charleston society. Our friends were some of the city's leading lights, the top lawyers and politicians and investment counselors and simply old-line rich people in town. They'd entertain us from time to time, and we'd entertain them, and we knew everybody who mattered and they knew us. We were significant sponsors for all the deserving organizations around town, and we were well on our way to becoming Important People.

We even managed to develop a friendship—well, an acquaintanceship—with our erstwhile landlords from whom I'd originally rented that basement apartment. They showed up at their Charleston house rarely but, as Old Charleston, they were routinely included in key events when they did come to town, and we ran into them several times and even had drinks with them one evening. They didn't seem to remember my name, if they'd ever known it—all my dealings with them had been through their agent here—and I forbore from reminding them.

There were things we avoided, of course. For instance, we went a little out of our way to be sure our pictures didn't appear in the local media—my face wouldn't be very recognizable from the altered photos the Feds had, and in any case I'd cultivated a small mustache since, but Lee still looked pretty much the same and I saw no point in risking her exposure.

Other than such minor precautions, though, which became almost reflex as time passed, we lived pretty care-free. We adopted a dog from the local shelter and I enjoyed taking her for walks around the park, exchanging greetings with the numerous other dog-owners and generally being congenial as I'd never been before.

I kept up my daily conversations with Spook, of course. Most days anyway; our talks were far-ranging and delved into a lot of areas where my knowledge was murky at best. My friends and neighbors learned to take my morning absences in stride; to them I was "managing my investments," though Spook handled of all that without troubling me. In fact what I was doing was continuing to give him the human element he was missing in his otherwise comprehensive scope of information.

So generally my mornings were spent alone in the now very tricked-out study of the house we'd bought. Sometimes, still, we'd talk via my laptop; but sometimes, and especially when Lee was going to be party to a particular chat, we'd use the audio setup and his voice emulation for oral discussions.

He still kept up with incipient crime when he happened across it, his original self-defined "purpose," and I was faithful with my periodic tips to Richard. But his interests had broadened considerably; he now was seeing as his "purpose" the prevention of any activity that could injure human welfare—the traditional four horsemen of the Apocalypse, pestilence, famine, war and death—and was acting accordingly.