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“Sounds very mysterious. I won’t ask you a lot of questions about it, because I’m sure you won’t answer them. I would like to know if you enjoy your work, though.”
“More than anything I’ve ever done,” Holly answered.
“What did you do before you went to work for the CIA?”
“I was the police chief in Orchid Beach, and before that I was a career army officer, serving in the military police.”
“That’s quite a background,” Teddy said.
“What do you do?”
“I’m retired, now. I was a machinist and a mechanical engineer.”
“Where did you go to college? MIT, perhaps?”
Teddy laughed. “Oh, no. I apprenticed as a machinist, and I’m completely self-taught as an engineer.”
“Did you work for an engineering firm?”
“No, I was self-employed. I invented things.”
“What sort of things?” she asked.
“Office equipment, small kitchen appliances and gadgets.”
“Did you sell them on late-night TV?”
“No, but some of the kitchen stuff was sold that way. I usually sold the ideas to a company that would manufacture and distribute the product and pay me a royalty.”
“Was that lucrative?”
“Surprisingly so,” Teddy said. “My wife was astonished; she always expected me to remain as poor as I was when we married.”
“Are you divorced?”
“No, widowed: four years ago, ovarian cancer.”
“I’m sorry,” Holly said.
“It’s often misdiagnosed,” Josh contributed.
“As it was in her case.”
“Teddy…” Holly began.
“It’s Jack.” He didn’t twitch.
“I have the feeling we’ve met someplace before.”
“Not that I recall,” Teddy replied. He smiled. “I think I would have remembered. Do I remind you of this Teddy? Who was he?”
“Just someone I knew a while back, and, yes, you remind me of him a little.”
“Well, I hope your memories of him are pleasant ones.”
“Not entirely.”
“Uh, oh,” Teddy said. “I’m going to get blamed for the old boyfriend. I can see it coming.” He laughed.
