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“Almost like a one-man neighborhood watch. Am I right?”
“That’s your interpretation, not mine.”
Don’t respond. Don’t care.
About to get to it.
“The reason I ask,” I say, my tone completely casual, “is because there’s something else I’m wondering: do you ever stop in and say hello to some of your neighbors?”
He hesitates now, just slightly. I’m sure I’m the only one seeing it as a poker tell. Maybe he knows where I’m going, too.
“If they’re outside,” he says, “maybe sitting out on a front porch, I might stop for a short conversation.”
“Conversation.” I nod.
“Yes.”
“And you testified just now to Mr. Ahearn that you had become friendly with the Gates family that summer. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes. They’re good people.” He stops himself. “Weregood people.”
“And knowing them as you did, you certainly noticed that Kathy Gates was quite an attractive woman, didn’t you?”
Wait for it.
“Objection, Your Honor,” Ahearn says, almost bored, as if objecting is the most obvious thing in the world.
“Sustained. Wherever we’re headed with this, Ms. Smith, let’s accelerate the process.”
“Absolutely, Your Honor.”
I turn back to Otis Miller.
“Isn’t it true, Mr. Miller,” I say, and casually, “that the reason you were outside that particular rental house on that particular evening was because you expected Kathy Gates to be alone?”
Another objection, also sustained, vigorously, by the judge.
“I find your tone insulting,” Miller says to me.
“You’re not the first.”
“Ms.Smith.”
“I apologize, Your Honor.”
Back to Otis Miller.
“I’d appreciate it if you would please answer my question, one I will now amplify somewhat. Did you think Kathy Gates would be alone that night, and were you actually on your way to the house to see her?”
“No!” Miller says.
I look at him. He had been having such a nice ride. Maybe he thought it would continue all the way to our lunch break.
I’m thinking,Read the room, dude.
“Then let me put it another way. Isn’t it true that you and Kathy Gates had been having an affair for much of that summer?”
Jimmy had canvassed the Gateses’ neighbors. One had told him about seeing Otis Miller and Kathy Gates on the beach that summer, Miller’s arm around her. Miller’s next-door neighbor, a woman named Patsy Freedman, had said that she was out walking her dog very late one night, after one in the morning, and saw Kathy Gates show up at Miller’s front door. One of the bartenders Jimmy knew at Bobby Van’s in Bridgehampton had seen Miller and Kathy Gates having dinner that summer, just the two of them, same corner table, more than once. Same with a bartender at Pierre’s, up Main Street from Van’s.
