Chapter 5: The Three-Way Mirror

Garo waited for me on Friday evening in the parking lot of St. Sarkis, leaning on a black Cadillac with his toothpick going.

I gave him my three lines on the back of a receipt.

He read them standing in the last of the sun.

"He sleeps at the packing house four nights out of seven," Garo said.

"Yes," I said.

"He eats standing up."

"I've watched him do it."

"And you have not seen his hand," Garo said.

"He keeps the glove on," I said, "and I haven't asked."

I kept my voice flat.

Garo folded the receipt and put it in his coat, and I heard him decide not to believe me.

"Next Friday," he said, "I want something I can use."

I walked back to the car with my back straight and did not breathe properly until the door was shut.

The farmhouse had a glassed-in sunroom on the south side.

On Wednesday I had carried my three-way mirror out from the shop and set it up there.

I had a hemming box in front of it, a dress form, a lamp, and a table of pins.

It was the only room in the house that felt like mine.

When I came in at dusk, the lamp was on, and my husband was standing in the middle of it in his shirtsleeves.

His jacket hung over the dress form.

The mirrors showed him to me three times, a tall man in a white shirt with a black glove.

He was looking at the carpet.

"It's Friday," he said. "You said I should hold something back for the second fitting."

"I said you would."

"I'm told the second fitting is when a customer decides whether he likes what he has paid for."

I put my bag down on the table.

I had not expected him, and I had been thinking about the weight of his leg under my hand for four days.

"Did you lie well?" he asked.

"He didn't believe me."

"No. He wouldn't." His voice was low. "Mrs. Kasparian."

"You can call me Talin," I said, "when you want something."

His eyes came up, then, and held mine.

"I want something," he said.

I crossed the carpet to him without deciding to.

I took hold of his belt, and he let me.

He smelled of machine oil and soap, which I had not expected from a man who owned the building.

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