"I don't know," he mumbled, half turning to
replace the teeth in his mouth. When he had them in,
he ran a hand over his spikey hair, smoothing it down.
Only his cowlick refused to behave. Now he could
meet my eyes. "Your daughter made so much racket
down there I couldn't sleep. I guess the sight of all of
you in your fancy clothes waiting for guests that didn't
come tickled my sense of humor. "
"You have a very cruel sense of humor, Joel. I
thought you cared for Bart."
"I do love that boy."
"Do you?" I asked sharply. "I don't think so, or
else you would have sympathized." I glanced around
his sparsely furnished room, thinking back. "Weren't
you the one who mailed off the party invitations?" "I don't remember," he said calmly.- "Time
doesn't mean much to an old man like me when it's
growing so short. What happened years ago seems
clearer than what happened a month ago."
"My memory is much better than yours, Joel." I sat down in the one chair he had in his room.
"Bart had an important appointment, and, as I recall,
he turned over that stack of invitations to you. Did
you mail them, Joel?"
"Of course I mailed them!" he snapped angrily.
"But you just said you couldn't remember.
"I remember that day. It took so long, dropping
them in the slot one by one. "
All the time I'd closely watched his eyes.
"You're lying, Joel," said, taking a wild shot in the
dark. "You didn't mail those invitations. You brought
them up here, and in the privacy of this room, you