The dog wouldn’t shut up, but the barking sounding farther away, like the woman was pulling the dog away from the window.

Johnny stayed there for a couple of minutes longer, just to make sure Bloom had gone into the house, and then he went to the sidewalk and turned left, away from the Blooms’ house, and went back toward the commercial area of Forest Hills.

All in all, Johnny was happy with the way things had gone. He’d accomplished what he’d wanted to, anyway, and now it was just a matter of going back home and seeing how it played out.

And it played out all right.

At around two o’clock, as he was getting off the subway in Brooklyn, Marissa called him, sounding like a mess, saying that when she came home her parents were in the middle of a big fight. Johnny acted confused, saying, “A fight? What about?” Marissa said that her father had found out that her mother had been screwing her trainer and- get this- it turned out her father had been screwing somebody, too, the mother of Marissa’s best friend. Johnny thought, Man, what a fucked- up family. The parents were cheating on each other, and the daughter was an unhappy spoiled brat. It was like they were all just begging for somebody to come along and put them out of their misery.

Johnny insisted that Marissa come back to his place to “get away from all of that craziness.” Ah, was this beautiful or what? She was already so dependent on him, and they’d only known each other about a week. Johnny had pulled off some great hustles, but this time he was outdoing himself.

When Marissa arrived she hugged him tightly, like she never wanted to let go, and said, “I’m only happy when I’m with you.”

Later, after screwing a couple of times, Marissa was sleeping, resting her head on Johnny’s chest. But he was hyped up, wide awake, thinking about his plan, trying to work out every detail. This was so great, with Dana and Adam; now he had to make his big move, as soon as he could.

In the morning- it was Monday- Johnny suggested meeting Marissa later in Manhattan.

Johnny could tell Marissa loved the idea, but she said, “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want you to get sick of me.”

“How could I possibly get sick of you?” he asked.

She blushed, then said, “Seriously, maybe it’s not such a great idea.”

“I want to see you again,” he said, “and I think it’s a good idea to give your parents some space, you know?”

This line had been unrehearsed, but it was so perfect.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said, “and I’d like to be around them as little as possible myself, but I just don’t want to impose on you.”

“Are you kidding?” he said. “I want to spend as much time around you as I can. I’d spend every second with you if I could.”

She loved this. After they kissed for a while, she said, “But I have to go home and shower and change and take care of some stuff first. I can meet you back here at around five.”

He knew she’d want to go home first. He said, “I have an idea. Let’s meet in the city at six thirty. We can grab a bite to eat, then go to a movie.”

She said this sounded great, and they arranged to meet outside the subway station at Fifty- ninth Street and Lexington Avenue.

Marissa left Johnny’s at a little before one o’clock. He wanted to make his move today, but he needed to find out her parents’ schedule. He didn’t want to do this half- assed. He wanted to take care of every last detail.

He went to a phone booth about ten blocks away- he didn’t want to make the calls from too close to his apartment- and called information and got the number of Dr. Adam Bloom, Ph.D., in Manhattan. He called and asked the woman who answered if he could speak with Dr. Bloom. The woman said that Dr. Bloom couldn’t come to the phone, he was with a patient. Of course Johnny would’ve hung up if Adam had been available; and he said, “That’s okay, I’ll call him later. What time will he be there till tonight?”

“His last patient’s at five.”

Shit, that was too early. That meant Bloom might leave at six and be home at seven.

“Okay, thanks,” Johnny said.

The woman was saying, “If you want to leave a number I’ll-” as Johnny hung up.

Later, back at his apartment, Johnny called Marissa and asked if they could meet at seven thirty instead of six thirty.

“That’s totally fine,” Marissa said. “I was just about to call you. My friend Hillary wants to meet me for drinks at five thirty, and I thought six thirty was cutting it too close.”

This was so perfect. She was pushing back the plans.

“Cool,” Johnny said. “There’s an eight thirty movie so that’s no problem at all.”

Actually, he had no idea what the movie schedule was, but he figured he could cover for this later if he had to.

“Great,” she said. “Oh, God, I can’t wait to see you. It’s been another nightmare day here.”

She told him that she’d found out her parents were getting divorced- more great news as far as Johnny was concerned.

“So is your mom home now?” Johnny asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “She was just in here asking me if I was okay with the divorce, if I was going to be traumatized by it.” She laughed, then asked, “Why?”

He didn’t think she was suspicious, she was just asking.

“Just curious,” he said, but he needed some explanation, so he added, “I mean, do you think she and the trainer are still… getting together?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t look like she was going anywhere today. She looked like shit actually.”

“So you think she’s staying in today?”

“Yeah, why?”

Now there was a little suspicion, and Johnny had to be careful. He didn’t want this to be something that Marissa would look back on later and wonder about.

“I was just saying,” Johnny said. “It would be bad if your father caught her and the trainer together.”

“Yeah, bad for my father,” Marissa said. “But honestly I don’t see how things could get any worse between them. It’s about as worse as it can get right now.”

Yeah, right, Johnny thought, but he said, “You’ve done a great job handling all of this so far. I’m so proud of you.”

At about four o’clock, Johnny left his apartment. He had everything he needed in his black backpack. He hunted around a while and finally found an older Saturn with no LoJack or alarm. He broke in, hot- wired it, and was on his way.

The drive to Forest Hills took longer than he expected because of rush hour traffic, but he was still doing okay on time. He parked in the closest spot he could find, about half a block away from the Blooms’ house. From the car, he called Marissa to confirm that she was actually in the city with her friend Hillary, but he told her it was because he missed her and just wanted to hear her voice. He looked around carefully, and when he was pretty sure that no one was watching, he got out of the car and headed toward the Blooms’.

It was 6:22, and Adam was probably on the subway on his way home. Adding on fifteen minutes for rush hour and assuming he didn’t stop off anywhere, he should arrive at the house in Forest Hills by seven fifteen. Johnny wanted Adam to come home after he killed Dana. If for some reason he came home much earlier it could be problematic.

Johnny was wearing black leather gloves and a black wool cap. It wasn’t exactly hat- and- glove- wearing weather- it was in the fifties- but he wanted to disguise his appearance as much as possible. Besides, he knew Dana would be too distracted by his good looks and charm to notice anything else.

Nearing the house, he was especially careful to make sure no one was noticing him. A man at the far end of the block was leaving his car and heading into his house, but the man wasn’t looking in Johnny’s direction. Still, Johnny hesitated, walking at a slower pace, until the man went into his house, and then Johnny continued toward the Blooms’.

The SUV and the Merc were in the driveway- Johnny hoped this meant that Dana was home. He didn’t want to ring the front doorbell and risk someone seeing her letting him into the house, so he went down the driveway toward the backyard. Johnny wouldn’t have done this if he’d remembered about the dog. That crazy mutt must’ve heard him or sensed him or something, because when he was about halfway up the driveway the barking started. Johnny didn’t see the point in turning back and ringing the front doorbell, and he wasn’t concerned with the barking itself- he was worried about someone next door looking out the window and seeing him, then remembering this later and telling the police.