Kinsey’s Second Marriage
I’ve mentioned how much I enjoy Sue Grafton’s Alphabet Series starring Kinsey Millhone, which I’ve been rereading lately. I like the way you get bits of her history as you read through the series. She never overshares. You only get little snippets with telling insights.
In E is for Evidence, we learn about Kinsey’s disastrous second marriage to a really good-looking guy named Daniel who is a great musician but a real shithead who’s addicted to heroin:
“Being married to a doper is as close to loneliness as you can get. Add to that his chronic infidelity and you’ve got a lot of sleepless nights on your hands. There are certain men who rove, men who prowl the night, who simply don’t show up for hours on end.
Lying in bed, you can tell yourself you’re worried that he’s wrecked the car again, that he’s drunk or in jail. You tell yourself you’re worried he’s been rolled, mugged or maimed, that he’s overdosed. What really worries you is he might be with someone else.
The hours creep by. From time to time, you hear a car, but it’s never his. By 4:00 a.m., it’s a toss-up which is uppermost in your mind — wishing he would come home or wishing he were dead.”