"Four hours later Pike was gone and I was cooking a very nice puttanesca sauce when I decided to call Lucy Chenier. I was most of the way through a bottle of California merlot. In the course of my life I've been shot, sapped, slugged, stabbed with a broken beer bottle, and I've faced down any number of thugs and miscreants, but talking to Lucy about moving to Louisiana seemed to require fortification. She answered on the third ring, and I said, "Guess who?" "Have you been drinking?" Don't you hate smart women? "Absolutely not." Giving her affronted. Giving her shocked. Then I said, "Well, maybe a little."