Characters in A Very Tight Place

… He was not a weeping man, but he had wept when, prior to her cremation, he had removed Betsy’s dog tag from her collar.

… Curtis Johnson rode his bike five miles every morning. He had stopped for a while after Betsy died, but found that without his morning exercise he was sadder than ever.

… Just after Ginny left, that was. I thought I might shoot her, but I find I’ve lost all interest in Ginny.

… Mr. Peebles told her she was a romantic. “Yes, dear,” she said, momentarily putting her head on his shoulder, “that’s why I married you.”

… Mrs. Peebles told her husband, as they walked home hand in hand along the beach, that she believed Mr. Grunwald was finally getting over the shock of losing his wife.

The man’s housekeeper—the same Mrs. Wilson who kept house for Curtis—witnessed the signatures. In retrospect Curtis realized he should have known better than that, but he was excited. A month or so after selling the undeveloped lot to Curtis Johnson, Vinton sold it to Tim Grunwald, alias The Motherfucker.

… The troubles between Curtis and Tim Grunwald had started with Ricky Vinton, who had once been old and rich and then progressed to old and senile.

… A midlife crisis, Sammy said (Sammy was his once-a-week masseur). You need to get laid, Sammy said, but he didn’t offer his own services, Curtis noticed.

… The only one he had a problem with was Tim Grunwald, alias The Motherfucker, and Grunwald lived in the other direction.