Characters in I Know What You Need

… Alice was the studious one, a chemistry major with a 3.6 average. Elizabeth was more social, less bookish, with a split major in education and math.

… She opened the door in her robe, expecting to see Tony, but it was Danny Kilmer, one of the fellows he worked with. Danny was a fun guy; she and Tony had doubled with him and his girl a couple of times.

Menthol cigarettes. The stock exchange. The way he had known her mother's nickname was Deedee.

… “Ed Hamner, Sr., was a compulsive gambler. He worked for a top-line advertising agency in New York and then moved to Bridgeport sort of on the run.

… “His name is Edward Jackson Hamner, Junior, no less. Short. Skinny. Looks like he washed his hair last around Washington's birthday. Oh, and mismatched socks. One black, one brown.”

… “Elizabeth Rogan,” the PA blared. “Please pick up the white courtesy phone.” She hurried to it. And Ed's voice said, “Beth?” “Ed! It's good to hear you.

… Mrs. Hamner spent the next six years in and out of various mental institutions. Supposedly for nervous disorders, but the operative talked to an orderly who said she was pretty close to psychotic. She claimed her son was the devil's henchman. She stabbed him with a pair of scissors in …

… So he sat down, and it turns out he had sociology with Professor Branner last year.” “Will wonders never cease, lawd a mercy. Goshen to Christmas—” …

… The only good thing about it was that her roommate, a mousy little girl named Sandra Ackerman, was out on a date. The nightmare came in early August.

… “I ran into Shirley D'Antonio just before school started. She worked in the Pines Restaurant, which is just across from the playhouse. She said she never saw anybody who looked like Ed Hamner.

“Almost engaged.” “Does he know he's lucky? Does he know how lucky?” “I'm lucky, too,” she said, thinking of Tony Lombard.