It is supposed to be every reader’s fantasy. A threat will force a regular person into frantic extravagance. He or she must spend more and more money until finally delivering a package across the street costs four thousand dollars cash. A character fleeing a bad guy will purchase plane ticket after wig after used car after listening device after digital camera after arctic boots. Your Honor, I did buy an entirely new wardrobe on this credit card I found. But I had to—to save my life. Pat and Virginia were in the first-class section of an airplane on a runway in Newark. Pat had bought the tickets as soon as they’d returned from BreeZee’s, just like that, online. Whether this was a sign of desperation, Virginia did not know. The impulsive extravagance was similar. Pat was going to turn around this problem with her husband if it killed her. Her smile was as bright as a hubcap. “What do you think,” she said. “Do we have enough magazines?” She was not asking a question; she was relishing their sheer plenty.
