Player Piano: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

The next day, Paul doesn’t arrive at work until the afternoon. Shepherd is at Paul’s desk doing paperwork; it seems he’s been there for a while and is looking over the security report showing that Paul let Finnerty in unsupervised. Shepherd also took a call from Kroner, who wants to see Paul tonight. And the police found Paul’s pistol by the river. When Paul asks if Shepherd told Kroner he was hungover, Shepherd assures him that he covered for him by saying that he was out because of his nerves.  

Kroner calls back and invites Paul and Anita to dinner, claiming he just wants to catch up. After the call, Paul ushers Shepherd out of the office, at which point he receives a call from the police, though he avoids the situation by simply leaving the office himself. When he gets home, Anita tells him his clothes for dinner are laid out on the bed, noting that Shepherd called to tell her about the plans with Kroner. She then asks Paul if he spent time with any young women last night. He admits that he did but that he doesn’t remember anything. She’s not that disturbed by this information, instead bringing out a piece of paper, upon which she has written a detailed outline of all the things Paul should remember for dinner with Kroner tonight.

Returning to the subject of the young women he saw the night before, Paul assures Anita that he didn’t touch either of them. Anita says that what she was really wondering was if anyone saw him with them—this, she says, would be a terrible thing to get back to Kroner. When Paul matter-of-factly says that he slept with one of the women, all Anita says is, “I thought you did. That’s your affair.” She doesn’t seem very interested in the conversation anymore—until, that is, Paul says that Shepherd saw him and the other woman after they slept together. This horrifies Anita, so Paul quickly tells her he’s kidding.