C L Bevill [Lake People 02] Disembodied Bones (epub)

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.I mean, Jack the Ripper probably be driving a van ifin he was alive today, and we all heard tell about that white boy up to Washington.Some of those gals ain’t never been identified.”But Pamonda McCully had arrived, offering a ride in her ancient Chevrolet and all Leonie could feel was relief that she was moving toward Douglas Trent again.There was relief and then there was guilt at having wasted her time at the police department.She thought she could convince them, but all the detective had been convinced of was that she was the guilty one.“Sure ‘nough, you a hungry little chile.Don’t they feed you at home?” Pamonda continued as if they were both participating in an active conversation.“You lucky I went to see my daughter.She be sixty this year.She be getting old, I tell you what.Talking about getting her social s’cur’ty and retiring to a trailer home near Alexandria to be near her daughter.Oh, silly woman.She don’t have ‘nough money for that.”Pamonda went on about her daughter for almost ten minutes before they reached her church.Leonie wasn’t sure but she thought she was about two or three miles away from where she needed to be.She thanked the old woman and jogged off down the street.Pamonda stopped to watch her go, saying, “And they say things about black folks being different.Huh.” She looked around, immediately sighting another elderly black woman climbing out of a Lincoln Continental.“Latrenda Humphrey! You git your wide, couch sitting butt over here and git my green bean casserole out for me! I know ain’t nothing wrong with your back!”The other woman laughed at Pamonda.“Oh shut up, Miz McCully.Ain’t nothing wrong wit’ your back neither.And what you doing wit’ a little white girl?”Pamonda considered.The little girl with the long black hair and the haunted face had vanished around the corner.“I don’t rightly know.That chile, she don’t say much.”•Roosevelt Hemstreet sat at his desk, staring at his phone.He wasn’t quite sure why he was staring at his phone, only that he was, and he didn’t like where his thoughts were taking him.What was particularly troubling him was that he had a vague recollection of riding somewhere with his wife in her VW Jetta and cursing loudly because he couldn’t find a Kleenex.There always seemed to be an overabundance of dust in that car and he sneezed each and every time he got into it.But that time, there wasn’t a Kleenex to be found and he’d had to use that old tried and true method of nose cleaning, the shirttail.His wife, Rowena, had been indignant.“I know your aunt raised you better than that.”And he had said, “You got to use what you got, and I got a shirttail.” But not after he had forcefully rifled through all of his pockets just to make sure, and then he had turned his head to make sure Roosevelt, Jr.and baby Stephanie didn’t see him do it.He certainly hadn’t wanted Junior to repeat his offense and then speedily offer up the excuse that he had seen, “Daddy did it!” as if were written in stone and carried down from the holiest of mountains.Roosevelt stared at the telephone.But he’d done it, pretty much the way Leonie Simoneaud had said.How can that little girl know about that? The Lake People are supposed to be real different.All those rumors.They know things.I’ve heard it a dozen times in the last three years.They keep to themselves because they have secrets.All kinds of secrets.He looked up and saw three detectives walk inside the offices.They nodded at him but all looked preoccupied.One of them hit the coffee table immediately and proceeded to stuff half the last chocolate éclair into his mouth.Roosevelt sighed and picked up the phone.Rowena answered on the third ring.When she realized who it was she said, “Rosy, you find that little boy yet? Roosevelt, Jr.wants to go to the mall to play in the arcade and I just don’t know what to say to him.”“Ro, honey,” he said.“Would you do me a favor? Is the baby down?”“Sure, she just fell asleep and Junior’s in the backyard with the neighbor’s kids.I told them no playing in the front unless an adult is with them-”“Would you put the phone down and go see if I dropped my gold pen in your car.” Roosevelt closed his eyes for a moment.“I seem to recall I was fooling around with it when I was in your car a few weeks ago.Maybe it fell in between the seats.”Rowena didn’t say anything for a full fifteen seconds.“Okay, Rosy.I’ll be right back.”It took her five minutes, but Roosevelt tapped his fingers on the desk and listened absently to the other detectives discuss various known pedophiles in the area and how they were planning to shake them down for information about Douglas Trent.He picked up a Bic and doodled on the desktop calendar.First he wrote down the name, Whitechapel.Then he wrote down, Leonie Simoneaud.Then he wrote the address she had said.Somewhere on Sugar something Lane.But it’s all bullshit.Of course it is.Not gonna need this.Nope.Ro came back on with a husky laugh.“Very funny, Roosevelt.I’m surprised you didn’t arrest the whole family for stealing your gold pen.What did you want, for me to spend an hour digging through my car? Is this some kind of joke?”He wasn’t sure exactly what to feel.Relief or anger? Relief that he hadn’t scared off a little girl who had valid information about a missing child or anger that such a young woman would try to fool a police officer [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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