on your mind?â
âMy auntâs garbage. The thing is, Larry, the truck went right by her house just now and didnât pick up her garbage.â
There was a big sigh. âThatâs because she didnât pay her bill. Thereâs no record of payment.â
âWe went through all that yesterday. You said youâd take care of it.â
âLook, lady, I tried, okay? But thereâs no record of payment, and frankly Iâm thinking Martha was right, and you and your aunt are trying to gyp us.â
âListen, Larry!â
Larry disconnected.
âYou dumb fuck!â
I yelled at the phone.
Aunt Mabel looked shocked.
âSorry,â I said. âI got carried away.â
I went down to the cellar, got the canceled RGC check off Fredâs desk, and dropped it into my shoulder bag.
âIâll take care of this tomorrow,â I said. âIâd do it today, but I donât have time.â
Mabel was wringing her hands. âThat garbage is going to smell if I leave it sitting out there in the sun,â she said. âWhat will the neighbors think?â
I did some mental head-banging. âNo problem. Donât worry about it.â
She gave me a tremulous smile.
I said good-bye, marched to the curb, extracted Mabelâs nicely tied up plastic garbage bag from her container, and stuffed it into the trunk of my car. Then I drove to RGC, pitched the bag onto the sidewalk in front of their office, and raced away.
Am I a take-charge woman or what?
I drove away thinking about Fred. Suppose Fred saw someone do that? Well, not
exactly
what I just did. Suppose he saw someone take a garbage bag out of the trunk of their car and put it on the curb, alongside someone elseâs garbage. And suppose for one reason or another he got to wondering what was in the garbage bag?
This made a reasonable picture to me. I could see this happening. What I didnât understand, if in fact any of this occurred the way I imagined, was why Fred didnât report it to the police. Maybe he knew the person dumping the bag. But then why would he take pictures?
Hold on, letâs reverse it. Suppose someone saw Fred dump the bag. They went to investigate, found the body and took pictures for evidence, then tried to blackmail Fred. Who would do such a thing? Bunchy. And maybe Fred all of a sudden got spooked and left for points south.
Whatâs wrong with
this
picture? I couldnât see Fred taking a chain saw to some woman. And youâd have to be pretty dumb to blackmail Fred, because Fred didnât have any money.
T HE SKIRT TO my black suit hit two inches above my knee. The jacket sat high on my hipbone. My stretchy white jersey tucked into the skirt. I was wearing sheer, barely black pantyhose and black heels. My .38 was in my black leather shoulder bag. And for this special occasion, Iâd taken the time to put some bullets in the stupid thing . . . just in case Ranger showed up and gave me a pop quiz.
Bunchy was in the parking lot, parked behind my Buick. âGoing to a funeral?â
âI have a job chauffeuring a sheik from Newark. Itâs going to take me out of town for the rest of the afternoon, and Iâm worried about Mabel. Since you like to sit around and do nothing, I thought you might sit around and do nothing across from Mabelâs house.â Give him something to do, I thought. Keep the guy busy.
âYou want me to protect the people Iâm squeezing?â
âYeah.â
âIt doesnât work that way. And what the hell are you doing going off on a chauffeuring job? Youâre supposed to be looking for your uncle.â
âI need money.â
âYou need to find Fred.â
âOkay, this is the honest-to-God truth . . . I donât know how to find Fred. I run down leads and they donât go anywhere. Maybe it would help if you told me what you were really after.â
âIâm after
Danielle Steel
C. M. Steele
Savannah Stuart
Marie E. Blossom
Thomas Bernhard
Ray Kingfisher
Marliss Melton
Kylie Logan
Tamara H Hartl
Betsy St. Amant