The Long Lavender Look by John D. MacDonald Page A

"Must be a lot of letters,"
    the old woman said.
    I put everything back except the most explicit picture of the dark-haired girl, closed the lid, put the lamp and clock back in position.
    "Nothing that helps much. But I want to ask some questions, if you don't mind, Mrs. Arnstead."
    "Don't mind a bit. Talked too much already, so I might just as soon keep right on. That's what happens when you're old and alone. Talk the ear off anybody that wants to stop by and listen.
    But let's go back to the porch. Lew could come roaring in, and he'd get mean about a stranger being in his room."
    The sun was down and the porch faced the western sky, faced a band of red so intense it looked as if all the far cities of the world were burning. It will probably look much like that when they do burn.
    "Mrs. Arnstead, I remember you said something about your son running around with trash like the Perrises. Is there a Perris girl?"
    "There's Lillian, but she's not rightly a Perris. I did hear she's tooken the name, but whether legal in a court, I don't know. Her real name is Hatch. Her daddy is John Hatch, and he has a lot of friends and business interests around Cypress City. He's the kind that's real shrewd about a deal and sort of stupid about women. Anyway he married one that turned out to be trashy for sure.
    Wanda. He brought her back here from Miami. Must be ... let me see now ... oh, many years ago. The first baby was Lillian, and then there was Ronnie, then there was one that died. I'd say there was trouble all along between John Hatch and Wanda. Maybe he worked so hard he left her too much time on her hands, and she was built for trouble. They fought terrible, and the way they tell it, Johnny Hatch finally had enough, and so he set out to get grounds to get rid of that woman. About seven years ago, it happened. He had a good mechanic working at his garage name of Henry Perris, and he had the idea Henry was getting to Wanda every chance that came along. So he brought in a fellow and he got the goods on them for sure, tape recordings and pictures and all. She had no chance of child custody or alimony or anything. Soon as the divorce was final, Henry surprised everybody by marrying her. Lillian was fourteen or fifteen then, and wild as any swamp critter, and when she made up her mind she'd rather be with her mother, John Hatch had the good sense not to fight it. They say Ron is a nice boy. John married again a couple years ago and there's a couple babies now. Let me see. Where was I? Wanda and Henry moved into a place way south of town, down there on the edge of the swamps. She took on a lot of weight they say, and I guess she had the high blood, because she was always high-colored. She Page 37

    had a little stroke about three years ago I guess it was, and then she had a big one and she's been in the bed ever since, helpless as a baby. There's some other Perrises down there, trashy folk, fighting and stealing, running in a pack with the other trash. Lillian is as bad as the worst. Lilo they call her. And my Lew has been messin' with those trashy people."
    "You're sure of that?"
    "She was calling here, giving me orders, telling me to tell my son Lilo called. I told him to tell her not to call him here. He got ugly about it." She sighed. "He turned from my youngest into a stranger. I guess it was those pills, not really him at all."
    "Where does Henry Perris work?"
    "He sure doesn't work for Johnny Hatch. He could work anyplace he wants to go, on account of being so good of a mechanic, they say. I heard he works someplace south."
    "In a station on the Trail?"
    "Could be. I don't rightly know."
    "What kind of a car does Lew have?"
    "He had a real nice car up till three months back, and then he smashed it all up so bad it was a wonder he wasn't killed. There was something wrong about the insurance, so what he's driving now is the old jeep that was here on the place, fixed up some. It was dirty yellow and he got it painted black, he told me.