Light of the World (Dave Robicheaux 20)

“Would you say you found your religion through the Indians?”

“I never give it much thought.”

“You had a hard life, didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Other people say you did.”

He cracked four eggs and plopped the yolks in a skillet and set the skillet on one of the stove lids. “Maybe other people ought to mind their own goddamn business.”

She leaned over her notebook to write in it. She rubbed her pen back and forth on the paper, trying to make ink come out of it. “Drat,” she said.

“That’s them kind Walmart sells. They’re about as good for writing as tent pegs.”

“I have another one in my purse,” she said.

He looked at her with increasing curiosity. “You’re not here to ask me about the revival, are you?”

“I’m also doing an article on the local Indians.”

“You know where I saw that kind of ballpoint before?”

“You just told me. At Walmart.”

“There was a cop here’bouts named Bill Pepper. He carried ballpoints just like that one in your hand. He was the kind of man who did things on the cheap. Did you happen to know Detective Pepper?”

“The name is familiar.”

“While I was in his custody, I heard him talking on his phone to Love Younger. I think the good detective was on a pad for Mr. Younger.”

“A what?”

“Detective Pepper was taking money on the side. That’s what cops call being on a pad.”

“You’re saying this police officer was corrupt?”

He looked through the back window at a doe and a fawn crossing through the shadows, their hooves stenciling the damp grass. They looked back at him, flipping their tails, theirs noses twitching. “I’m saying you got something on your mind, lady, and it ain’t religion.”

“I wondered if you knew the murdered Indian girl.”

“The Youngers sent you here?”

“No, sir, I’m here on my own.”

“You from down south?” he said.

“I’ve lived there.”

Wyatt opened the window and picked up a magazine from the drainboard and fanned his face with it.

“Does my perfume bother you?”

“I guess I’ve smelled worse.”

She seemed to concentrate on a reply but couldn’t think of one.

“If you see the Youngers, I want you to tell them something for me.”