Black Cherry Blues (Dave Robicheaux 3)

“Is that your Mercury by the side of the building, the one with the Wyoming sticker?” I said.

“Sure.” She stopped washing glasses and smiled at me. There were tiny lines in the corners of her eyes.

“I’m afraid I backed into it. I don’t think I really hurt it, but you might take a look at it to be sure.”

“You couldn’t hurt that thing. It’s twelve years old and has eighty-five thousand miles on it.”

“Well, I just didn’t want to drive off and not say anything.”

“Just a minute.” She took several glass steins out of the tin sink, set them top down on a folded dish towel, then said something to the cashier. “I have to hurry. We’re real busy right now.”

I told Alafair I would be right back, and the waitress and I went outside to her car. I ran my hand over some scratches by the Mercury’s taillight.

“That’s about where I hit it,” I said. “I couldn’t tell if that was old stuff or not. Maybe I just hit the bumper.”

“Forget it. It’s not worth worrying about. I’m getting rid of it, anyway.”

“Aren’t you a friend of Harry’s?” I said.

“Which Harry?”

“Mapes.”

“Sure. How’d you know that?”

“I guess I saw y’all together.”

“How do you know Harry?”

“Through the oil business. I thought he was doing lease work east of the Divide.”

“He is. He’s just visiting right now.”

“Well, I’m sorry to have taken you away from your work.”

“It’s all right. It’s nice of you to be concerned. Not many people would bother.”

She was a nice lady, and I didn’t like to deceive her. I wondered how she had gotten involved with Harry Mapes. Maybe because it’s a blue-collar, male-oriented town, I thought, where a woman’s opportunities are limited. Regardless, I felt sorry for her.

I took Alafair back to the house, called the baby-sitter, then Tess Regan, but neither of them was at home.

“There?

??s a dollar double feature at the Roxy. How about I take her to that?” Dixie Lee said.

Before I could hide it he saw the hesitation in my face.

“You think I’m gonna get drunk, I’m gonna run off and leave her alone?” he said.

“No.”

“Or maybe I ain’t worked up to the step where you can trust me as good as that old woman down at the church.”

“I just didn’t know what you had planned for today.”

“You want me to look after her or not?”

“I’d appreciate your doing that, Dixie.”