I kept on walking. “She didn’t have anything to say that you probably don’t already know.”
“Hey, did I ask?”
“No, but you were fixing to, weren’t you?”
He smiled down at me ruefully. “Well...”
“Fortunately for you, I’m starving, so yes, you can buy me a chili dog.”
“Unless you’d rather have barbecue?”
“That would mean the big twins and Isabel and Nadine,” I reminded him.
“Right. Chili dogs, then.”
Not that Dwight doesn’t enjoy their company, but he knew perfectly well that if we joined my brothers, there would be four conversations going at the same time and none would be the one he clearly wanted to have with me.
The murder didn’t seem to be affecting either the festival or the carnival. The beautiful weather had brought out a big crowd, and we had to wait in line several minutes for our dogs and drinks. I got bottled water, Dwight got something in a drink cup with ice.
“So what did she want?” he asked when we were settled with our food on a low wall out of the flow of foot traffic.
“Oh, this and that,” I said vaguely.
Normally I can tell Dwight anything. In this case, though, I didn’t feel that Tally’s true identity was something I could talk about to anybody till I’d told Daddy and Andrew.
“She was worried about the legalities of getting her son’s body back. And funeral arrangements. I gave her Duck Aldcroft’s number.”
A drop of chili landed on his blue tie and I wet my napkin with water and leaned over to wipe it off before it could leave a spot.
“She did tell me that he hadn’t been in any trouble with the law since he got involved with buying up storage lockers and selling the stuff on eBay and at flea markets.”
“Yeah,” said Dwight. “The van he’s been sleeping in looks like a thrift shop. Furniture, books, clothing.”
“Find anything useful?”
“I doubt it. The place had been tossed before we searched it.”
“
“Yep. Least that’s what his stepdaddy says. Says Braz took after his mother. Place for everything and everything in its place. And it was still sealed from last night, so that means whoever tossed it probably did it between three o’clock when he took a computer break and the time we sealed it.” He took a swallow of his drink and frowned as he looked into the cup. “These damn things are more ice than drink.”
“I don’t suppose Ames knew what the tosser was looking for?”
“Says not.”
“Remember I told you about Tally Ames being in my courtroom this month?”
“Yeah. Someone vandalized her slide. So?”
I recapped the case for him in more detail. Since he’d been the one who arrested the Lincoln brothers on the larceny charge that sent them away two years ago, he listened intently.
“Don’t you see? They were so mad at Arnold Ames for buying their tools when they defaulted on the storage locker fees that they tracked him down and slashed his ride. What if Braz Hartley bought the locker contents that belonged to somebody who was even more violent than the Lincoln boys?”
“You reckon?” Dwight said thoughtfully. “Mayleen and Jack have been hearing that he and his brother didn’t get along. Don’t forget that more people are murdered by family members than by strangers.”
“So who was the stranger that punched him in the nose the first time last night?” I gibed.
“Who told you that?” he asked sharply. “Mrs. Ames?”
“No, it was the guy running the Lucky Ducky duck pond. Skee Matusik is his name. Said he didn’t see it actually happen, but a woman across the way did. A woman named Polly? Runs that game where you try to land coins on a plate?”
“We’re looking into it,” he said. “Leave it alone, Deb’rah.”
Usually when he’s warning me to mind my own business, there’s a blend of exasperation and amusement in his voice. This time I heard something different there. A real No Trespassing sign.
And suddenly I remembered Stevie. Who hadn’t given his name to either deputy last night.
And Eric Holt. Who could fit the description of some young black guy whose friends had pulled him of Braz and hustled him away.
CHAPTER 7
SATURDAY AFTERNOON (CONTINUED)
