as she looked through the menu for something bland.
“Clover?”
“You remember Clover. My grandmother’s last cow?
Every spring she’d get into the wild garlic and the milk
would taste awful. That’s me these days. Anything fun
to eat goes straight through my nipples and gives the
baby colic or diarrhea.”
With impeccable timing, a plate of something that
involved black bean paste arrived at the next table.
“A few less graphics here, please,” I said.
“Sorry. I don’t suppose you want to talk about body
parts either, huh?”
I sighed. “Not particularly. Without the head and
torso, Dwight and Bo are beginning to think they may
never get an identity. The fingerprints aren’t in any offi-
cial databases and there don’t seem to be any men miss-
ing who match the body type the medical examiner’s
postulated, based on two legs, a hand, and an arm.”
We ordered, then talked about the baby, about Cal,
about Dwight and Avery, about the Mideast situation
and the President’s latest imbecilic pronouncements
until our food came. Our talk was the usual bouncing
from subject to subject that friends do when they know
each other so well they can almost finish each other’s
sentences. She laughed when I told her Haywood and
Isabel’s reaction to the idea of raising ostriches and she
shared a bit of catty gossip about a woman attorney
that neither of us likes. We worried briefly about Luther
Parker, a judge that we do like, and how it was lucky
64
HARD ROW
he’d only twisted his ankle when he fell on the ice yes-
terday.
“How did he rule on that violation of the restraining
order by—what’s his name? Braswell? Your client’s ex-
husband?” I asked.
“James Braswell,” she said. “Imposed another fine
and gave him ten more days in jail, but since it’s to
run concurrent with what you gave him, he’ll be out
again by the middle of next week. If he violates it again,
Parker warned him that he could be doing some serious
time. I hope this convinces him to stay away because
Karen’s really scared of him, Deborah.”
“Any children?”
“No, but she’s got a sick mother that she’s caring for,
so she doesn’t feel she can just cut and run even though
that’s what her gut’s telling her.”
This was not the first time we’d had this discussion
about why some men can’t accept that a relationship is
