not anger, jealousy-flared for a moment, but he pushed it away to a far corner of his mind where it could fester quietly while he went about his business. Claudia was right, he knew. She and Nudger weren't married or engaged, so maybe this was to be expected. She'd been a bird with a broken wing when he met her. He'd helped to heal the wing, and now she could fly. And maybe she wanted to soar for a while. Maybe it was as simple as that: the blood talking. Or the hormones.
Nudger peeled back the silver foil on a roll of antacid tablets and thumbed two of the chalky white disks onto his tongue. He chomped down on them hard, chewing loudly in the quiet, dimly lit office. The occasional whisper of traffic from the street below was the only reminder of an outside world.
It occurred to Nudger that perhaps Dr. Oliver, Claudia's analyst, who had helped her to get over the scars of her marriage to Ralph, had advised her to see other men. Part of her therapy. Oliver would do that, and the hell with Nudger if he thought it would help Claudia.
Or maybe this Biff Archway really was just a fellow teacher who'd been in the neighborhood and felt he should drop by to see a co-worker. Possibly he was a scrawny little wimp who loved only his mother. Little acne- pitted guy with an Oedipus complex. Could be. What the heck, give him crooked teeth and bad breath.
Nudger realized he was squeezing the edge of the desk so hard that his hands ached. His nails were dead- white out near the very tips of his fingers.
He loosened his grip and laughed out loud at himself. It was too loud and didn't sound like genuine laughter, but he told himself it should be genuine. He was acting like a paranoid adolescent jilted on the night of the prom.
The hell with this, he thought. He would phone Claudia and apologize to her for his fit of juvenile jealousy. They would talk for a while, come to an understanding, and he'd feel better.
He picked up the receiver again and tapped out her number.
Claudia's phone rang ten times. She wasn't home.
Nudger hung up. 'Bullshit!' he said, loud enough to startle himself. He swallowed the jagged chunks of antacid tablet. They hurt his throat.
'You shouldn't oughta curse.'
The squat, ugly little man who was standing a few feet inside the door wasn't joking. Simple sincerity oozed from him. He must have moved with supernatural quiet; Nudger looked closely to make sure his visitor cast a shadow. He seemed simply to have appeared there like a genie from a too-small lamp that had kept him cramped and mashed down for centuries.
He had a pushed-in, amiable face that was too large for his head but not large enough for his short, thick neck. The red Strohs Beer T-shirt he wore was stretched tight over bulging muscles and a bulging stomach paunch. If he'd been taller he'd have resembled one of those muscular, gone-to-fat pro wrestlers, but he was only about five feet four and merely looked pudgy and mildly dangerous; the Pillsbury Doughboy after weight training.
Nudger tilted the shade on the desk lamp so he could see the man more clearly. There was something vaguely familar in the dark hair and eyes, the confident, defiant set of the jaw. And something disturbingly vacant about the cast of the thickened features.
'I'm Lester Colt,' the man said with a flat, southwest Missouri twang. 'Curtis Colt's my little brother.'
VIII
How did you find out I was looking into your brother's case?' Nudger asked. 'And how did you know I'd be in my office this late?'
Lester Colt walked farther into the office, grinning and hooking his thumbs in the wide belt of his threadbare Levi's. The belt featured a saucer-sized buckle engraved with a tractor-trailer. The buckle looked cheap but handcrafted, a beautiful bit of throwaway artistry. 'Didn't know what kinda business you was in till I saw the lettering on your door. As to how'd I know you was here, I followed you from Candy Ann's place. Stuck to you like fresh-chewed gum.' He seemed immensely proud of himself.
'I didn't hear you come up the stairs,' Nudger said. The stairs, and the floorboards on the landing outside the door, squeaked loudly. Nudger liked them that way.
Lester shrugged, still grinning. 'I snuck up.'
'Why?'
'Wanted to see what kinda place I was in before I made myself known. I thought you was seeing Candy Ann on something other than business, Nudger. I see now I had you wrong, and her, too. She ain't as bad as I thought.'
'You don't approve of Candy Ann?'
'I don't know. Don't matter much, anyways. At least it won't after next Saturday. I do think she oughta let Curtis be resting in his grave afore she carries on with somebody else. That Curtis, even though he was youngest, he did a good job of taking care of me when we was kids. Beyond then, even. I guess I owe it to him to see his girlfriend is treating him with the respect he deserves, despite the fact he's in the state prison.'
'I can assure you that she still loves Curtis,' Nudger said. 'What were you doing out at Placid Grove Trailer Park?' But looking at the shy, guarded expression on Lester's broad face, Nudger knew what. Lester might not entirely approve of Candy Ann Adams, but there was something about her that interested him.
'Passing by, is all,' Lester said. 'I thought I'd stop and talk to Candy Ann. Then I seen your car parked by her trailer, and I waited till you come out and wanted to find out who you was, so I drove behind you all the way into the city, then here.' Again the pleased grin, the ignorance that was bliss. 'Bet you didn't know I was behind you, even.'
True enough; Nudger had hardly glanced in his rearview mirror, had simply driven along with his mind on other matters, blissfully ignorant in his own fashion.
He looked more closely at Lester, thinking of Ozark jug whiskey, kissin' kinfolk who didn't stop with kissing, and inbreeding that sometimes produced people like Lester Colt. Nudger figured Lester for the mentality of a cunning twelve-year-old.
'Do you drive a truck for a living?' Nudger asked, motioning toward the trucker's belt buckle.
Lester shook his head. 'Naw, I ain't passed the chauf- feur's-license test. But I will someday. I just load trucks now, is all.' He put out a leg awkwardly, as if balancing himself against wind at a great height, and angled his chunky body toward Nudger, cocking his head and staring at an odd angle with wary, bewildered eyes. 'You think you can help Curtis?'
Nudger silently cursed Candy Ann for raising false hope. 'I doubt if I can help your brother, Lester. I'm simply going over the case again, on the off chance somebody overlooked something that might make a difference.'
Lester nodded slowly. 'I guess that oughta be done for Curtis. Candy Ann hire you?'
Nudger nodded.
Lester grinned again, his opinion of his would-have- been sister-in-law raised considerably. 'You let me know if you hear anything new about Curtis,' he said.
'Sure. Where can I get in touch with you?'
'I ain't got a phone, but I'm at Commerce Freightlines' warehouse down on Hall Street most days. On the loading dock.'
Nudger made a show of writing that down on his notepad. 'Okay, Lester.'
Lester started to thank Nudger, but the words seemed too large for his larynx to handle. He nodded his slow, almost shy nod, and moved with surprising lightness toward the door. Then he turned. 'You been to see Welborne?'
'Who?'
'Welborne's my other little brother. He's between me and Curtis. Might be you should talk to him.' Lester sniffed and looked irritated. 'That is, if he'll talk to you about Curtis.'
'Doesn't he get along with Curtis?'
'Welborne don't get on with none of the family anymore; he don't see nobody. Curtis never went down home to see the folks hardly ever, either, but with him it was different. He's wild, I admit, but he's a good man, the best of all of us. Welborne, he just don't like going home, is all. Him and that snooty woman he married.' Apparently
