closer to the city. ‘Would he talk to me?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
Ben turned back toward her. ‘And the neighbors. Can you get them to talk to me?’
Esther shook her head wearily. ‘You picked a real bad time to start poking around Bearmatch,’ she said.
‘I didn’t pick it,’ Ben said. He looked at her pointedly. ‘Maybe we could go someplace and have a cup of coffee.’
She gazed at him wonderingly. ‘What?’
‘Just sit down and talk about Doreen,’ Ben explained. ‘You might remember something.’
Esther continued to stare at him, half-puzzled, half-amazed. ‘You want the two of us to go someplace and have a cup of coffee?’
‘That’s right.’
‘In Birmingham?’
It was only then that the impossibility of such a thing occurred to him.
‘How about that fancy restaurant in the Tutweiler?’ Esther said, almost derisively. ‘Or maybe just the lunch counter at Pizitz’s.’
‘At my house, then,’ Ben said suddenly, to stop her from going on. ‘We could have a cup of coffee at my house.’
The look of wonder was still in her face.
‘It’s not that far from here,’ Ben added firmly. ‘We could be there in a few minutes.’
She seemed to consider it a moment, to take his offer almost as a challenge. Her eyes moved over him as if he were some oddity that had suddenly and unexpectedly appeared in a wholly familiar world. ‘All right,’ she said finally, ‘but after that, you’ll come over to mine, and maybe talk to my daddy.’
It was more than he’d expected from her, and he took it immediately.
‘All right,’ he said quickly as he started up the car.
They arrived at Ben’s house only a few minutes later. Esther got out of the car slowly and stared about as if looking for snipers in the trees.
‘Right this way,’ Ben said. He swept his hand out over the small cement walkway. ‘Watch your step, though, some of the slabs are jutting up. Sometimes I nearly trip, myself.’
Esther made her way gingerly up the walkway, then stood stiffly while Ben opened the door.
‘Forgive the look of this place,’ he said as he led her inside. ‘It’s a bachelor’s mess, you know.’
For a moment the two of them stood awkwardly in the front room. Ben could see a strange uneasiness gather slowly in Esther’s face.
‘You want coffee?’ he asked quickly. ‘Or maybe a glass of iced tea?’
A quick nervous laugh broke from her. ‘Iced tea? All right. I’ll have a glass of iced tea.’
It was made from a brown powder and it looked like muddy water, but she drank it quickly when he brought it, then set the nearly empty glass down on the small table in front of the sofa.
‘Guess I was thirsty,’ she said tensely.
‘The heat’ll do that,’ Ben said.
She smiled at him. ‘You know I never been in a regular white person’s house. That’s strange. I mean, I been in rich white houses, but never one like this, a regular house.’
‘My daddy was a steel worker,’ Ben said. ‘He left me this little place.’ He shrugged. ‘Otherwise I guess I’d just live in one of those furnished rooms they have downtown.’ He glanced about the room. ‘As you can see, I’m not too fancy.’
‘Got a TV,’ Esther said. ‘All the white people got TVs?’
Ben took a sip from his own glass of tea. ‘I don’t guess so,’ he said lamely.
For a moment, neither of them spoke, and as the silence lengthened, Ben could feel Esther’s growing discomfort at being in his house.
‘Listen,’ he said quickly. ‘About Doreen. When did you say the Davenports had her picked up?’
‘She went there every Saturday and Sunday at around ten in the morning,’ Esther told him. ‘I’m always at work by then, but I know that’s when she leaves.’
‘Is your daddy usually there?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you spend time with her on the weekend?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did she seem okay when she came back on Saturday?’
‘She seemed the same,’ Esther said. ‘That night she went over and heard Dr King.’
‘Who did she go with?’
For a moment she hesitated to answer. ‘With me,’ she said finally. ‘We walked over to the church together. Does that change anything?’
‘No,’ Ben said. ‘Did you come back home together?’
‘No,’ Esther said. ‘She was with a group of her friends from school. I walked back home and went to bed. The next morning I went to work. When I got back, my daddy said that Doreen hadn’t come back from the Davenports’.’
‘And that was late Sunday afternoon?’
‘Yes.’
‘Did you call the Davenports?’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘What did they say?’
‘Mr Davenport wasn’t there,’ Esther told him. ‘But his wife said that he’d taken her home himself.’
‘And we’re still talking about Sunday afternoon?’
Esther nodded. ‘I asked all around Bearmatch. I didn’t go to work on Monday. I kept trying to find her. I thought she might have stayed with a friend, something like that. I went over to her school and asked around. I tried my best. I even asked one of the men who was organizing the kids for the march.’
‘Which man?’
‘Leroy Coggins,’ Esther said. ‘I think he must be in jail now. Just about everybody on the march is in jail.’
Ben was about to ask another question when someone knocked at the door. He stood up and opened it. Mr Jeffries was standing quietly behind the screen.
‘I saw you was home,’ he said. ‘I thought you might be up for a game of checkers.’
‘Not right now,’ Ben said.
Mr Jeffries’ eyes peered to the right, then widened as he caught sight of Doreen.
‘Oh,’ he said with surprise. ‘I didn’t realize you had somebody with you.’ He leaned toward the screen and lowered his voice conspiratorially. ‘Is she a prisoner?’
‘No,’ Ben told him. ‘She’s helping me with a case.’
Mr Jeffries looked at him, amazed, but said nothing.
‘Maybe later tonight,’ Ben said. ‘That game of checkers.’
Mr Jeffries backed away slowly, edging himself toward the end of the porch. ‘No, no,’ he said, his eyes leaping back toward Esther, then settling once again on Ben. ‘That’s all right. Don’t trouble yourself. I’m sorry to interrupt.’ He turned quickly and made his way down the walkway, his thin, spindly legs scissoring rapidly toward his house across the street.
‘Now, about that girl,’ Ben said as he returned to his seat.
‘I shouldn’t stay here,’ Esther said nervously.
Ben looked up at her. ‘Why not?’
‘All the reasons you already know.’
‘This is police business,’ Ben told her.
‘That doesn’t matter,’ Esther said. ‘Some things go beyond that. Some things go a long way beyond that.’
Ben looked at her determinedly. ‘This is my house. I own it. I pay the taxes on it. Whoever I ask in can stay
