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One at a time she started sorting through the selection of carefully pressed clothing until she located Andy’s newest dress uniform shirt, one that wasn’t frayed around the cuffs and didn’t have any cracked or chipped or missing buttons. She picked out trousers and socks and a full set of clean underwear. After all, Andy never went anywhere without clean underwear.
When the clothes were all laid out neatly on the bed she retrieved the plastic package she’d given in the hospital and sorted through until she found Andy’s badge. Then, taking badge and his best dress boots, she headed for the kitchen. There, drinking coffee and shedding quiet, private tears, she polished the boots to a high gloss and cleaned the badge with Brasso. When she finished, she took the boots and badge back to the bedroom and carefully pi
Seeing his clothes all laid out like that made her feel lightheaded. It was as though he had put them there himself and was in the bathroom taking a shower, getting ready to go to work. It was almost too much. Joa
Maria
“Still asleep,” Joa
Maria
“I’ve been better,” Joa
“Still nip and tuck,” Maria
Joa
“I know,” Maria
“I’ve been working on Lefty O’Toole’s eulogy,” she added, changing the subject. “I’ve spent the whole morning doing my homework. I’ve talked to Adam York. Bobo suggested I talk to him. It sounds to me as though Gertrude O’Toole was right after all, that Lefty really was getting his life turned around.”
“You’ve been talking to York, too?” Joa
Maria
“Oh, really?” Joa
“You.”
“Me?” Joa
“Nobody’s kidding, Joa
Joa
“It’s going to take a complete outsider to straighten up this mess, Joa
“I’ve already got a job,” Joa
“That’s fu
“Do we have to discuss this now?” Joa
Maria
Joa
Je
Not wanting to talk to Adam York in front of her other guests, Joa
“I came to invite you to the unveiling.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your friends, Bobo Jenkins and Angie Kellogg, just went up to the hotel to pick up that book. I wanted you to be there when they brought it back so you’d be able to see with your own eyes that I’m not in it.”
Joa
“I’ll go tell Je
The Taurus sped down High Lonesome Road. “Is that where it happened?” Adam York asked, nodding at the wash beneath the bridge.
Joa
“I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing.”
“Thank you,” Joa
They drove for a while in silence. “I’ve been thinking about Angie Kellogg,” Adam York said at last. “She wants to sell me that book of hers.”
“I know,” Joa
“But if I do that, I’ll have to go through cha
“So?”
‘She came up with the idea on her own, and it seems like a good one. She gives me the book. and I don’t ask any questions about the money in her beach bag. The taxpayers aren’t out any money, and I have access to Tony Vargas’s clientele without anyone knowing I have it.”
“I’ll know,” Joa
“Is that a threat?” York asked.
“You could call it that.”
“Listen, Joa
“And if you don’t use it to do just that, you’ll be hearing from me.”
York laughed. “According to the rumors around town, I may be hearing from you any-way.”
“What rumors are those?”
“I heard you’re ru
“Oh,” he said.
A moment later Joa
“Because she won’t finalize the deal until you give the okay.”
“And I’m not okaying anything until I see for sure that your name’s not in that book.”
York laughed again. “You really are one stubborn woman, aren’t you, but believe me. My name’s not in there.”
They found Angie Kellogg with her foot still securely wrapped in bandages sitting on the tiny front porch of Bobo Jenkins’ home in Galena Townsites, one of Bisbee’s subdivisions. Galena was an area where look-alike homes had been built as company housing during Bisbee’s mining heyday. After the mine closures in the mid-seventies, the houses, previously rented to employees, had been sold off at rock-bottom prices.
Angie was wearing what was evidently a pair of Bobo Jenkins’ oversized sweats. The arms had been rolled up several times and the legs bagged out around her ankles like pantaloons. She was holding two books in her lap. One, black leather with gold-embossed letters on the front, looked like a date book of some kind. The other was the same shabby bird book Joa
“Bobo actually has a hummingbird feeder, right here by the porch,” she said pointing. “Two of those cute little things were here just a couple of minutes ago. I’ve never been that close to hummingbirds. Have you?”
“Not that I remember,” Joa
“Did Mr. York tell you about my offer?” Angie asked.