Страница 37 из 69
Smokey agreed.
"Naw, the truth is, boys, Eva would take one look at him and throw him back in the water."
They all laughed again.
Smoote said, "Well, I guess you know what you're talking about," and squinted his eyes at Idgie again.
"Yeah, well, that's just the facts of life!" Grady continued. He winked at Idgie and Smokey. "From what I hear, all you boys over in Georgia is a little light on your feet."
Smokey sat there giggling. "That's the way I heard it."
Grady leaned back in his chair and patted his stomach. "Well I guess we better head on out of here. We got a few more stops to make before dark," and put the picture back in his pocket.
As they all got up to go, Officer Riggins said, "Thanks for the pie, Mrs. . .”
"Idgie."
"Mrs. Idgie, it sure was delicious, thank you again.
"You're welcome."
Grady got his hat. "You're go
"Good. Be happy to see you."
Grady looked around to the back. "By the way, where's Ruth?"
"She's over at Momma's, house. Momma's been real sick."
Grady said, "Yeah, that's what I heard. I'm real sorry to hear that. Well, see you tomorrow."
And they beaded out the door.”
Although it was only four-thirty in the afternoon, the sky was already a gunmetal gray, with silver streaks shooting across the north, and the winter rain that had just started was as thin and cold as ice water. Next door, the windows of Opal's beauty shop had already been decorated with blinking Christmas lights that reflected on the wet sidewalk. Inside, Opal's shampoo girl was sweeping up and Christmas music was playing on the radio. Opal was finishing up her last customer, Mrs. Vesta Adcock, who was going to an L N banquet in Birmingham that night. The bells on the door jangled as Grady and the men came in, and Grady put on his official voice.
"Opal, can we speak to you for a minute?"
Vesta Adcock looked up horrified and clutched her flowered smock around her, screaming, "WHAT IN THE WORLD!"
Opal looked up, equally horrified, and rushed over to Grady with a green comb in her hand. "You cain't come in here, Grady Kilgore, this here is a beauty shop! We don't let men in here. What is the matter with you? Have you lost your mind? Now, go on, get out! The very idea!"
The six-foot four-inch Grady and the two men stumbled all over each other trying to get out the door and wound up back on the sidewalk, with Opal glaring at them through the foggy window.
Grady put the photograph of Frank Be
The three men pulled up their collars and headed across the tracks.
DECEMBER 21, 1930
Three days after the two men from Georgia had first arrived in town asking questions about Frank Be
When Idgie brought it over to the booth, she said, "Between Grady and your partner, ya’ll are about to eat up all my barbecue. That makes ten you three have had today!"
He squinted at her and said, in his high nasal little voice, "Have a seat."
Idgie looked around the room and saw that it wasn't busy, and then sat down across from him. He took a bite of his sandwich and looked at her, hard. "How ya doing?" Idgie said. "Found that man you was looking for yet?”
This time he glanced around the room and then leaned across the table, his face sharp like a razor. "You're not fooling me, girlie girl. I know who you are. Don't think for a minute you are fooling me. . . . You gotta get up early in the morning to put one over on Curtis Smoote. Yes sir, the first time I come in here, I knowed I'd seen you somewhere before, but I couldn't place you. So I made a few phone calls, and last night it come to me who you were."
He sat back and continued eating, never taking his eyes off her. Idgie, hot batting an eye, waited for him to continue.
"Now, I got me a sworn statement from this fellow Jake, that works out at the Be
He picked a piece of dark meat out of his sandwich and put it on his plate and looked at it. "Besides that, I was in the back of the barbershop that day, and me and a whole bunch heard you threaten to kill him. Now, if I can remember, you can be damn sure the rest of them will."
He took a swig of his cold drink and wiped his mouth with the paper napkin. "Now, I cain't say Frank Be
"What we're talking about here, girlie, is murder . . . ru
He leaned back in the booth and took on a casual air. "Now, of course, just hypothetically speaking, of course, if it was me in your shoes, why, I'd figure it would do me a whole lot of good if that body didn't show up at all. Yes, a whole lot of good... or if anything that belonged to him was to be found, for that matter. I'd figure it wouldn't bode well if anybody could prove that Frank Be
He glanced up at Idgie to make sure she was listening. She was.
"Yes sir, that would be too bad, 'cause I'd have to come back over here and arrest you and your colored man on suspicion. Now, I'd hate to come back over here after you, but I will 'cause I'm the law and I'm sworn to uphold it. You cain't beat the law. Do you understand that?"
Idgie said, "Yes sir."
Having made his point, he pulled a quarter out of his pocket and threw it on the table, put his hat on, and said as he was leaving, "Of course, Grady may be right. He may just show back up at home one of these days. But I ain't go
JANUARY 7, 1931
Local Man Feared Dead
The search for Frank Be
"We left no stone unturned," said Officer Smoote in an interview early today. "He just seems to have vanished off the face of the earth."
MARCH 19, 1931
Sad News for All of Us
After having lost their daddy a year before, it was another sad trip home for Leona, Mildred, Patsy Ruth, and Edward Threadgoode, who all came back home for their mother's funeral.
After the service, we all went over to the Threadgoode house, and everyone in town must have been there to pay their respects to Momma Threadgoode. Half the people here practically grew up over at the Threadgoode house with she and Poppa. I can never forget the good times we had over there and how she always made us feel so welcome. As for me, I met my better half over there at one of their big Fourth of July parties. We courted with Cleo and Ni