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“My guess would be not too many.”
“Check it out. Start with people in managerial positions.”
“Will do.”
Addressing the group at large, Smilow said, “First thing in the morning, we start on Pettijohn’s enemies. We’ll compile a list—”
“Or we could save ourselves the trouble and just use the phone book,” one of the men quipped. “Everybody I know will be glad the son of a bitch is dead.”
Smilow shot him a hard look.
“Oh, sorry,” he mumbled, his smile vanishing. “I forgot you two were kin.”
“We weren’t kin. He was married to my sister. For a while. That’s it. I probably had less liking for him than anyone.”
Steffi leaned forward. “You didn’t pop him, did you, Smilow?”
Everyone laughed, but Smilow’s terse, “No, I didn’t,” spoken as though he’d taken her question seriously, ended the laughter as abruptly as it had started.
“Excuse me, Mr. Smilow?”
Standing in the open doorway was Smitty. Smilow checked his wristwatch. It was after midnight. “I thought you’d be anxious to get home,” he said to the shoeshine man.
“They only just now told us we could go home, Mr. Smilow.”
“Oh, yeah.” He hadn’t thought of hotel fixtures like Smitty being detained for long hours of questioning, although he had mandated it himself. “Sorry about that.”
“Never mind, Mr. Smilow. I was just wonderin’, did anybody ’round here tell y’all about those folks that were taken to the hospital yeste’day?”
“Hospital?”
Chapter 6
The capital letter E on the instrument panel of her car flashed red.
She groaned with frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was stop and pump gasoline, but she knew from experience that when the gauge on this car said empty, it was dangerously accurate.
Service stations were scarce on this stretch of rural highway, so when she came upon one only a few miles after seeing the warning light, she pulled in and lethargically got out of her car.
Ordinarily when she pumped her own gas she paid by credit card at the pump. But technology hadn’t stretched this far into the boonies. As a matter of principle, she disliked having to pay in advance. So she removed the nozzle from the pump and flipped down the lever. She twisted off her gas cap and set it on the roof of her car, inserted the nozzle in the tank, then waved at the attendant in the booth, motioning for him to engage the pump.
He was watching a wrestling match on his black and white TV. She could barely see him through the neon beer signs and the posters taped to the window announcing outdated events and lost pets. Either he hadn’t noticed her or he was standing on his own principle of not turning on the pump until the customer paid in advance, especially after dark.
“Damn.” She relented, walked to the office, and slid a bill into the dirty tray beneath an even dirtier window.
“Twenty dollars’ worth? Anything else?” he asked, his eyes remaining glued to the TV screen.
“No, thanks.”
The rate of flow was a trickle, but the pump finally clicked off. She removed the nozzle and replaced it on the pump. As she was reaching for the gas tank cap, another car pulled off the road and into the station. She was caught in the bright headlights and squinted against the glare.
The car rolled to a stop only a few feet from her rear bumper. The driver turned off the headlights but didn’t kill the engine before opening the door and stepping out.
Her lips parted in wordless surprise. But she didn’t move or speak. She didn’t berate him for following her. Or demand to know why he had. Or insist that he get lost and leave her alone. She didn’t do anything but look at him.
His hair looked darker now that the sun had gone down, not as tawny as it appeared in daylight. She knew his eyes were grayish blue, although now they were deeply shadowed. One eyebrow was slightly higher and more arched than the other, but this asymmetric quirk added interest. His chin had a shallow vertical cleft. He cast a long shadow because he was tall. Weight would never be a problem; he didn’t have the frame to carry much extra poundage.
For several seconds they stared at each other across the hood of his car, then he stepped around the open door. Her eyes followed his progress as he came toward her. The determination with which his jaw was set said a lot about his character. He wasn’t easily discouraged, and he wasn’t afraid to go after something he wanted.
