AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah?”
“Too unlucky.” She looked at him as if he were really slow.
“I know a guy whose address is 666,” Rex said.
“He’s alive?” Her eyes were huge.
“Last I checked. Like your dad, he’s lived there most of his life.”
She shuddered. “Some people just look for trouble.” With that, she closed the door as if he’d suddenly become persona non grata.
He supposed he had and walked down the cracked concrete to the door she’d pointed out. The number thirteen was nailed to the side of the door in wrought-iron numerals, the one above the three. He knocked loudly once again, but it took a couple tries before he heard what sounded like something being dragged across the floor and scrabbling at what he assumed was the chain lock. Finally, a wrinkled face appeared through the opening in the door and one blue eye raked over him.
“Hello, Marlena? I’m Rex Kingston.” He pointed toward the manager’s office. “Ben Drommer’s daughter Erin thought maybe you might be the right person for me to talk to.”
“Whad about?” Her voice was dry and creaky as if there wasn’t enough lubrication in her throat.
“A family that lived here fifteen or twenty years ago, maybe? Ralph and Joy Gaines and their daughter.”
“Whad’re ya sellin’?”
“Nothing. I’m just trying to find the Gaineses.”
The blue eye stared for a moment, then he heard the chain lock being released. The door opened to reveal a woman bent over a walker that had wheels on the back two legs, rubber stoppers on the front two. When she flapped a hand at him, an invitation, and started back into the room, he realized she didn’t lift the walker, just pushed it along even though the front legs had no wheels. He determined she must be stronger than she looked as she moved her bent form back toward a chair with an ergonomic cushion. She sank into it with a sigh, leaving Rex to shut the door.
“Sit down,” she ordered.
He glanced around at the overstuffed furniture, which looked as if it needed the dust pounded out of it, and settled on a kitchen chair that was doing double duty in the living room. The shades were drawn and a strip of light, choked with dust motes, illuminated a row of brown paper sacks on the opposite side of the room like an accusing finger, pointing to the leftover newspapers she was apparently saving.
Rex caught a glimpse of several tabloids with screaming headlines. I HAD A GOBLIN BABY! was the easiest to read.
He turned to the old woman. “Do you remember them, the Gaineses?”
“Whad do you want ’em for?”
“So you do remember them.”
“Mebbe.” She squinted at him. “He do somethin’ wrong? Gaines?”
“Not that I know of.”
“He was always actin’ like he was so hoity-toity with that insurance business. Talked about how he was gonna git hisself a real house. Like we wasn’t good enough for him around here.” She snorted. “Little big man. The wife was even worse. Puttin’ on airs. Lookin’ down her nose at everybody and everything. She finally hightailed it outta here and left him standing around like he didn’t know what hit him. Stupid man. I coulda told him that it didn’t matter how he thought of himself, she knew he wasn’t good enough. Just took her a while to git up the gumption to go.”
“To Colorado?” Rex asked, remembering what Beth Harper had said.
“Mebbe . . . mebbe not. Don’t really know.”
“They had a daughter . . .” he prompted.
“Uh, yeah. Her. Always worried, that one. Little white face with big eyes. She spooked the Henderson boy, but then he was a little touched anyway.”
“What did she do?”
“Told him the world was gonna explode, or somethin’.” Marlena cackled in amusement. “Hid hisself under his bed for a week.”
“Did she mention a bridge coming down?”
Marlena pulled back and looked at him from the tops of her eyes, almost as if she were trying to peer over a pair of glasses. “You know about that? It was big talk around here for awhile. Her mama wanted to call the police, but her daddy said no. It wasn’t long after that, that they moved.”
