3 Swift Run Read Free Page B

paid one cent of the court-ordered support.
    “I know where I can get a cattle prod. Or you can sic the cops on him.”
    “Ooh, I couldn’t do that!”
    Albertine glared at me. “Why the hell not? Aren’t you angry at that scum-sucking lowlife?”
    “It doesn’t do any good to get mad.” That’s what my mama always said when my daddy’d
     been drinking down at the stripper club.
    Albertine’s eyes about popped out of her head. “Say what? That’s the dumbest thing
     I ever heard,” she said without waiting for me to answer. “Gettin’ angry’s healthy.
     Let me help you get your mad on, girlfriend.”
    I had to smile at her enthusiasm. “Maybe later.”
    Albertine changed tacks. “What’s Charlie think of this?”
    “I haven’t told her yet, but you know she’ll be in favor of it. Charlie doesn’t believe
     in discriminating against clients based on anything other than their ability and willingness
     to pay.”
    Shaking her head slowly, Albertine said, “She might surprise you.”
    For a few minutes, we speculated about why Les might’ve left Heather-Anne, with Albertine
     suggesting it was because Heather-Anne wanted them to join a nudist colony so she
     could show off her hot bod. I choked on my third beignet, and she pounded my back,
     grinning.
    “How’s your diet going?” Albertine asked.
    I stuck my feet farther under the desk, feeling guilty about my new shoes. Albertine
     was helping me with my finances and had put me on a spending diet. The Louboutin pumps
     were not supposed to be on the menu.
    “Gigi…”
    “It’s hard,” I confessed. “I’m not used to having to watch every dime. I’m no good
     at it.” I’d been good at it, as a girl, when there’d been six of us kids and Daddy
     hadn’t held on to jobs very long, what with his drinking and all, but then I’d met
     Les not long after I got out of beauty school. When we got married, well, it was a
     relief not to have to pinch pennies so they squealed like a stuck pig anymore.
    “You won’t get good at it if you don’t try,” Albertine said. She wagged a finger at
     me. “How’re you gonna send Dexter to college if you don’t quit buying every pair of
     designer shoes that calls your name?”
    I jumped. Albertine guessing about the shoes spooked me, but the thought of Dexter
     and college bothered me more. If Dexter didn’t get his grades up I wasn’t going to
     have to pay for college because he wasn’t going to get into one. I tried to consider
     that a silver lining but hated to think of my son eking out a living as a Walmart
     greeter.
    “Girlfriend.” Albertine shook her head. “You’re supposed to call me when you get the
     spending urge, right? Like an AA sponsor.”
    “I will. Really.” I truly wanted to change my spending habits.
    She let it drop and mentioned that her sister was sending her youngest daughter to
     Colorado Springs to work for Albertine. “I just hope she’s got more brains than Sissy,”
     Albertine said, heading for the door. “Otherwise, I’ll be losing customers faster
     than Tony Stewart drives a quarter mile.”
    As soon as she’d left, I picked up the phone to call Charlie. Then I put it down again.
     It’d be better to give her this news in person, especially since I needed her advice
     on how to go about finding Les. Locking the office, I took my notes and the two documents
     Heather-Anne had provided and drove to Charlie’s house. She lived a couple of miles
     west of the office, in a small house located behind St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. When
     I knocked on the door, she called, “Come in,” and I entered hesitantly. I’d only been
     here a couple of times.
    “Charlie?”
    “In the kitchen.”
    I followed her voice and found her on her knees grouting a section of slate tile in
     the breakfast nook. Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “I thought you’d be the
     tile delivery guy.”
    “Should you be doing this?” I asked.
    She slicked her mink-dark