A Deadly Affair at Bobtail Ridge Read Free Page A

desk, so I knock on the door and step in. Vera is propped up on pillows holding a tissue to her eyes that she takes away hastily when she sees me. Her skin is blotchy and her eyes red. She gives me a determined smile that is still lopsided. Her left eye is still droopy, but her color looks better. She has pulled her hair back in a bun and donned a quilted, blue bed jacket. “Wait, don’t tell me. I know who you are. You’re Jenny’s next-door neighbor, Samuel, isn’t that right?”
    â€œYes. I came by to see how you’re feeling. Jenny says you’re on the mend. I have to say you’re looking a whole lot better than you did the last time I saw you.”
    She searches my face. “You were here before?”
    â€œThat’s right. The day after you came to the hospital. You don’t remember?”
    She hesitates. “I’m afraid I don’t. Was I making any sense?”
    â€œYou were fine.”
    We make a little small talk about when she’ll get out of the hospital and how much she imagines her garden has suffered. “Jenny’s a good girl, but she doesn’t know a thing about keeping a garden. Thank goodness I’ve got a sweet neighbor man who looks out for the garden when I can’t do it.”
    â€œSpeaking of Jenny,” I say, “I’d like to ask you about something you said to me when I was here last week.”
    â€œI was so out of it, there’s no telling what I said.” She gives a strained little laugh. Her expression is wary.
    â€œYou said you think Jenny is in danger. What did you mean?”
    â€œI said that? I don’t know what was going through my mind. I must have been dreaming.” She blushes. Her hand flutters to her hair, and she glances at the door.
    â€œYou also asked me to look for your husband, Howard.”
    â€œNow I know I was out of it,” she says. “Howard has been gone a long time. I don’t know why I’d ask you to find him.”
    â€œAnd you wanted me to locate his first wife.”
    She starts and her right arm jerks, sending a novel lying next to her spinning to the floor. I notice that her hand is shaking.
    â€œI’ll get that.” I walk around the bed, pick up the novel, and set it back near her.
    Her eyes dart toward the door again, and as if she has conjured a rescue, the same nurse who chased me out last time flounces in.
    â€œVera, is this man bothering you again?” She cocks her head at me as if trying to decide whether I actually constitute a danger to her patient.
    â€œI’m totally innocent,” I say. “I only stopped by to tell Vera I’m glad she’s feeling better.”
    There’s no mistaking the relief in Vera’s voice. “I’m so glad you came, Samuel. And regarding that matter we were discussing, please don’t mention it to Jenny.” Her look is stern. She was a schoolteacher and sounds like she assumes people will obey when she lays down the law.

CHAPTER 4
    â€œTruly, I wish to hell you’d settle down and stop acting like the KKK is coming in to grab you,” I say.
    â€œOh, you know how I am. I like to eat home. Simple food.”
    â€œHow much simpler can you get than fried chicken, rice, and beans with cornbread?” I gesture toward his plate. “They even have your pepper sauce.”
    He finally loosens up enough to grin. “You’re right. The pepper sauce fixes it right up.” Truly Bennett is not an old man. He’s several years younger than me, but he has never gotten used to the idea that it’s all right for a black man to sit in Town Café and have a meal. Small towns like Jarrett Creek took a good bit longer than the big cities to come to terms with equal treatment for blacks. Even though Truly went to the local school, which was always integrated, his generation didn’t think to go to the café and make themselves comfortable. The fact that Dilly