The Devil's Cook Read Free Page A

that’s all, and I saw what boxes he opened. Miles and Bowers is all.”
    â€œOh?” Fanny turned and looked down at Orville. “What are you doing down there on your hands and knees? Saying your prayers?”
    â€œNot hardly. I been replacing some of this asphalt tile. A couple pieces got kicked up and cracked.”
    â€œIs my brother at home?”
    â€œNot knowing, I couldn’t say. He ain’t come out this way. ’Course, he might have gone out the back door.”
    â€œYes, Farley often goes in and out of back doors. It’s a kind of instinct with him.”
    â€œYou want to see him about something?”
    â€œNot particularly. I wonder if Terry Miles is home. Don’t bother to answer, Orville. I’ll just go back and knock on her door and find out, if you don’t mind.”
    â€œI don’t mind. Why should I?”
    Not knowing, Fanny couldn’t say. At any rate, she lingered no longer. Orville Reasnor, still in a prayerful posture above his pot of tile cement, watched her ascend four steps to the lower hall level, and offered thanks for short skirts.
    Down the hall a way, Fanny knocked, on Terry’s door. There was no answer, and she knocked again. This time there was an immediate response, but it was not the one she was waiting for. The wrong person opened the wrong door. The wrong person was Farley, and the wrong door was his.
    â€œHello, Fan,” Farley said. “No use banging on Terry’s door. She isn’t home. She said she was going out somewhere.”
    Fanny jumped as if she had been caught with a jimmy in her hands. When her heart had snapped back into place, she turned and glared at her brother, who was, technically, only half a brother. (They had shared a father who had been accommodated in the course of his marital fiascoes by two wives who had succeeded in becoming mothers. The third wife, fortunately, had failed.)
    â€œDamn it, Farley,” Fanny said, “I wish you would quit leaping out of doors at people. It’s very disconcerting, to say the least. Went out where?”
    â€œShe didn’t say. Just out. She said something about having an appointment.”
    â€œDid she say when she’d be back?”
    â€œNo, she didn’t. I assume, however, that it will be before six. I’m invited at six to share the ragout with her and Jay.”
    â€œWhat ragout? Please don’t be so cryptic about everything!”
    â€œThe ragout that Terry left cooking in her skillet. Don’t you smell it?”
    Fanny sniffed, and did, and it smelled good. She was getting hungry herself. The good smell made her mouth water.
    â€œHow do you rate an invitation? I should think I’d be the one, if anybody. After all, I’m her friend.”
    â€œSo you are. She doesn’t have too many of them, does she? Friends, I mean.”
    â€œWomen don’t like her because she’s pretty and sexy. With me that’s no issue, because I’m pretty and sexy, too.”
    â€œThe hell you are. I hadn’t noticed.”
    â€œBrothers don’t. Not normal ones. Do you think I could be included in the invitation?”
    â€œI doubt it. There probably wouldn’t be enough. Besides, I was invited out of compassion. I’m a poor young bachelor with nothing to look forward to but his own cooking or a Greasy Spoon somewhere.”
    â€œWell, you’re welcome to your old ragout. I’ll make Ben take me over to the Student Union. I’ll even pick up the check if necessary.”
    â€œYou may find that a little bit difficult, little sister. Ben’s gone.”
    â€œGone? What do you mean?”
    â€œHow can I be more explicit? Taken off. Deserted his nest.”
    â€œDid he go with Terry?”
    â€œOh, no, nothing like that. With Jay confined by his duties at the university, why should they go off together? For the accomplishment of certain things, there’s no place like