Tony Dunbar - Tubby Dubonnet 02 - City of Beads Read Free Page A

really liked the three Dubonnet girls, Debbie, Christine, and Collette. The oldest, Debbie, who was a bit of a rebellious teenager then, seemed amused by Potter’s irreverent opinions about everything. For some reason, the Aucoins couldn’t have children of their own.
    One weekend night Debbie went out on a date with some clod named Arn, who in Tubby’s opinion was way too old and shaggy but was a real catch in Debbie’s eyes. She came home around eleven o’clock, and Tubby wouldn’t have known anything was wrong if he hadn’t been walking the family’s faithful retriever and seen Potter’s car drive up and park in front of his house.
    Tubby strolled up just as Debbie got out, and he heard Potter say to her, “You can talk to me about this anytime.”
    “What’s wrong?” Tubby asked, surprising them both. Debbie had left with “Nothing, Daddy. Mr. Aucoin just brought me home.”
    Tubby bent down to look at Potter behind the wheel. The face was guilty. “What became of Arn?” he asked Debbie.
    “We got separated,” Debbie said, avoiding his eyes. “It’s no big deal. Good night, Mr. Aucoin,” and she skedaddled up the walk.
    “What’s going on?” Tubby asked, studying Potter suspiciously.
    “It would be better if she told you, Tubby. I just tried to help her out.”
    “Out of what?” Tubby demanded.
    “Look. She’s okay. It really isn’t my place to tell you the story. You should talk to her about it.”
    Potter drove off. Tubby was mad.
    Debbie was holed up in the bathroom upstairs, so he had to get Mattie out of bed, where she’d been propped up watching a late movie, and send her in to get the scoop.
    She was gone about an hour, while Tubby tried to cure his frustration with J. W Dant. The story Mattie came out with, told while she and Tubby held hands on the edge of the bed, was that Arn had taken Debbie to a bar in their neighborhood where teenagers could get served. After they hung out there for a while, Arn suggested visiting a friend of his who lived in the French Quarter. The friend sold pot and cocaine, but Debbie said she didn’t know that at the time. It was an upstairs garret with a balcony overlooking an old courtyard. It felt like an adventure just climbing up the narrow dark stairs, smelling the mossy bricks and the sweet scent of night-blooming jasmine. They knocked, and Arn’s friend, an older man with. a full white beard, let them in and took them back to his kitchen. What a surprise to find Mr. Aucoin sitting there.
    “Debbie Dubonnet,” he said. “You’re going home!”
    He told the host that Debbie was only sixteen, the daughter of a friend of his, and they’d be leaving now.
    The white-bearded man got mad at Arn, and they started arguing. While that was going on Potter took Debbie, who was completely bewildered by the scene, firmly by the elbow and escorted her downstairs and out to the street. As he steered her down the block to his car, he explained that Arn’s friend sold drugs, and his apartment was no place for an underage girl to be.
    She protested, but Potter got her into the car and drove her straight home. On the way he confided that he had done some drugs in the past, and he gave her various reasons why she should stay away from them. By the time they got back Uptown they were friends again, but she did wonder what had become of Arn.
    “I think it was very sweet of Potter to do that,” Mattie said.
    “Yeah, so do I, but what the hell was he doing there?”
    Tubby went over to see Potter the next day. It wasn’t the kind of thing you discussed on the telephone. He repeated Debbie’s version of events to Potter, and asked him the same question.
    “I know the guy who lives there,” Potter explained. “I’ve known him for a long time. There was a period after I got married when I was into cocaine. That’s all ancient history now, thank God, but I go over to visit sometimes to replay the old days.”
    “Does he still deal?”
    “Maybe. I mean, sure