Broke: (8 page)

"And who were they?"

"I can find out from Dewey."

"I think Dewey is the only one
they
can locate right now."

"And the dead one. Dewey's cellmate. He was squatting there too, right?"
Hell, anybody could locate
him
.

"Yes, the victim, Lyle Cisneros. But there was supposed to have been one more. The police can't locate him.
Why doesn't
Dewey
tell them who the third man is?
"

"He doesn't know! He
only
knows
a
first name, Abe, and a
nickname, Grunt. You have to have a name to find a person." Vance had
clearly
never had to locate a missing person. But the subject was coming up for her again and again. "So you're not going to tell me where to find my landlord."

"The police want to talk to him, too, Immy. He's out of
touch
right now. He'll
show up
in a
few days
. He doesn't tell us where he goes."
Vance looked at the corner of the ceiling. "Although Jersey might know where he is."

She might as well ask her other question. "Do you want me to get rid of the ghost?"

Vance paled slightly. "The one that knocked me off the ladder?"

Immy wasn't sure
if
a ghost had knocked him
over
or if he'd
merely
lost his balance
, but she said, "Yeah, that one. There's only the one in the Tompkins House, right?"

"How are you going to do that?"

"I have a book that tells me
how.
I just have to buy a few things.
"

"Well, sure, go ahead."

"But I should get a reduction in my rent if I do that.
It'll cost me money and it'll
improv
e
the property
, too
."
She tilted her head and batted her eyelids. No response.

"You're improving the property anyway, you said. Putting up a fence and fixing the
porch
. There's no reduction for that."

She decided she'd talk to Jersey Shorr about it
, and about where Geoff
, the landlord,
was
. Maybe she'd be more reasonable.
Immy got up and headed for the door.

The thing that was
hovering in
the
foggy
back of her mind
shot forward and
came
into focus
. Jersey
did
know where Geoff was. She
had phoned
him
to ask about her putting a fence in the
backyard
. She
had to know
where he was.

"See you tomorrow at the house?" Vance called after her.

"Sure. Whatever."

Chapter
Nine

That night
, right after Immy got off work,
Ralph met her
again at the old house and
he
got started on the new fence for the pig. He'd decided to start from scratch rather than use parts from the one in the Saltlick
backyard
. He dug holes, poured cement, and set the posts.

Then he managed to find
half a
d
ozen
good
porch
spindles
in the storage shed behind the house.

By that time it was almost fully dark.
He
decided to take
the
porch pieces
with him
.
Immy watched him gather an armload and followed him to his truck, parked at the curb in front.

"I'll
use
these for a model to make
new
spindles
," he said as he loaded the salvaged ones into his truck. "I have to
replace the rotten and missing ones
. Might as well
repaint
all of them while I'm at it
.
You want them gray?"

Immy gazed at the
twilit
house and considered.
The posts were gray now. In fact, the house
itself
was gray, peeling in places. "For now, I guess. Eventually I might want to paint the whole house."

"I don't think I'm up to that, Immy. This thing is three stories
tall
and it hasn't been painted for years. It should be scraped down to the wood,
and that's a huge job
."

"But you can make it look nice, can't you?"

"I can sure make it look nicer than it does now."
Ralph was giving the house a good hard look. "Immy, can I ask you something?"

"
Uh huh
."

"Are you sure you want to move in here?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I
spent a lot of time and trouble picking
this
place
out and
I
signed a lease." Did he think she couldn't make decisions for herself? Sometimes he sounded
an awful lot
like her mother.

"Aw, don't get upset. It's just that this place isn't in very good condition."

"But you're fixing it up."

"I can't fix all of it."

A
shiny
new Toyota that said Land Cruiser
in tiny letters
on its side pulled up behind them. A balding man with a middle-age paunch
thumped down to the pavement
and walked toward them. He stuck a hand out to Ralph.
He held a key with a blue plastic tag in his other hand.

"Hi," he boomed, "Tompkins here.
I've been away for a few weeks.
S
topped by Shorr's place
awhile ago
and heard y'all were looking for me."

"Tompkins?" said Ralph. "No, I'm not
looking
--"

"I am
.
" Immy extend
ed
her hand
to him
.
"I need to ask you a few things."

He gave Immy's hand a limp shake
. The
flashy
gold watch
on his wrist
was
too large for his hands.
She took a step away
after she let his hand go. At close range, the man smelled like a perfume shop.

"Would you like to see the improvements we've started?"
she asked.

"
Most definitely.
Shall
we go inside?
Are you doing anything there? Have you removed anything?
" He started walking toward the door.

"Oh no, we're working on the outside right now."

"Good."

Immy led Mr. Tompkins around to the back while Ralph finished loading the wood and his tools into his truck
bed
. "I'm so glad we found such a wonderful place. We're very excited about moving in here." She realized she was babbling and the man wasn't paying much attention to her. When she showed him the newly set
fence
posts, he wasn't impressed, either
, but kept glancing at the
ki
t
chen
door
. But while she had him in the back
yard
, away from Ralph, she wasn't going to waste her opportunity.

"I need a favor of you, Mr. Tompkins."

"You can call me Geoffrey. With a G."

"With a G."
Immy pondered, for two seconds, how to tell if it had a G or a J when you were saying it. "Okay, Geoffrey. My uncle was staying in the house and he's in jail now."

"
What's your uncle's name?" He seemed
interested in her for the first time.

"Dwight Duckworthy. He's called Dewey."

"
Ah y
es. I got a call from the police. He was trespassing, homeless. He broke in with a band of hooligans."

"They didn't bother anything."

"One of them was murdered."

"Well, yes. But Uncle Dewey didn't do that. I'd
very much
like it if you could tell the police you're not pressing charges so
my uncle
c
an
get out
of stir
."

"
I'm not pressing anything. I understand he's being held because he doesn't have bail.
Tell me when you're ready to do something inside. I'd like to
use
my own people for that.
" He spun and
walked to
his car.

Immy trailed behind, deflated, and he was gone by the time she got to the front
yard
. She hadn't even shown him the inside. Not that it was changed yet.

When
s
he got back to Saltlick, a white pickup was
parked
in front of
her mother
'
s
trailer
. Ralph had gone to his place, saying he needed to shower and change before he came over for supper. She didn't recognize the truck, but it could be anybody. Most Texans drove white pickups.

She found her new cousin, Theo Nichols, and her new Uncle Dewey sitting at the kitchen table, eating chocolate chip cookies. At least Dewey was eating them. Theo
was running
a finger up and down the condensation on a glass of ice tea.

"Imogene," her mother said. "You're in time to see your avuncular relative
,
prior to his filial unit whisking him off to the metropolis."

"Hey, I'm glad to see you're out of jail," Immy said. "Old Geoffrey with a G must have decided to drop charges after all. That was quick."

"No one's dropped charges, as far as I know," Theo said
, moving his right hand back and forth
. "I had to pay a hefty amount of bail money.
" He illus
trated the word "hefty" with a sharp
chop of his right hand. "
Too
k all day to get him out, too."

"Which metropolis are you going to?" Immy asked. "Wymee Falls or Fort Worth?"

Dewey swallowed his cookie
with a loud gulp
and answered. "I can't leave the area. They're still trying to pin murder on me."

"Where's Drew?"
Immy looked around, but Hortense said,
"Drew is in the
backyard
with Marshmallow."

Immy nodded. She didn't want her daughter to hear talk of jail and murder any more than she had to.
Drew had asked for a Jail Barbie the other day. Immy
didn't think they made a Jailbird Barbie, although
, when she thought about it,
the outfit would be different
. A
drastic change
from her other clothes.

"Are you both staying at the Best Western?"
Immy asked.

"Yep," Dewey said. "It'll be the best bed I've been in for years. Looking forward to it." He grinned and grabbed another cookie.
His new clothes must have come from Theo.

"I think you've had enough cookies, don't you? Dad?" Theo sounded like he was trying out the word "Dad."

Dewey beamed. "You're right, son, I have. Shall we go?" He didn't have any problem using the word "son."

Dewey clapped an arm around Theo's shoulder as they said their good-byes and left. The two were about the same height and there was enough resemblance that there was no doubt they were related.
Dewey's curly brown hair was a little thinner and shot with gray, but they both had those emerald-green eyes.

She heard Drew call out, "Bye bye, Unca Dewey and Theo. Later, alligator." She'd picked up that expression from a TV rerun.

"My, my. Isn't it nice to have more relatives?" Hortense looked happy.
She'd changed her mind about Dewey in a hurry.
She loved it when people appreciated her baking. "
The nephew seems an exemplary young man.
Where's Ralph?"

"He's coming over after he cleans up. I wonder if Theo can afford the bail money."

"I don't think he has any worries in that area.
H
e says h
is remuneration from
various and sundry
stock transactions ha
s
been remarkable.
Unless
his father
decides to
cause a default."

"Skip town, you mean?"

"Yes, that's my meaning."

"Who's skipping town?" Ralph had come in and heard the last part of their conversation. "Was that your uncle leaving? Is he skipping town?"

"No, he is not
.
" Immy
folded her arms
.
"He's staying
in
Wymee Falls. You can't expect him to stay in Saltlick. There's no motel
here
. Why didn't you tell me his son sprung him?"

"I wasn't sure the paperwork was going to get done today. It wasn't finished when I left for your new house. I'm glad he's out, Immy."

"Are you going to pin a bum rap on him?"

"Not if he didn't kill Cisneros."

"Have you found that other guy, Abe? Grunt?
Whatever his name is?
"

"Nope. It's hard to find someone when you don't know who
he is
."

"I'll bet he's another ex-con."

Ralph gave her an appreciative look
and sat beside her at the table
. "You know, you're probably right. We should go through everyone released in the last year or so from Allblue."

"Sure, that's probably where they all knew each other from." Immy snatched a pre-dinner cookie
right
before
Hortense clear
ed
them off the table. "Or they might know each other from the rodeo circuit. Except Dewey said Lyle Cisneros is the one who knew Abe. Can you find out if Lyle did rodeo, too?"

"Immy, you're full of good ideas, tonight." Ralph grinned at her, getting
up and getting
a cookie
from the counter
for himself.

"It's nothing. My course in Missing Persons is teaching me a lot. I intend to ace the test next
week
."