Elmore Leonard - Tishomingo Blues

"I do now. I have two, but don't know where one of 'em is."

"Can we go somewhere?"

"I won't take you home. There's still too much of Arlen in the house." She said, "Did you want to get something to eat," her voice slowing down, "or go to a bar, or a motel?"

"I know where we can go," Dennis said, took Loretta into the hotel where they got a suite for one night and had a wonderful time.

They did. They turned on music and took their clothes off and just let loose being a man and a woman who couldn't keep their hands off each other. They made love and had vodka drinks and calamari. Loretta said, "Sunday was the best day of my life. I don't mean-you know, Arlen dying. I mean from the time you came in the tent to wash my back. I'm amazed I asked you to do it, but I'm so glad I did. I can live offa that one the rest of my life. Even with it being so hot in there. Now I have another one-whatever this day is, Wednesday? I'm gonna think of them both together."

Dennis said, "We're just getting started."

She said, "Oh, God, I hope so. Did you burn yourself out there?"

"I never do."

"God, you're a daredevil and you're fun. You aren't the least bit stuck on yourself."

He said, "I saw you standing in that black skirt and I knew it was you."

She said, "It's old."

"I love your legs. I love your body."

"How about my head?"

"I love your head. Are you hungry?"

They had room-service crawfish etouffee Dennis said was as good as you got in New Orleans. He told her about a guy named Tonto Rey who said the best he ever had was in Tucson, Arizona. How about that. Loretta said she'd never had it before but it was good. They watched each other as they ate and would touch each other's hands. They didn't talk about Sunday. She didn't mention Arlen. She didn't ask Dennis what he did after he left the tent. He asked if she watched the battle reenactment. She said no, "I sat outside in that dumb skirt and thought of you, and smelled you, and could feel my hands in your hair. You have nice hair." She said, "Are we spending the night?"

"I was planning on it."

"Tomorrow's the funeral. I have to leave here early." She said, "I hate to come right out and ask, but am I gonna see you again?"

She fascinated him. He said, "Of course."

"You're not running off right away?"

"This is my last week, but I'm pretty sure I'll be here the rest of the summer. My boss has come to respect what I do."

"You know what brought us together?"

"Yeah, Naughty Child Pie."

She said, "You care for me, don't you?"

"I really do."

"You know why?"

"It's something that, I don't know, just happens. I meet girls and I think, Yeah…? I meet you and I think, Yeah, 'cause you're on my mind every minute after."

"That's how I feel," Loretta said. "I can't wait to put my dear husband in the ground and get on with my life."

Dennis said, "Will you hurry?"

He got home at eight-thirty the next morning: Charlie still in bed, Vernice in the kitchen, her magazine open on the table. She said, "Well." She said, "You must've had quite a time. Did you fall in love?"

He could say yes, he believed he did, but told her he fell asleep.

"That's what you do, after. You go to Memphis?"

"Why would l?"

"Charlie said you were meeting that TV girl with the two names."

"I wasn't meeting her."

"Well, according to Charlie, she was meeting you. He said a fan bought him a drink, he turned back around and she was gone. He thought you two must've got together."

"I never even saw her. Listen, I'm sorry I missed supper. What was it?"

"It don't matter now, does it?"

"I staved at the hotel. I took a room. see what it was like. You know that desk clerk Patti, blond, semi-big hair?"

"Yeah, Patti."

"She comped me."

"You dog. You seeing her?"

"She's way too young."

"And she's got that overbite," Vernice said, "we use to call buckteeth."

"She's nice though."

"She better be. You want some breakfast?"

"I've had my coffee."

"Sit down, I'll fix you some eggs. You diving this afternoon?"

"I'm not sure yet. Robert's picking me up." "You haven't mentioned him since his friend got killed. The one Charlie went to Memphis for, remember? I saw his wife in the lobby, sunglasses, a cute black suit. She can wear clothes. But there's something-I don't know what it is. Like I wouldn't be surprised to turn the page of this magazine and there she'd be, in the sunglasses."

"How're Nicole and Tom doing?"

"They've learned the identity of her secret lover."

"Who is it?"

"Some Eyetalian guy. You want a couple fried eggs or not?"

Newton watched the valet boy get in the Jaguar and pull out to circle around to the hotel entrance where Mr. Negro was there waiting, his sunglasses on. Newton had slept in his truck all night and had a cup of coffee to go earlier. He wedged a hunk of Copenhagen behind his lower lip, sucked on it and turned the key. He was surprised when Robert Taylor -that was the boy's name, same as a movie star's the way to remember it-drove south to Tunica and stopped at a house on School Street, up from those bail-bond offices. He was surprised again when the diver came out of the house and got in the car. Now where? It turned out they went south again on Old 61. Newton didn't care where they were going. This stretch of road was the place to pull alongside and give 'em the double-ought buck.

Except, goddamn it, he could keep the black car in sight, but not catch up to it to do the job.

Robert didn't put his music on this time, in the car. He'd asked Dennis to drive with him to see Walter Kirkbride. There was something he wanted to tell Dennis and they could talk on the way.

Riding along now Robert said, "The fire dive-man, I saw that, I knew more than ever you're the man I want."

Dennis said, "Thanks anyway."

"Your conscience," Robert said, "won't let you do it. That's the trouble having a conscience, why I control mine, only listen to it when I want."

"You have your own way of reasoning things," Dennis said.

"Bend it when I see the need. I told you everybody believed Robert Johnson must've sold his soul to play the way he did? But Robert Johnson never said he did or didn't?"

"I remember."

"Well, who would know better than the man himself? What he did was leave the Delta, went down to Hazlehurst where his mama lived, and went to the woodshed. You know what's meant by woodsheddin'? It's getting off by yourself and finding your sound, your chops, what makes you special. Robert Johnson went off for a couple of years and learned his style. He went back to the Delta… Sam House says, `He finished playing and all our mouths were standing open.' You understand what I'm saying?"

"You want something," Dennis said, "work for it. If I want to run a diving show, get off my ass and make it happen."

"What I want to tell you," Robert said, "I could help you. I won't make a promise till I see how this deal goes, get Walter Kirkbride in line. It works, I could maybe back you."

"Why?”

'Cause you my man. 'Cause you got the nerve louse yourself in high-test and go off the lad

"You mean if Walter goes in with you?"

"If Walter works for me. That's part of what I seed to know. See, I been looking for him, but Walter's hiding out, shaky after killing a man. But I believe I know where to find him."

No more than a minute later they turned left at the Dubbs intersection and Dennis said, "We're gong to Junebug's?"

Yes, they were, through the lot and around back o where the two trailers stood, and a car. Robert aid, "You recognize it?"

" Arlen 's Dodge."

"The one Walter drives," Robert said, "when he comes to see his sweetheart, Walter keeping his romance a secret."