lillian took her pencil from behind her ear and her pad from the pocket of her apron.
“the usual, mister jones?” she asked jonathon.
“yes, thank you, lillian.”
“we got some nice corn in, nice and fresh, if you’d rather have that than greens.”
“yes, that sounds good. i’ll have that.”
lillian eyed maria. she didn’t know what to make of her. jonathon often came in with young women but they were better groomed, or at least more expensively dressed . maybe she is his sister, lillian thought, ran away with the hired man and just came home.
“how about you, miss? will you have what mister jones is having?”
“i don’t know what he is having. i’ll have a steak, with a baked potato and green peas.”
“we got some nice corn, just in.”
“i’ll have the peas, thank you.”
“how do you want your steak?”
“burnt to a crisp. i want to see the ashes fly when i cut into it.”
“anything to drink?”
“do you have chocolate milk?”
“just milk from a cow.”
“i’ll have that.”
lillian made a few scribbles and departed. jonathon and maria were left alone at a table on one side of the large dining room.
there were a few other diners, all on the other side of the room.
jonathon picked up where he had left off, in the saga of buck shaw and jonah james.
*
no arrests were ever made in connection with jonah’s murder.
jonah never made any special provision for taffy in his will, and most of the estate went to raymond, his oldest and most worthless son.
an account of the convolutions and permutations of jonah’s fortune through the years to the present might fill many pages.
what little was left of it was until yesterday understood to be in the control of louise james, a granddaughter of the unlamented raymond. the estate at present is burdened with many lawsuits.
louise has left town and renounced her interest in the estate. control, for what it is worth, has passed to sarah james, the daughter of taffeta, who has been waiting her chance for many years.
sarah has inherited taffy’s misgiving about buck gray, and is convinced that buck gray had jonah murdered. needless to say, no evidence of any such thing ever surfaced.
however sarah is determined to pursue the case, with such resources as she has.
one more detail might be considered relevant, or at least interesting, before we proceed further.
ted tenner, who had been hired by taffy to investigate buck gray, and who disappeared shortly after, has never been heard from since.
with that, jonathon jones concluded his preliminary account of the case, as it stood, to maria mandragore.
*
“there’s a pair to draw to,” said smitty. as he looked through the peephole out into the dining room.
“what might that be?” asked rafe. he did not sound too interested, and did not look up from his copy of look magazine.
“it’s that lawyer jones, from the town.”
“so? he’s a rich folks lawyer, he don’t concern himself with the likes of us. except to buy himself a steak from us.”
“it’s who he’s got with him.”
“who?”
“it’s that foolish girl who got herself mixed up wth poor wiley’s troubles - calls herself a private investigator or some such.”
rafe laughed. “oh yeah, i remember.”
“that oughtn’t to be allowed,” said smitty. “her setting herself up like that.”
“why not? this ain’t russia. folks can set themselves up to sell what they like, or sell themselves, if anybody wants to buy.”
“i just don’t think it’s right.”
rafe put his magazine down and got up and nudged smitty aside and looked through the peephole himself.
“yeah, it comes back to me now,” said rafe. he laughed. “she can set herself up - like a fortune teller. like a gypsy fortune teller. that’s all she is - a damn gypsy fortune teller. with that foolish flower in her hair.”
“maybe mister lawyer jones ought to watch his back,” said smitty. “she might tell him a fortune he don’t want to hear.”
“maybe,” rafe agreed.
14. questions
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