Her son, Chuck, who lives in Memphis, pays me to clean once a week and take Mrs. Marie had been living in the Shakespeare Garden Apartments, next door to me, for years. When I used my key to enter her ground-floor apartment, I could see at a glance that she wasn’t in her usual chair. When I left the room, Carrie was bending over her paperwork with a little smile on her lips.ĪNOTHER FAVORITE WOMAN of mine was Marie Hofstettler, and I was sorry to see today was not one of her “limber” days. “Got to work.” I got up and pulled on my yellow rubber gloves, prepared to tackle the patients’ bathroom first, since it was always the nastiest. Too many people I talked to, people I’d known all my life, turned around and told everything I said to the press.”Ĭarrie looked at me, her mouth slightly open in surprise. “I expect that’s from being Victim of the Year after I got raped. “It’s uphill work being your confidant, Bard.” Think you and Claude can weather it as friends?”Ĭarrie’s smile was wry. She’d be suing the Shakespeare Police Department, not just Tom David or Todd.”Ĭarrie shook her head. Glass is talking to a lawyer from Little Rock about bringing a suit. I sat down in one of the two patient chairs and said, “It was possible until Claude started talking about the Darnell Glass lawsuit.” I thought of a quick answer and a longer truer one. “Do you think you can be comfortable with him now?” “He’s cut loose as of last night,” I said. I was reminded yet again of how much people in a small town knew about you even when you tried to keep your life private. “He’s been hanging around you for months like a faithful hound, Lily. “He wants to, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.” “So what’s with the chief? He show you his nightstick?” Tell the lab tech to get on down there and knock on the apartment to the rear right.” “I don’t think the dust has had time to settle on the windowsill yet. “Has she rented out Marcus’s apartment yet? A lab tech at the hospital is looking for a place to live.” Shakespeare had a tiny hospital, perpetually in danger of being closed. “She’s got long blond hair, she wears heavy makeup, she works out and takes karate, and she probably features in the wet dreams of half the guys she meets.” “Is that the niece everyone was talking about, the one he left everything to?” Carrie had fastened on the first item. Carrie hungered for something frivolous after being a sober, God-like decision-maker all week. “I ate out in Montrose with the chief of police,” I told her. I tried to think of other items of interest. “That was probably a good move,” Carrie said. And Marcus Jefferson moved out in a hurry after the Deedra Dean car-painting incident.” I’d seen the U-Haul trailer attached to Marcus’s car the morning before. “The man who’s taken Del Packard’s place at Winthrop Sporting is living in Norvel Whitbread’s old apartment. “Becca Whitley, the niece, is living in Pardon’s apartment,” I said, after some thought. Her beautiful brown eyes were magnified many times by the lenses. She shoved her brown chin-length hair behind her ears, resettled her glasses on her snub nose. “Anything interesting happen this week?” she asked, as if she wanted to take her mind off the heap of paper. Then, too, men are intimidated by Carrie’s calm intelligence and competence.
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Carrie is short, rounded, pale, and serious, and she hasn’t had a date in the two years since she’s come to Shakespeare.įor one thing, she’s all too likely to be interrupted in any free time she might manage. The doctor was in black denims and a rust-red sweater. She did a lot of scut work herself, to save money to pay back the loans that had gotten her through med school. The best thing you could say about Carrie’s office was that it was large enough. The doctor had massive debts to pay off.Ĭarrie’s answer came floating back, and I stepped into the doorway of her office. There wasn’t enough money yet for renovation. The walls were painted an uninspiring tan and the floors were covered with a pitted brown linoleum. I used my key and called “Hi!” down the hall. Sure enough, Carrie’s aging white Subaru was in its usual place behind the building. I wondered if the black-haired man had been out walking in the night, too.Īs my car lurched slowly along the driveway that led to the back of the small Shakespeare Clinic, an uninspiring yellow brick office structure dating from the early sixties, I was betting that Carrie Thrush would be working today. I showered, dressed, put on my makeup, and fluffed my hair. Before I dressed, I poured myself a cup of coffee and drank it at the kitchen table, the morning paper unopened beside me. I’d have to hurry to make it to Body Time. I’d slept a little late since I’d had such a hard time getting to bed the night before. I WOKE UP AND LOOKED OUT AT SHEETS OF RAIN, A chilly autumnal gray rain.