A Hole in the Universe - Mary McGarry Morris [115]
“Well, you see, the bus picks me up right around the corner from my street.” He pointed back over his shoulder as if it were idling out there now. “And then it’s not too far and I really enjoy the—”
“Wait! What? You don’t have a car?”
“Uh, no. I don’t. I don’t have one. Actually, I don’t drive.”
“Oh. What?” Pugh gave a dismal sigh. “DUI?”
“I don’t have a license. I never got one.”
“You illegal? An alien? You don’t sound like one.”
How foolish, how naive, to think he might have avoided this. The reason, he explained, was that he’d been in jail. For many years. Most of his life, as a matter of fact. And with the admission came relief, not that Pugh knew, but that he had been able to say it.
“You’re kidding! Usually I can tell. Most of your life! Christ, what the hell’d you do, murder someone?”
“A young woman.”
Pugh stared as if something sharp were stuck in his throat. “Jesus Christ,” he squealed. “I can’t hire you. Half the places you’d be working at there’s women and kids. And, I mean, I gotta consider that. You know, security and all.”
“Yes. I understand.”
“I mean, you seem like a helluva nice guy, but I gotta be careful.”
“Yes. I know.” He extended his hand, careful to lean back from the gesture. “Thank you for at least interviewing me, though.”
Gordon rang the bell. When Mrs. Jukas didn’t come, he left the bag of groceries just inside the porch wall so they wouldn’t be seen from the street. The phone rang before he had even closed his own door.
“Couldn’t you wait? I had to get my purse!” Mrs. Jukas said.
“I thought you might be sleeping.”
“Sleep! I never sleep. All I do is lay here. I’ve got your money. I’d put it out, but that girl, she’d be over here in two seconds. I used to think she was just wild or something, but it’s more than that. There’s something strange about her. The way her eyes move, the way she only comes out at night. She’s always watching your house, you know. She’s—”
“Do you want me to come over now?” he interrupted.
“It’s up to you.”
The exact amount, she said, passing coins and bills through the slightly open doorway. She didn’t thank him but seemed pleased he had bought everything at Shop and Save instead of from those crooks, the Nash Street Market, who had been ripping people off for years. He said he’d been going by. Well, next time he did she needed some bleach and a small bottle of Fab.
“Leonardo! Where are you, you stupid dog!” came a shout from across the street.
“Will you look at that.” Mrs. Jukas stared past his forearm, for her head came somewhere between his waist and shoulder. “The way she carries on you’d think somebody’d do something.”
A cigarette in her mouth, Marvella Fossum stood on her top step in a thin, dingy nightgown that clung to her swelling belly. Coughing, she struck one dead match after another.
“Disgusting, isn’t it?” Mrs. Jukas shook her head. “The way they breed. Like rats. She takes men in there. All hours of the night. The landlord, he can’t even evict her off his own property, it takes so long in the courts. Everyone’s got rights but us. Last week the police came. The Spanish lady, Inez up there, she called them. One night it was three men in there. The girl, she waits outside. Pretty soon, she’ll be doing the same as the mother. That night, Inez said it was pouring rain. Two o’clock in the morning and she sees the girl run over here.”
“Where?” Had it been raining the night he let Jada in? No, it hadn’t been.
“In your garage. She takes the key down.”
“Hey! Hey, mister!” Marvella was halfway down the steps. “I need a light. You got a match or lighter or whatever I can use here?”
“No. I don’t,” he answered quickly, but she kept coming.
“How ’bout you?” she asked Mrs. Jukas, who was already closing the door. In the sunlight she appeared almost naked. “All I need’s a match,” she whined. “Is that too much to ask?”
“Ma!” Jada was hurrying down the street with a bag in her arms. She stepped quickly between her mother and Gordon.
“Where the hell’ve you been?” Marvella roared.
“The store. I told you.