Gargantuan_ A Ruby Murphy Mystery - Maggie Estep [58]
I found my boss in the horrible little room that serves as her office. Carla had company in the form of a thin blond woman who offered a smile full of teeth.
“Ben, this is my friend Ava,” Carla said, waving her cigarette in the blonde’s direction.
“How do you do?” I said, nodding at the woman.
For some reason, Ava giggled before telling me she was doing just fine.
I sort of got a lesbian vibe off the two women. I’d had a feeling my boss was batting for the other team and, while Ava didn’t look particularly dykey, it seemed to me there was something between those two that certain folks would call unnatural.
Then, as if to prove me wrong on this theory, Ava invited me home that night, though not in a lewd manner. When she heard me and my dog were sleeping in my car, she insisted I come use her couch.
I guess I was pretty uptight about it. I don’t like strangers, and fair-haired women make me nervous. My mother was dark-haired. The girl I’d dated in junior high had been dark-haired. I didn’t trust blondes. But I did desperately need a warm shower and a good night’s sleep, which I hadn’t had in eons—and I didn’t suppose Crow would mind sleeping in a house for a night either.
Ava lived in a narrow frame house with a patch of concrete in front. We entered through the living room, where there was a child sitting on a couch, watching TV.
“Ben, this is my daughter, Grace,” Ava said.
The kid didn’t look up, but that didn’t bother Crow. He immediately jumped on the couch and started licking her face like she was his long lost mistress. Between Darwin letting that groom touch his ears and Crow instantly attaching himself to the kid, this was a day for disloyal animals.
“Where’s Janet?” Ava asked the child.
Grace shrugged. Ava opened her mouth wide and hollered, “Janet,” causing a tiny curly-headed woman to materialize.
The curly-headed woman scowled at Grace then quickly explained to Ava that she’d forbidden Grace from watching TV till her homework was done but the kid had ignored her.
“I don’t know what to do with her, Miss Ava,” said Janet. She was a fortyish white woman with a Southern accent. She had beady eyes and I immediately mistrusted her.
As Ava and Janet discussed various household issues and the kid watched TV and my dog remained planted at the kid’s side, I stood there daydreaming about how good Darwin had looked.
“You look so uncomfortable, Ben,” Ava said, startling me. “Come, let me give you a tour of the house.”
Apparently, while I’d been daydreaming, Ava had told curly-headed Janet that she could leave, because the little woman was fussing with her handbag and putting her coat on. No sooner had she walked out the door than Ava took my hand and guided me down the hall. I was very ill at ease and wanted to just take back my hand, get my dog and go. But I didn’t. Ava showed me her bedroom and then Grace’s room. The latter didn’t look like a little kid’s room at all. It was kind of austere. The only toys were some neatly arranged plastic horses.
I tried to make appreciative noises about the house even though I’d never understood why people expected other people to be interested in their houses. And this one was no beauty. It had a sad, claustrophobic feeling. As Ava showed me the small, depressing kitchen she seemed to feel the need to explain herself to me.
“I invited you here because you seem like a nice man and I hate to think of you sleeping in your car. I hope you don’t think it strange. People tell me I’m too friendly,” she said, laughing. “Must be that innate Southern hospitality.”
“Oh,” I said.
“I’m from North Carolina, you know.”
“Is that right?” I said dumbly.
She laughed again.
“I never had the accent. Guess I wanted out of North Carolina the second I stepped out of my mama’s womb and I must have vowed never