I hung around the post office, waitin’ for a chance to get Angie Boone alone, ’til Nina threw me out, then I went back to the town hall to arrange with Penny to have her serve the Thistle warrant. I headed back across the street about closin’ time. Nina was takin’ care of all the folks who’d waited ’til five-to-five to get their business done—maybe eight of ’em, two with packages. I busied myself lookin’ at the Wanted posters. The felon of the day was Leon Whistlesmith, car thief an’ burglar.
“Homer,” Nina said, “you got business here or you jus’ holdin’ up the line?”
“I got to ask Angie somethin’. She still here?”
“Where else’d she be?”
“Gone home, maybe?”
“She’s in the back. Now, get outta the way.”
I managed not to grin as I went past.
Angie was sittin’ cross-legged on the cot Nina keeps in the back for naps an’ the few days when she gets snowed in in town. Along with the cot, there’s a table an’ three straight-back chairs, an’ a poster with a poem called Desiderata. Angie was readin’ a paperback romance, which she put down when I come in. She looked at the door behind me—must’ve been hopin’ Nina would come to her rescue. I grabbed one of the chairs an’ turned it around so I could straddle it, an’ crossed my arms on the back—a little strategy I learned for questionin’ skitterish witnesses. Puttin’ the chair between you’s supposed to make you seem less threatenin’.
Angie did one of those acts—which I’m sure she got from watchin’ TV—where she looked from side to side, like she was tryin’ to find who else I might be starin’ at. When I didn’t say nothin’, she put the book down an’ said, “What?”
“What do you know about Roger Devon?”
Whatever she was expectin’, that weren’t it. She put her hands together over her belly like she’d been punched. Then she pulled herself together an’ said, “Nothin’.”
“You an’ I both know that ain’t true.”
Her mouth got all hard an’ she tried to stare me down. But I’ve had more experience with face-offs. She said, “He was one of my teachers. He quit.”
“Why?” I said, though I had a good idea it was related to the state she was in.
She shrugged. I waited. She outwaited me.
“Where’d he go?”
“How would I know?” I waited. “Back to Illinois?”
“How’d you know he was from there?”
“Must’a heard talk. What’s this about?”
“Devon’s missin’. An’ I got a unidentified body on my hands might be him. You know anythin’ about that?”
She shuddered. “No, an’ I don’t wanna.”
“I got it on good authority Devon was a friend a yours.”
“Who tole you that?”
“I can’t reveal my sources.”
“Gossip!”
“Well?”
“He was nice.”
“You an’ him kinda left the mission together.”
That got to her. “No!” She realized how much she was givin’ herself away, ’cause I could see her make a effort to relax. Then she said, “I was thinking of quitting anyway. An’ the sub they got us was real bad, so I quit.”
“Uh-hunh.”
“I don’t care if you don’t believe me!”
“I didn’t say I don’t believe you.”
She got a pouty look on her face an’ picked up her book, held it like she couldn’t wait for me to leave an’ let her get back to it.
“Why’d Devon leave?”
“I don’t know.” I waited. “I heard Ash Jackson run him off.”
“Where’d you hear?”
“Around.”
“What else you hear?”
“Nothin’.”
“I think you know more.”
“I don’t know nothin’ an’ I don’t want to hear no more. I don’t want to talk to you.”
“You have to. I’m the Law.”
“Leave me alone!”
Just then, the door opened an’ Nina swarmed in. She pretty much got the lay of the land at a glance, ’cause she said, “Homer, get the hell out!”
I got up faster’n I’d set down an’ put the chair between us.
“An’ tell Mars Boone he’s lower’n a rattler’s belly!” Nina added.
“What’s Mars got to do with anythin’?”