“Why would you tell Hank?” This was said in a near shout and the customer took a step back.
Lee was silent for a second, thinking thoughts I could not fathom, then he changed the subject. “When do you close?”
“Six.”
“Don’t leave the store. I’ll come by tonight at six to pick you up.”
“Lee…”
“See you at six.”
Then he hung up.
Rat bastard.
* * * * *
Ally came back to get me with news of no Rosie at Rosie’s house.
I asked if there was any Lee at Rosie’s house and that was a negatory too.
We took off to go see Rosie’s friend, emergency contact numero uno. He had a house in the Highlands area. Great old houses and bungalows, though Rosie’s friend didn’t live in one that had been renovated. For that matter, he didn’t live in a block that had a single house that had been renovated. Or in a block that had a single house with more than a dozen blades of genuine grass growing in their yards or decent curtains in their windows. It was semi-wasteland.
We knocked to no answer.
We sat in my car and called the house number on my cell phone, no answer.
We scanned the neighborhood and Ally pointed to the end of the block.
We got out of the car and walked to the corner Stop & Stab which had surprisingly not been crushed by the overabundance of Denver’s convenience stores. A guy of Arab descent stood behind the counter.
We walked up to him and he smiled.
“You want gum?” he asked.
“No, we’re…” I started to say.
“Cigarettes? They’re bad for you but I have to sell them or I’ll go bust. Everyone in this neighborhood smokes cigarettes.”
I shook my head and then wondered briefly why Lee smelled like tobacco, I hadn’t seen him smoke since he enlisted.
I noticed Ally staring at me like, “Hello?” and I shook out of my Lee Reverie.
“You know Rosie Coltrane?”
“You’re not buying goods?” the counter man asked, looking both disappointed and defeated.
I couldn’t help myself, he immediately made me sad.
“Yes, mints,” I grabbed a pack of mints and put it on the counter.
He stared at the mints.
I stared at the mints.
Ally stared at the mints.
The mints seemed lonely and the purchase of the mints was not going to do anything to help feed this man’s family.