Free Laura Lippman by Tess Monaghan 04 - In Big Trouble (v5) Page B

confront Crow alone. Perceptive Keith had told Maury that he had to cover the store while Keith ran errands that afternoon. She had left him sulking behind the counter, pretending to read a new comic book.
    The town of Blanco wasn’t much more than a small grouping of buildings and a sign warning that the speed limit had dropped. Tess, still wedded to her Old Western version of Texas, had expected a dusty Main Street flanked by late nineteenth-century buildings with porches, maybe a saloon. It passed by in less than five minutes, and in another five minutes she had found the dance hall and convenience store that seemed to be the sum of Twin Sisters.
    The girl behind the counter was bright-eyed and friendly, a little too happy to be working as a cashier in the local convenience store. Just the kind of personality Tess had hoped to find—an outgoing busybody who engaged every passerby in conversation. The photograph of a boy in a football uniform was taped to the cash register.
    “How’re you doing today?” the girl asked, her voice as loud and enthusiastic as a big puppy on the loose.
    “Fine, just fine,” Tess replied.
    Experience had taught her it was better to come at things slantwise. People trusted you more if you didn’t seem too focused. She grabbed a Coke, then tried to find some regional specialty among the junk food. Alas, another aspect of American life gone totally generic. While some of her favorites were missing—Goldenberg Peanut Chews, Fifth Avenues, Clark Bars—there didn’t appear to be any local equivalents to take their place.
    “You looking for something in particular?” the clerk asked.
    “In a manner of speaking. I want something I’ve never had before.”
    The girl’s eyes widened, as if this was a strange, almost subversive thing to say.
    “I mean, candy-wise,” Tess explained. “What’s the point of traveling if everything is the same wherever you go?”
    “We’ve got some of these Mexican candies here by the cash register, pralines and such. These ones look like the Mexican flag.” The girl held up what appeared to be a block of solid sugar, striped red, green and white. The red had faded, as if the candy had been sitting out in the sun for a very long time. “And you could always have a Big Red, I guess, instead of that Coke.”
    “What does Big Red taste like?”
    “Truthfully?” The girl looked around, making sure there was no one to overhear her. “Ground-up pencil erasers. But it is local.”
    “I guess I’ll stick with the Coke. And a moon pie. I can’t get that back home.”
    “Really? There are places where they don’t have moon pies? Imagine that.”
    Yee-haw. If she saw a swimming pool, she’d probably call it a “cement pond.” But Tess held her tongue and put her money on the counter. “So I guess life is pretty quiet around here.”
    “Yeah. They say movie stars are moving out here, but I’ve never seen one. Of course, they’re all up closer to Fredericksburg way, but you think we might get a little one. Like Pauly Shore.”
    Tess laughed. The girl had a spark of wit to her. Maybe she’d escape Twin Sisters after all, if she could avoid getting knocked up by the football hero boyfriend.
    “As it happens, I was up in Fredericksburg, looking for someone,” Tess said, pulling out the two photographs. “Not a movie star, but maybe you recognize him?”
    “I know this one,” she said, pointing to what Tess now thought of as the “Ed” picture. “He came in and bought groceries last month, just before school began. I remember, ‘cause I work the earlier shift in the summer. He was staying up at the Barretts’ place.”
    “Is Emmie Barrett a young woman with blond hair?”
    “Oh, no’m.” Tess didn’t find the shortened version of ma’am any less painful. “But I know the blond girl you’re talking about. I saw her, too, but she stayed in the car.”
    “What did she look like?” Tess was counting on a woman to come up with something